Using the Lounge Room as the HT area

[avander]

I dont have a dedicated HT room and use my Lounge room. I need desperately to get rid of the 'dead' carpet. The base is a concrete slab and I wanted to replace the carpet with a floating wooden floor. Now, I could get the concrete slab polished but I dont think it would suit and I am not very keen on the idea in any case.
Next question is, of course, how will a floating wooden floor affect the acoustics in the room? I am not a HT fanatic or a qualified sound engineer as many on this site seem to be but I do appreciate my HT setup and have no idea what effect making the change from carpet to wood will have on my listening experience in technical terms. In laymans terms I expect the change will make the sound bounce all over the place so I need some ideas on what I can do to improve it once the new floor is down or a real good reason for not going with wood I would obviously need to add more sound absorbing material and scatter rugs are the obvious answer. Positioning of those rugs is another question but it seems immediately in front (and underneath?) of the front speakers is a first point of 'contact'.
A large rug in the centre of the room would make obvious asthetic and possibly acoustic sense also?
BTW: The room has 8 foot pleasterboard ceilings and plasterboard walls.

The room is not quite rectangular and has a slight 'L' shape however the small area of the 'L' is lined with a solid timber bookcase (full of books of course) with cupboards under) and my HT equipment is in a sold timber wall unit opposite but still in the 'small L'. The sound is dispersed along the length of the recangular area of the room with the short walls at either end of the room having full windows with heavy drapes at the "sending end" and a light blind at the "receiving end" of the room. Reas surround speakers are mounted high on the walls on either side of the listening area just behind the seating.

I hope all ofthe above makes sense? Any comments or suggestions regarding the flooring ideas and the room would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Andrew

[bpape]

Normally, carpet is the recommended flooring in a home theater environment. As you surmised, going with a hard floor will significantly liven up the room. You'll definitely need some good thick rugs between you and the speakers and also add additional absorbtion on the walls and probably on the ceiling.

Bryan

[Ethan Winer]

Andrew,

> I wanted to replace the carpet with a floating wooden floor. <

You weren't clear enough on why you want to do this. If your intent is mainly to improve the acoustics, that is a big waste of money compared to things that really will help like adding bass traps and first reflection treatment. If I'm missing something, please clarify.

--Ethan

[avander]

Thanks Bryan,
I understand that carpet is normally the flooring of choice for HT rooms but wanted to rid myself of the "dust-trap" and have a cleaner, more asthetic environment. If it means that I need to add a significant amount of absorbtion material to the walls and ceiling ( I have no specific absorbtion material now) I may be better off to replace the 'dead' stuff with more carpet. Remembering I am a novice on this but I am a quick study even if I do say so myself but dont want to read a lot of theory, is there any "free" or "trial" software I can use to model and simulate the impact and get a simple english response rather than technobabble which I wouldnt understand?

thanks,
Andrew

[avander]

Hi Ethan,
See my response to Bryans post. Just a cleaner physical environment is all. But your post did highlight that I shoudl probably read up on bass traps and 1st reflection treatments firstly to understand wat they are and then to determine what,if anything I may need.

thx,
Andrew

[bpape]

If losing the carpet is for aesthetics and to control a dust issue, then you can certainly do that and deal with it somewhat with rugs. Yes - it will take some additional panels on the wall - but at least you can use a more targeted approach that way.

Bryan

[Ethan Winer]

Andrew,

> I shoudl probably read up on bass traps and 1st reflection treatments firstly to understand wat they are and then to determine what,if anything I may need. <

Trust me, you need acoustic treatment. At least you need it if you hope to have good sound!

There's a ton of advice all over the 'net, but some is good and some is so wrong it's embarrassing. Like the plans to build bass traps by stuffing cardboard tubes full of sand. If you want good advice only start here:

www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

There's also a ton of advice on my company's site, especially in the Articles and Videos pages.

--Ethan