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Concrete Floors

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I ran out of patience with it and returned the system to the bedroom where normal service has resumed.
 
I've become a flooring expert having just installed about 100 sqm of concrete floor. The layers were:

6 inches of compacted ballast
Damp membrane
4 inches of insulation board
Cabling and pipes
5 inches of screed (a form of rather dry concrete)
5mm flexible adhesive
Ditra mat
13 mm more flexible adhesive
6mm porcelain tiles (1m sq each)

If you can work out the acoustic properties of that lot, good luck.

My audio system is in the only room with a suspended floor, 1 inch of solid French oak. The room is acoustically treated and the floor has little impact, due to a large rug.
 
I lived in a flat 30 years ago and it had one of those terrible wooden floors you’re used to in the UK. I could never get decent bass.
We moved to our house and it has a (heating) concrete floor with plastered brick walls.
I could hear the improvement immediately, also in the other areas (treble precision, imaging).
I don’t like wall to wall carpeting. It makes everything dull. I have tiles with large carpets and some tapestry on the walls.
 
I think both solid concrete and suspended wood floors can both work perfectly well. They have their pros and cons and you just have to work with the room you have to get the best out of it. Ultimately, a very solid room is easier to deal with as it's easier to tame a bright room than it is to lift a dull one.
I had a gawdawful room in my previous house, which I built from new - and so could specify exactly how things are. The one major flaw was the suspended wooden (carpeted) floor, which was completely porous to the mid-bass spectrum. It took me a while to work out why there was a 18dB suckout sharply centred on 80Hz. So, while there was plenty of low bass, mid bass and therefore gravitas, was completely missing from my replay. The bass had been going into the room below.

No such problem with my new house, which has a poured concrete floor and acoustically insulated walls. In fact, I attribute my upgraditis 10 years ago entirely to an unsatisfactory room. How much of that was due to a suspended floor would be pure conjecture, suffice to say I'm perfectly happy now.
 
Good post, James Bean (one has yet to come up with his first name ;)).

My experience too.
 
Concrete floor plus underlay and carpet here, been here for 18+ years, floorstanding Dynaudios, sounds very good.
 
In my 40+ years of owning a hifi system, I've only ever had seven different rooms to set them up in. All have been suspended floors of differing construction, some more substantial than others. The best was my current lounge but my system no longer lives there. The current location has a 6M+ ceiling and is almost square: this is not ideal, but using album & cd storage to cut down rear & side reflections seems to work. I'd love to hear my system in a more conventional room setting with a solid floor, but you make the best of what you have.
 
I had a gawdawful room in my previous house, which I built from new....

I replaced the floor in my room and reinforced the areas under the speakers. Still not perfect but I can live with it. Racks are right next to the speaker so a lot of energy gets dumped into them.
 
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I've become a flooring expert having just installed about 100 sqm of concrete floor. The layers were:

6 inches of compacted ballast
Damp membrane
4 inches of insulation board
Cabling and pipes
5 inches of screed (a form of rather dry concrete)
5mm flexible adhesive
Ditra mat
13 mm more flexible adhesive
6mm porcelain tiles (1m sq each)

If you can work out the acoustic properties of that lot, good luck.

My audio system is in the only room with a suspended floor, 1 inch of solid French oak. The room is acoustically treated and the floor has little impact, due to a large rug.

That's a big room, it perhaps doesn't matter but the 'tiles' will be reflective.
In our last house the kitchen/dining/ living space was a large room with a tiled floor and vaulted ceiling, while we never had a hifi system in that area it took 2 rugs, curtains, a sofa and armchair to tame the reflective acoustic in that room, even someone talking when the room was empty sounded weird/awful and echoed.
 
Most speakers probably get designed and tested in buildings with solid or poured concrete floors

Yeah but it doesn't really matter how they were designed or what it best theoretically. All that matters is what kid does in your room and whether or not you like it.
 
I used to own a flat in Slough with wooden floors (not meeting modern regs, just joists, boards and downstairs plasterboard) and the bass leak to my neighbours beneath was ridiculous.
 
My last room was half suspended and part concrete slabs, godawful Room to get right, never happy always fiddling.
Now in 1850,s converted stable block, later schoolrooms. The floors are some Victorian concrete that is very dence and packed with aggregate, I had extra thick underlay fitted for insulating cold but defo helps tame any hard edges, on top burbur carpet with thick rug on top. Having said that I found if using carpet piercing spikes it made sound harder edged in bad forward way, so use stillpoint flat ultras as footers. The walls are single skin brick with a plaster that’s harder than a Tory Home Secretary, I’ve got diffusor panels at sides.
I’d always want solid floors, it makes for a more consistent sound I feel,esp in controlling bass boom, and when you move stuff your not changing weight distribution on planks.
 
My house has a concrete ground floor which I think suit my Isobariks. My previous house had wooden floors a1930’s but then I had Quad 57 ESL’s. Although the 57’s had a midrange and treble which were sublime I don’t think they suited rock music.
Whereas my system now is more suited to what I listen to.

Regards,

Martin
 
Just stumbled on post and I’m lucky enough to have a concrete floor although the room has multiple other issues that makes speaker placement awkward!
 
Stuck with a suspended floor due to building regs; it's a conservatory too so mostly glass above dwarf wall.

Upside is that the ratios are good at 7 x 10 x 2 to 4.

It really soaks up power but sounds good. I have RoomPerfect but turned it off this week as i think there are a few artefacts giving balance issues.

TT is on the other side of a wall through conduit on solid floor so great isolation.

I'd like to fill the floor but very time my rubble heap gets big enough a new building job comes up.
 


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