Carpets - yay or nay?

I've been looking into room acoustics lately and there can be wide differences in absorption by carpets, rugs, curtains, sofas, etc. Some common "soft" household materials are actually reflective at higher frequencies while others are more absorptive. Unfortunately, these are all hit or miss depending on the specific product you happen to have in your home. Wool versus polyester and so on. You could try a different rug and see if you get the same results.

Having a carpet will make the room less reflective and echoey. We had our room replastered recently which meant removing all the furniture and the carpet. The room was incredibly live and when you clapped there were echoes all over the place. Once the carpet went down, the room was much less live. A carpet, of course, makes a lot of sense in Britain, whereas in Singapore less so. Rugs are probably a much better idea. 

Recommend carpets or thick rugs. If you think about it, the carpet is only going to absorb some of the high frequency reflections - not the high frequency primary sound from the speakers - which is exactly what you want unless you are building a reverb chamber.

If you find you like the sound with the HF reflections - although this is entirely personal preference, you are probably missing out on what your audio equipment is potentially capable of through high speed reverb and blurring of the sound - ie those added sparkles. My view it would be preferable to look at speaker/listening positioning and even speaker design first.

Simon

We've a wooden floor, but lots of curtains, & our walls are largely composed of oak beams, mud and straw. We originally had carpet down, but the music sounds much better in our room without it and it certainly doesn't sound echoey. (ignore my feet -I was feeling a bit off-colour that day) :-

Had mixed results. Wall to wall was great for home cinema when you are attempting to totally remove the room from the sound profile. But was awful when listening to music. The 'in the room' soundstaging was simply gone because the room itself was absent.

So far the best performance I get from the room is hardwood floors with a thick rug in front of the speakers.

Next to that was wall to wall hard low pile office carpet tiles but they are too ugly for words.

tonym posted:

We've a wooden floor, but lots of curtains, & our walls are largely composed of oak beams, mud and straw. We originally had carpet down, but the music sounds much better in our room without it and it certainly doesn't sound echoey. (ignore my feet -I was feeling a bit off-colour that day) :-

Don't forget Rover on the couch there has a very sensitive nose, so keep your heels and webs well pumiced! As far as reflections are concerned, deaden as much as you can to actually 'hear' your hifi, then remove to get the 'live' sound you like. Speaker manufacturers usually dial in a little colouration to offset anticipated home acoustic conditions (which is why I believe Focal's sound better in French homes!)

Our living room sounded like the back of a church (with a column obscuring the organ/choir) so ceiling panels, rugs and extrupor behind large floor to ceiling units was a 'must'.

tonym posted:

Thats a stunning looking room Tony ... may I ask its dimensions?

engjoo posted:

I think it is fair to say that the carpet has absorbed the high frequencies but shouldn't that be a good thing that I have a carpet to remove some reflection?

Apart from removing the carpet (wife will kill me!), is there anything alse I can do now ?

The "sparkle" is reverberations (echo).  Problem is you've become accustomed to it,  but most people visiting your room for the first time would find it unacceptable.  

Think about a concert hall,  the good ones don't have straight or parallel sides, walls & ceilings have all sorts of things that break up reflections & standing waves.  Then the audience,  that is just like a big fully fitted woolly carpet.  Then think about  recording studio,  look for some Abbey Road images,  the walls (& ceiling) are covered with sound absorbent panels.      

do not use any fabrics in the listening room, they distort the system's tonal balance.

You need to define what you mean by "fabrics" Sharik,  carpets, seat covers & curtains are fabrics.  

Eloise posted:

tonym posted:

 

Thats a stunning looking room Tony ... may I ask its dimensions?

Hi Eloise, it's 4.5m wide, 2.5m high and 14m long (I'm sitting roughly half way down).

Carpets yay or nay ?     Depends on wether you like to wear slippers or not.

sharik posted:

do not use any fabrics in the listening room, they distort the system's tonal balance.

Always listening starkers might just be taking audiophile obsession too far...

4.5m wide, 2.5m high and 14m long (I'm sitting roughly half way down).

There's room for a skittle alley in there!

Mike-B posted:

You need to define what you mean by "fabrics" Sharik,  carpets, seat covers & curtains are fabrics.  

So are shirts and pants - I'd hate to think what might happen on the "view from the listening chair" thread...

On a more sober note I recently had wall to wall carpet removed from my listening area, replacing it with laminate flooring, and was concerned about reflections.  I do have a rug that I placed in front of the system and have not encountered any issues...perhaps I should have tried listening prior to rug placement, but I think I had gotten to the "let's get this damn project over with" phase so it didn't go that way.

tonym posted:

We've a wooden floor, but lots of curtains, & our walls are largely composed of oak beams, mud and straw. We originally had carpet down, but the music sounds much better in our room without it and it certainly doesn't sound echoey. (ignore my feet -I was feeling a bit off-colour that day) :-

I recognise those feet..

Having moved house recently . . . our old house had wooden floors and there was a lot of room resonance. Now we have carpets, it's much better. Of course, lots of other things have changed too - it's a different room - but for what it's worth, carpets seem like a good thing.

I do think one can take these things too far anyway. What works for you underfoot is surely more important, unless we get into '100% wool versus a mix' or 'which flock direction?' questions . . . well, I think hi fi has to fit into the house, not the other way around.

TOBYJUG posted:

tonym posted:

We've a wooden floor, but lots of curtains, & our walls are largely composed of oak beams, mud and straw. We originally had carpet down, but the music sounds much better in our room without it and it certainly doesn't sound echoey. (ignore my feet -I was feeling a bit off-colour that day) :-

 

I recognise those feet..

 

Dammit, it's a fair cop...

tonym posted:

Dammit, it's a fair cop...

Tony -

What a relief!  I feared you were facing a major podiatric emergency!  

On the topic of flooring, I prefer wood and rugs.  Would much rather start with a live room, and then dampen and diffuse to taste.

ATB.

Hook

Mike-B posted:

You need to define what you mean by "fabrics" Sharik,  carpets, seat covers & curtains are fabrics.

all of them, be it even pillows or napkins, and curtains better be removed too.

Andrew Everard posted:

Always listening starkers might just be taking audiophile obsession too far... 

not starkers, but leather clad might be the optimum.

So you want a totally reflective live room Sharik? 

I do really appreciate the inputs. What it seems to me now is with the "new" acoustics of my room, I will need to work on my speaker placement again. Just did some tweaking and there was good progress. To be continued !

Tony, you have an awesome room! I am sure you do not think to much about your ugly feet!  :-)

Steve J posted:

So you want a totally reflective live room Sharik? 

but it seems to me hifi speakers are initially designed with 'reflective room' in mind to some extent ?