Anyone deal with treating floating floors over a concrete slab? Carpet/rugs, etc. I just relocated and have a 19 x 23 x 8 ft room with an underlying concrete slab and the room has a heck of a reverb problem. Ordered a number of GIK tri corner bass traps as a first step. I know I’ll need to address the first inflection points shortly.
As a side, how do you isolate your equipment racks without destroying the floor with spikes? Place on top of plywood panel or shelving panels?
A big +1 for @watchdog507’s IsoAcoustics Gaia footers suggestion. A thick wool or “shaggy” area rug over the thickest underpad you can locate, large enough to cover a significant portion of the floor is another must have. It will eliminate slap echo between ceiling and floor while also intercepting your loudspeaker’s primary floor reflection.
When we replaced our wall to wall carpet with a stranded bamboo floating floor over concrete I was wondering if the room acoustics would suffer. Surprisingly, there was little negative effect. We do have a fair number of GIK corner bass traps, bass traps, and diffusers in the listening room though. We have a 5.5’ x 10.5’ persian carpet on a thick 1/2’ felt pad between the listening position and the speakers. The rack’s steel points sit in Boston Audio Tuneblocks designed for spikes. The Tuneblocks have a layer of fabric backed rubber blanket (manufactured for offset litho press rollers) layered with thick felt. That sits on a granite plinth. The plinth sits on a 1/4" thick layer of thick felt. I replaced the speaker’s stock feet with Stillpoints. The Stillpoints sit on a 3/4" square cushion of 3M vibration absorbing sheet that’s backed with a layer of the previously mentioned rubber blanket material. The speaker’s granite plinths also sit on 1/4" thick felt. Stillpoints drain vibration and don’t isolate what they’re attached too, so granite definitely affects the resulting sound. Placing the 3M material/rubber blanket under the Stillpoints makes for a more balanced presentation than having the Stillpoints contact the granite. The next step I plan to make is replacing the granite plinths with a pair of Symposium Svelte Shelves. I also have IsoAcoustic Gaia footers and greatly prefer what Stillpoints do for my Tidal speakers but some listeners prefer Gaia’s. As always, no single solution is ideal for all situations.
Okay. Now the for the curtains. I have a double glass door that I’m sure needs help. What kind did you select? By the way, your room is drop dead gorgeous. Did you do the design yourself or did you get professional help?
Thanks for your kind critique. The room is 15’ x 18’ with an 11’ ceiling height. I designed the room myself although it took a lot of trial and error with acoustic treatment, seating and speaker placement. The curtains are from Crate & Barrel, they’re a fairly thick brushed cotton suede backed with another layer of cotton. I tried positioning speakers against the long wall previously but the lack of symmetrical side reflecting surfaces had a seriously negative impact on imaging. Having the 8X8’ glass door between the speakers isn’t ideal but it’s the lesser of two acoustic evils.
My room is 20.5’L x 14’W x 11’H @BillT. When I originally built the room almost 20 years ago, the ceiling height was the only fixed dimension and it was a dedicated 2 channel space. The ratio of the two other dimensions to the ceiling height were chosen with the help of the Master Handbook of Acoustics and suited to the overall loft space I had to work with. Were I to have done it over with modern best practice wall construction, less corner bass trapping would have been necessary. Not to mention that I would have pushed the length another 3-4 feet and the width an extra foot. Who knew that a decade later multi-channel music and immersive audio cinema would be as much (but distinctly different) fun as great 2 channel!
