Concrete or Wood floor in listening room?

Horns huh, have you talked to Jim Smith of Avantgarde? He will strongly beg that you put wood over the concrete. I talked to him in mid construction of my room and he talked me into the same basic construction as Dave described. I can't say if it's better since it's a tough one to A/B, but my horns sound pretty darn good in there. Call Jim, he's really helpful and would be able to really describe why it is so important.

Ejlif,
Yes horns, Duo's. I Have not talked to Jim about this, thought I'd talk to the (other) experts first.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike

Think of your floor as another wall. Concrete walls absorb nothing. A well constructed sub-floor will be just as good as cement in isolation from vibration.

Q_man

While I don't agree with your choice of sound room construction...ie> all block room, sounds interesting with horns in a " you are there..LIVE sort of way.

Dave

Dave,
You lost me with your statement "A well constructed sub-floor will be just as good as cement in isolation from vibration."
The floor I am planning will be cement, if it is just as good as a well constructed sub-floor why add wood over cement???

Mike

I would assume that wood over concrete wouldn't change all that much as opposed to carpeting that would absorb more of the sound. I just finished installing my own bamboo floors throughout my house and although I was working over a wood subfloor, in my search for flooring I saw that there were options for "glue down" wood floors. These are all the engineered type wood floors and actually go down quite easily. Dave is right regarding it being a bit like a puzzle installing it, but I found that it certainly wasn't rocket science and the only tools I needed were a tape measure, a $50 jigsaw, a rented pneumatic floor nailer, and a hammer and nails for the last boards that had to be "face nailed" I was able to lay about 250 sf a day including cuts for floor vents etc. Since you are going over concrete and would be gluing it down I think it would be even easier and faster for you.

Check out Ifloors.com very reasonably priced (I took a break from audiogon to research floors for a month or so with the same obsessiveness that we all do with our audio gear) They have a wealth of info on the site.

Personally...I like the look of wood floors with throw rugs...after pulling up my old carpeting, I have to say that it was so gross underneath that I will NEVER have wall to wall carpeting in any house I own.

I think I probably rambled on more than answering your question...sorry about that.

Merry Xmas