Best Carpet Padding

Uh, I don't have a "top" or "bottom" output on my preamp. Also, my system is two channels? Where is your vertical and front-to-back info coming from? Left and right speakers ONLY that create the ILLUSION of depth and height. Just in case you didn't realize it, there isn't really any sound eminating from the center of your sound stage. It is being recreated in such a way that fools you into thinking there is someone there. My system is well capable of creating a 3D soundstage, but I can't walk up the Diana Krall and smooch her because she always dissappears by the time I get there.

It's all psychoacoustics. As I said, the floor should be damped to prevent first reflections.

The floor should be treated differently because it is really close to the drivers and your ears and reflections off the floor will be the FIRST to hit your ears and smear your sound. The walls are generally further away from the drivers.

The other posters are correct in saying that thicker is better. Furthermore, you should use cotton or wool padding because the fibers will be of irregular length and diameter and will absorb relatively uniformly across the spectrum. Man-made materials are very consistent and will give a peaky absorption/reflection pattern. Enjoy.

Khrys, I believe there is something VERY VERY VERY different between vertical and horizontal reflections. Stereo imaging is based solely on differences between left and right (Horizontal). Look where ears are located on most people.

Every thing about our current playback systems is based on left to right/horizontal differences. If you damped only the left, that would throw off the stereo balance. Even if you can hear vertical soundstage cues, they are solely based on horizontal differences in the soundfield reproduction.

If you damp only the floor(at least at the points of first reflection), you will eliminate at least one source of smearing with very little to no downside. Here, I am assuming that one has not overdamped the entire room.

Glad I can astound and astonish. To my knowledge, you can still get very nice imaging in a anechoic chamber (the ultimate overdamped condition). It may sound "dry", but the imaging will still be there. By your reasoning, one would not be able to get depth and height with headphones or in anechoic chamber. But this is not the case.

As to my left and right argument, I was countering your assertion that damping the floor is no different than damping one side (e.g. left). I still maintain that this is faulty logic.