What type of carpet helps avoid static build-up?

[Peder]

It’s not great for SQ either, reflective & confused sound.
It’s very much against all the long established norms.

Mike-B,…Read what I wrote earlier,…repeats below.
This is by far the best,and an optimal base for your Hifi-rack and speaker.

"I would have A Part Of The Floor,…where the speakers and your Hifi-rack should stand…In polished concrete.
Then you have the best base for your Hifi-rack and your Speakers.

The Rest of the room,a beautiful hardwood floor…on the wooden floor you can choose to combine different rugs.
From a Cow-skin to soft carpet,…If you have a large listening-room you can have both.

Try different places for the mat on the floor for the best sound results.

It is always good to mix materials,to achieve better musical characteristics in the room."

Mike-B,…you must read properly what I write,…I have NEVER said that the whole floor should be polished concrete,…Or how.

/Peder🙂

[Mike-B]

Peter, you really need to calm down. I read all your post & fully understand what you said. My comment just said I disagree: rooms with accoustly reflective surfaces such as open concrete close to speakers make the room more reflective & with both direct & the reflected sound waves arriving at the listening position at slightly different times, the sound & stereo effect will be less precise (confused)

[Pete_the_painter]

I think you mean Peder, I actually agreed with you.

[Mike-B]

I think you mean Peder

whoops, damn autocorrect

[Peder]

Mike-B,…I am completely calm,expresses me just bluntly .
Maybe because I don’t have English as the main language.

I think there are very,very few people who have tried the floor-proposal,that I described in my post above.
Therefore,…I am surprised that Pete_the_painter writes that he agrees with you.
I do not think he tried this,.though I can have wrong .

Try such a described floor,…Yes it is probably only possible to do,if you are building a listening-room from scratch.

Example: If you have your speakers on the card wall,…So cast a concrete floor from the short wall and about 100 cm out into the room.
You can cast shorter or longer into the room, depending on which speakers you have.

The rest of the room consists of a wooden floor.
With such a described floor,you get optimal conditions for your speakers,as well as hifi-racks.

I agree with you Mike-B, concrete flooring is not good for soundquality.
Therefore,…you should not cast the concrete floor further into the room than you need.

At the end of the 1980-century I did an experiment.
I drilled through the wooden floor,…and screwed powerful bolts directly into the underlying concrete.
On these bolts I placed the speaker stand.

You should do this,…only when you know exactly where your loudspeakers should be placed .

It was an incredible boost in Soundquality with this experiment.
It was this,…that meant that this idea of floor construction was born.

But as I said,…a dedicated listening room is probably required,to make this described polished concrete floor.

/Peder

[Mike-B]

Hie Peder, if thats what you have done, great if it works for you.

I once helped to set up a specialist listening/TV room for a guy in Dubai, a large room, close to ‘ideal’ dimension ratios, a +6 $US figure system etc. .
We followed a plan from a specialist theatre company. The problem was the owner really wanted his traditional mideast marble finish everywhere & objected to wall diffraction panels & such like, & worse was he wanted to see floor tiles.
As a compromise we carpeted the centre of the room & left aprx 2m of tiled border along the front (speaker & TV) wall.
It did not sound good. We hung some wall panels & it cleaned it up a lot, I then had to get back to my real work.
About 1 year later I visited his house again & was not surprised to see the carpet was extended to the wall, more & bigger diffraction panels on the rear wall & also the side walls. Sound was stunning, massive sound stage, real deep 3D, super sweat treble & deep deep fully controlled bass ----- funny as the final room was just as the theatre company plan advised it should be.

[KJC]

Thanks all. Peder, thanks for your ideas too. I know they are well intentioned and reflect your experience. For a number of reasons including my own experience of carpeted vs wooden floors, the plan was always for a fully carpeted room, my only misgiving being about the possibility for static build-up, hence my query. Hopefully, I can mitigate that with a plan for 100% wool loop pile carpet and most likely a felt underlay on top of the poured concrete floor. Oh, and a few well watered pot plants - they’ll improve the feel and ambience of the room as well as hopefully help reduce static.
Thanks,
Kevin

[Pete_the_painter]

Mr Peder, not really disagreeing. I’m sure you’re idea has merit. My concerns about a polished concrete is on based on under foot comfort, and I was talking about the whole not just the area under the hi fi.

[Peder]

Hi Mike-B, KJC, Pete_the_painter,…

What’s interesting here are the different interior options.
Here in Sweden it is used very,very little carpeted floors in homes.

We used carpeted floors in the 1970-century, but the last decades there are not many who use it in Sweden.
Hardwood Floors,…and different types of plastic flooring,are the most common in Swedish housing.

But in Music/listening-rooms,…hardwood floors are most common.
This in combination with different materials in the walls (concrete, wood, plaster etc).
You should also consider that Swedish homes are very well insulated,this naturally affects the acoustic conditions of the room for the better.

A carpet mat in a Swedish listening room, makes the room in most cases a bit over subdued.
Therefore,…no one,or very few who use it in Sweden.

So we work with slightly different conditions in different countries,…when we decorate the listening-room for the best soundquality.

But what always applies is that…

Make the loudspeaker decouples from the transmittable vibrations of the room as much as possible.

That’s what I did with my experiment at the end of the 1980-century…
I drilled through the wooden floor,…and screwed powerful bolts directly into the underlying concrete.
On these bolts I placed the speaker stand.

You should do this,…ONLY when you know EXACTLY where your loudspeakers should be placed.
It was an incredible boost in Soundquality with this experiment.

Therefore,…I went ahead and made this polished concrete floor…with a very good musical performance as a result.

As I drove active Isobarik,…they should stand against the back wall.
So,…I just needed to make this polished concrete floor 65 cm out of the wall.
Then there was also plenty of room for my Hifi-rack.

I know this is a little special solution,…

But the musical improvement is exceptionally good.

Many Companies sell solutions (see picture below),which is based on what I have done…to solve the problem and give your speakers better conditions.

However,…I took the step fully and made it 100% at once.

/Peder🙂

[GraemeH]

Rubber slippers?

G

[JimDog]

wondering if there’s a best choice for carpet material for the avoidance of static creation?

Yes, there’s a list of Naim-approved carpets on naim.com

[Pete_the_painter]

Peder, I agree. I sell the stuff but have timber floors throughout my place. Carpets (generally) are traps for dust and other nasties.

[Peder]

Peder, I agree. I sell the stuff but have timber floors throughout my place.

Carpets (generally) are traps for dust and other nasties.

Pete_the_painter,…Exactly,…It’s pretty unsanitary.
That’s why most people threw them out of their homes here in Sweden,at the end of the 1970-century.

/Peder🙂

[steve95775]

I have a floating laminate floor. I have drilled 10mm holes in the laminate. Through the centre of each hole I have a high tensile Unbrako bolt going into the concrete below. The bolt is chemically anchored to the slab. The bolt doesn’t touch the edge of the laminate.
The speaker (Naim S400s) spikes mate to the indent in the bolt head
So it looks like the spike is sitting on the laminate but it actually couples to the slab.
Back in the past I had active Isobariks too. I was a Linn/Naim dealer and was shown the bolt into the slab/spike into the head method by the Linn guys late one night. Even through the haze of too much good red wine the improvement was great.
I have done this for many clients over the years, and it generally works. I make a jig to get the set-out right because you have to be accurate.
Key point, always get your spikes to anchor into the massiest part of the structure, create a mechanical frequency band pass filter, and make it discrete so domestic harmony is maintained.
Wine is always an upgrade too.