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Possible move [message #63238] Wed, 23 June 2010 12:50 Go to next message
candoon is currently offline  candoon
Messages: 48
Registered: February 2010
Baron
I am wondering what will happen when we end up moving, some of the places we are looking at will have hard wood floors. Is this going to make any difference with the sound from our system?
Re: Possible move [message #63239 is a reply to message #63238] Wed, 23 June 2010 13:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18670
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Walk across the floor, tap your feet. If you hear a hollow sound, then that will also be what you hear when playing your sound system.

I love the serviceability of a raised hardwood floor, the ability to get underneath and work on pipes and what-not. But they always seem to make for very bad acoustics. Every house I've been in with a raised hardwood floor made the stereo system sound terrible. That two to three foot crawlspace is a killer.

Don't confuse this with hardwood floors put on a concrete slab. That's a different matter, entirely. No boomy sound when you walk across them, they are solid. They are highly reflective, but not resonant. You can solve the floor reflection with a throw rug, no problem.

I have had the best luck with rooms that have solid concrete foundations, and framed drywall construction on all other surfaces. This gives a rigid ground, but lossy panels on every other surface. The drywall has some give, and that tends to damp the room modes a little bit.

Attached rooms can sometimes also be a problem, those that are highly resonant, like bathrooms, closets and sometimes kitchens. They can form resonant chambers in the same way that the crawlspace under a raised hardwood floor can. Naturally, you wouldn't try to put a stereo system in your shower, intuitively knowing that the reverberant echo you hear in that room will mess up the sound. But sometimes you don't realize how much an affect it can have on an adjacent room too.

Re: Possible move [message #63259 is a reply to message #63239] Fri, 25 June 2010 13:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
candoon is currently offline  candoon
Messages: 48
Registered: February 2010
Baron
I live on the east coast where it seems most homes are raised hardwood floor only upstairs (with the crawl spaces you are talking about), the downstairs seems to be concrete. I am thinking about this mostly for the spouse since he plays and prefer to listen (and sometimes sing along). I know he is picky about it and I get why, but when he plays my ears are just not that tuned in I guess as far as the sounds go. Now when I am watching a movie I totally get it. Surprised
Re: Possible move [message #63260 is a reply to message #63259] Fri, 25 June 2010 13:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18670
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Upstairs is a different matter entirely, because the space underneath is large. It doesn't have annoying resonances like a small crawlspace does.

Re: Possible move [message #63572 is a reply to message #63260] Fri, 30 July 2010 05:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
JiminyCricket is currently offline  JiminyCricket
Messages: 50
Registered: July 2010
Baron
I once worked with little kids in a room with acoustics that made every, and I mean every, single sound painful to the ears. I couldn't survive that with my music Shocked
Re: Possible move [message #63827 is a reply to message #63572] Wed, 11 August 2010 08:11 Go to previous message
Frontrowticket is currently offline  Frontrowticket
Messages: 14
Registered: August 2010
Chancellor
I expect small children make a noise anywhere but it would be particularly painful on the ears in a room with poor or distorted acoustics. Candoon - any ending to this story?
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