Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Finding what's changed with my sound and how to improve it

Posted by Xenith (A) on August 9, 2003 at 09:54:33

Hi All,

I recently changed the floors in the listening room (lounge) from a thick, old carpet (made the room sound dead) to laminate flooring. This not only made it much more visually appealing, but really livened the room up - something which was definitely needed. The only thing is that it may be a bit TOO lively, and perhaps I think its attributed to echo. I am not actually sure how to find out exactly what the problem is. The way I describe it: When I listened to a track that I know has strong instruments and single female vocal, eg. cranberries or diana krall, in the old room, the voice was very clear, instruments quite weak and muffled. Allround quite dull. Now, the instruments are much more lifelike, louder, punchier - great! But, the central vocals seem less focused, a lot lighter, not as sharp. Is echo the problem?

I currently don't have anything between speakers and me and will be putting an area rug there. Could this be the solution? Talking about rugs - what material can I get which will work well for absorbing first reflections off the floor, which is NOT pure wool? I was looking at pure wool rugs and they are unfortunately out of my price range (equivalent of around $1000). What other material, cheaper, could I get which would do a great job sonically? The side walls arent so much a problem because one side I have a large hanging rug, the other side is heavy built in wooden cabinets.

You can see some pictures of the new setup here:
Listening Position Old: http://home.global.co.za/~lerner1/hifi/listening_position_old.jpg
Listening Position New: http://home.global.co.za/~lerner1/hifi/Listening_Position_New.jpg
Behind Listener New: http://home.global.co.za/~lerner1/hifi/Behind_Listener.jpg

Thanks a lot!
PS. Room is 34ft x 14.5ft x 9ft, divided into two by an archway. So, listening room is 17x14.5x9, behind me is the other room, thus no actual back wall behind listener. Dining Room Behind listener can be see here: http://home.global.co.za/~lerner1/hifi/Dining_Room.jpg

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

The Cable Cooker

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---