Carpet Killed High Frequencies In My Music Listening Area
My basement play room is 14’x30’. My music listening area is 14’x12’ of that. The remainder of that room holds my pool table. I decided to install new floors. In the pool table area and the rest of my basement will be “luxury vinyl” flooring. In my listening area, I went from an area rug to wall-to-wall carpet.
Now, high frequencies are faint and some music sounds dull. Bass is fine and the mid range sounds better than before. Vocals and most instruments sound better. Gone is the cymbal decay, solid ringing of bells, and other percussion sounds are dull.
The carpet is a week old, the rest of the flooring is scheduled to be installed on October 15th. I’m tempted to have the carpet replaced with luxury vinyl and go back to my area rug. I’d rather find a way to increase the high frequencies because I like how my system sounds otherwise.
My system, PS Audio BHK pre amp PS Audio BHK 250 power amp PS Audio DSD DAC PS Audio Stellar phone pre Innous Zenith MKII streamer Technics SL-1200G TT Tannoy DC8 Ti speakers Transparent super XLR interconnects for my digital gear and Transparent RCA interconnects for my TT AudioQuest Rocket 88 speaker cables
My first thought was that floor reflections were reinforcing the treble. This is not a good thing since they are reflections. I think this is a speaker placement / setup problem. Wall to wall carpeting to me is far preferable to something that reflects. Also why I have wall hangings and side defractors. When I have had hard floors I have always had to get them 90% covered. You can click on my ID to see my system.
Just a quick look at your system looks great. I would keep the carpeting and use it as an opportunity to improve your system setup.
Just looking at your components, there is no way that highs are faint and dull. Just no way. Other than compared to what you had before. My bet is you went from way too bright and reflective a room to about right, and haven't adjusted yet to the fact you changed the sound when you changed the room.
I highly recommend giving yourself time to recalibrate before doing anything.
Tannoy recommends setting the toe-in on their speakers such that the "imaginary line" from the speaker crosses just in front of the listening position.
What are the speakers standing on? - spikes through the carpet and underlay? - no spikes - just sitting on the carpet?
Do the speakers rock a little (front to back) i.e. if you apply a little pressure to the front of the speaker? - or are they rock solid ?
If the speakers are moving, even slightly, this can sometimes detract from top end performance.
My speakers had a little "rock" to them and it took a while for them to compress the underlay under the carpet, but after a couple of months they settled in nicely - no more movement - great sound
I basically made outriggers to eliminate speaker movement
Problems with audio systems are not resolved by sitting and doing nothing. All that does is allow you to slowly accept inferior sound. See my Audiophile Law articles on Burn In/Break In at Dagogo.com, where I demonstrate that systems do not change over time either with use or warmup. You are wasting your life by sitting and waiting.
This major change due to a different room is typical, not a problem per se. You're room is radically different than before. You were hearing a lot of extraneous sound, much more reflectivity, and that is why you now hear so much better into the sound, i.e. midrange. You had "Hall effect" and now have "studio effect". I built my room to avoid the high reflectivity that imo impedes hearing into the system and music.
Go back to step one and configure the system in all possible iterations. i.e. preamp and amp settings, power cables swapped, or IC swapped, etc. You most likely can significantly change the ratio of treble to the rest of the frequency spectrum through trial and error. Try the system without the power conditioning and you may prefer it that way now that the carpeting is in play. Now that the environment has changed, you have to try all permutations to fit it to your tastes optimally. It will likely be configured somewhat differently as a result. :)
if you had em, you would do exactly what they were intended to do: boost (reduce attenuation) for dull rooms; cut (increase attenuation) for live rooms. Adjust to Individual Tastes.
And keep your comfy gorgeous thick carpet. Better for preventing too early reflections.
Many Vintage Speakers included L-Pads, my Fisher President II Console had all electro-voice drivers, and each had a pair of AT-37 L-Pads: one for the mid horn; 1 for the horn tweeter.
The crossover was designed with mid-attenuation as 'normal', boost or cut from there.
Their Model 6 has a resistor network with 5 specific frequency curves in a graph, selected by rear switch.
I just replaced my 4 L-Pads, and it took me familiar music, then parts of 5 listening test cds to determine/adjust/refine each, then adjust L to R.
Combined with my new six 9's copper speaker wires and new six 9's copper interconnects, my system has never sounded better.
One of the things you NOW need to take care is about the cables lying on the floor. If possible raise them off the carpets. Will definitely sound silly. But makes a big difference, if you don’t take care of this issue. Use paper cups or cheap stuff to give it a shot. There is static in the new carpet. That’s the reason.
I appreciate the helpful responses. Since installing the carpet, I've been tinkering with my system setup. I placed my speakers on 1" bamboo butcher blocks so that I could move them easier, and I'm still using the stock Tannoy speaker footers. The speakers are not resting on a completely stable surface as before. I will remove the footers and the butcher blocks so the speaker spikes are resting on the floor. Hopefully, this will help.
Because my room is small, I've positioned the speakers (tweeters) 48" from the front wall and 29" from the side walls. The tweeters are 80" apart. My sitting position is 94" perpendicular from the speakers.
Ultimately, I will use
ISOACOUSTICS
GAIA III speaker isolators with the speakers, and the speakers sitting on Butcher Block speaker stands with spikes.
I am using cable elevators on my speaker cables and power cords. I've toed the speakers in where the tweeters are pointing just outside my left and right shoulders. I will tinker with that a bit and post my findings.
My dealer told me when I was about to install new carpet NOT to use any synthetic material but only natural like a wool based material. When I changed it from the synthetic to a wool tweed what a difference. Highs were so natural and open.
The carpet should be run at low volume levels for at least 2 weeks before doing any critical listening. Also, remember that carpet is directional. Make sure it's situated properly. Lastly, remove the carpet's fuse.
Oldschool1948, please do not jump to fast. Your new situation may actually be more accurate.
Rooms with to many hard surfaces create a high frequency haze if you will. With the addition of some deadening the room will sound as if it has a high frequency depression. It probably does not but you are use to all that brightness so from a relative standpoint the system sounds too dull. You relate your mid range sounds better. Sit in your listening position and play something simple like a jazz quartet. Close your eyes and listen to the cymbals. My guess is that they are actually imaging better. They are easier to localize, more contained.
Live with it for a while. Try to get to a live venue where you can listen to an unamplified band so you can get some comparison. Once you get use to this probably more accurate presentation a situation like your old one will sound too bright. IMHE many are listening to systems that are on the bright side. The best systems usually sound a little dull to start until you sit and listen to the image and realize that yes, that is how a cymbal should sound.
If you want to be able to adjust the tonality of your system any way you want and since you are all digital anyway sell your preamp and get an Anthem STR, DEQX Premate, MiniDSP or Trinnov Amethyst.
With the speakers on spikes alone pointed straight, the change in highs and overall SQ is remarkable. As compared to before, everything sounds better. The new sound is more detailed, clearer, crisper, and much more natural.
I’ll now work on imaging and soundstage. It was good before, I expect it to be better now. Once I get things dialed in, I’ll start to look at room treatment again. After this carpet scare :-), I’ll be much more careful about what I do :-).
Thanks again to everyone for your constructive comments. The more I learn about this hobby, the more I realize how much I still don’t know. I’m just amazed at how much of a difference spikes alone has made.
I use a special formula for basement audio systems that includes wall to wall carpeting. It takes the static build up and shunts it to ground. I will be making another batch in a week or so. $30 per quart. Never be plagued by high frequency simblance and other audio nasties again. Re-apply before each listening session. PM me if interested ☺
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