Yes possibly, suspended timber floor. Will be trying Gaias or Stack Auvas in due course.
I had a suspended floor (in the last two houses in fact) which like a lot of houses built between the two World Wars ( timber was in short supply and Builders even needed a license to buy it) had Joists installed sparingly with smaller sectional size than modern building reg’s insist on and at wider centres creating a potential “boom box”. I doubled the number of joists and built a sleeper wall mid span to stiffen and covered with 3/4” plywood. As a retro job the main issue is upheaval but it should provide a large improvement to lower bass performance to floors of that ilk. Worth considering if you don’t plan to move home IMO.
Did the plywood replace the existing floorboards or go on top of them. Our house is 1910 but nevertheless the floor is quite springy.
I’m going to be redecorating soon so I think I’ll take the opportunity to do something with the floor.
Replace the floorboards with the plywood . That keeps the finished floor level as was .
Be warned, as a 1903-build I had to sort out, revealed many issues when we stripped-out the ground-floor floorboards i.e. rotten joist ends, as these were set in to damp hearths and damp walls, plenty of rot around the hearths, as these were built straight on the ground (no DPC), plus many other ‘treats’! The primary issue was the lack of underfloor ventilation = moisture everywhere.
If you want to learn/discuss more, happy to do - just start a new thread.
You bought a house that Jack built HL.
This house has served up a few surprises since we’ve been here. Thanks for the offer - I’ll see how things go. Maybe I’ll just rely on the DSP
Thought I’d jump back on this given all the advice kindly offered.
For various reasons I haven’t done much about this but I think primarily I had just resigned myself to using DSP. I did though last month decide to upgrade the TT in my system, all generally OK until I bought a favourite on Vinyl (Surprise Chef - Education & Recreation). Track 1 has a strong/up front kick drum that just sounded all wrong, totally overpowering. As I mentioned above furniture positioning was a non-starter but I thought, well at least test it out, I grabbed a chair from another room, plonked it right in the middle forming an equilateral triangle and there it was.
Pretty much all the issues I had have gone, resonances gone, pressure build ups that sound like they’re in the recording have gone (e.g., Art Blakey Moanin - first big trumpet solo sounded almost like the mic was being manhandled during the recording in my room). But that’s not all - soundstage is more detailed, timbre of orchestra strings more pronounced, guitar licks and keyboard flourishes float in space with more air around them. The improvement is at a black box level, it honestly feels like I have just walked into the room where music is being played whereas previously I was standing in the doorway.
Clear conclusion (for me) if you haven’t got your seating position correct relative to your speakers, then you’re not hearing your system properly.
Now the big challenge - negotiations with the interior design committee
Interesting. I swapped out some speakers in a bedroom, same position but slightly taller. I can now sit on the bed and just a slight movement sideways of the head and the sound completely shifts. It’s like an on/off switch. Moved the speaker centre line closer together by no more than 100mm and all is good. I can only guess that the position of furniture relative to the taller speakers was having some effect. (Wardrobe one side and a tallboy t’other)
Ah - well, um, good luck with that.
Older houses with suspended floors may be constructed in part with brick or stone supporting pillars for the joists. They are often built on compacted (to a point) earth and over time drop due to the settling of the earth and/or shrinkage due to the ground drying. This can make the pillars drop a little (3 to 6mm sometimes more) and be separated from the joists. This makes the floor a bit “bouncy” but can be fixed.
You do not need to take up all floorboards just a few strategically where the pillars are and using a car jack or similar slightly raise the joist to fit a plate that takes up the gap when the joist is lowered back from the jack. This could be a steel plate or if you can get your hands on some a piece(s) of roof slate is perfect. The floor firmness when completed is very noticeable and for us HiFi nuts it means the floor is less compliant to vibration.
Or…the opposite can happen, and result in the situation I have. The house is heavier (obvs) compared to the intermediate supporting pillars and this means the end of the joints drop and become taught pulling the joists onto the intermediate supports as the house has settled over the last 120 years. Ones floor is now like a drum skin!
There is huge difference between the effect of spikes and something isolating (but still rigidly) supporting speakers. The later in my case works. Spike induce huge room interactions, which is impressive but probably not neighbour friendly!
Indeed it could do that. It depends on how good the house /wall foundations are and how stable they are.
Different houses built differently in different eras could have either issues or indeed others.
I have a plan…
Take the interior design committee on a three day planning session at a nice country house hotel in the Cotswolds?