Most Tuneful Floors

[Charlie1]

I'm sure we've covered this in part but I don't recall a specific thread on the topic.

Speaking to my dealer at the weekend, he prefers concrete with rack/speaker spikes through the carpet layer. We have a concrete floor in the living room. It's on the ground floor and there are no air bricks, so I presume it's a poured concrete slab and not pre-formed concrete sections. Whenever I tried a system in that room, the sound was very solid and clean but musically never really grabbed me. I tried with and without Skeets. Maybe the room is poor for another reason or it's just me.

Which floorings have members preferred? What have you learned on this topic over the years?

[matthias]

Which floorings have members preferred?

I like musically what I have at home:
Concrete floor with solid oak parquet (2.6cm height) which is glued to the concrete. I do not use spikes. The equipment is sitting on a USM Haller rack, the speakers are on compliant metal stands which can swing horizontally with a frequency below 5Hz.
Also the devices can swing horizontally with a similar frequency.

[springwood64]

Which floorings have members preferred? What have you learned on this topic over the years?

The system floor in my current house is carpet on OSB sheets on prefabricated open timber joists, with rooms below. The speakers are on skeets and will move if people walk on the floor next to them. The house is prefabricated timber and the interior walls are 9mm plasterboard on studs with a 45mm cavity in front of thermal insulation.

My previous house floor was concrete beam and block, under carpet, with masonry walls.

The house prior to that was turn of the century pine floorboards with brick walls.

I can't say I have identified any useful learning regarding the floors as everything has been different. My system has evolved and improved, and my knowledge of how to assess and improve a system has also grown. I can't really point to flooring as a critical factor.

Despite sitting on an apparently insecure floor, my current system is unambiguously the best I've ever had.

[Whatsmynaim]

I have a suspended wooden floor and it's not great for the music but I got a decent result from removing all the rugs that would dampen the sound too much. I also use Skeets.

[Charlie1]

I like musically what I have at home:
Concrete floor with solid oak parquet (2.6cm height) which is glued to the concrete. I do not use spikes. The equipment is sitting on a USM Haller rack, the speakers are on compliant metal stands which can swing horizontally with a frequency below 5Hz.
Also the devices can swing horizontally with a similar frequency.

Never heard of such a thing before. Obviously works very well for you though. I can't quite picture the swinging either.

Despite sitting on an apparently insecure floor, my current system is unambiguously the best I've ever had.

Thanks for sharing. You've had quite the range of floors but I get that there's been so many changes along the way.

I have a suspended wooden floor and it's not great for the music but I got a decent result from removing all the rugs that would dampen the sound too much. I also use Skeets.

Thanks Whatsmynaim! Same as mine then, although carpeted.

[John]

I’m pretty convinced that a solid wall or floor is best for siting a turntable.

[Spannko]

Rooms are so complex, it’s hard to come to any definitive conclusions, but having heard many systems in many different rooms I think I have a preference for a solid floor, hardwood parquet and a rug extending to within about 80cm of the walls.

[Charlie1]

Thanks John and Spannko!

[Whatsmynaim]

I forgot to mention that the best Linn systems I've heard were in rooms with concrete walls and floor.
And with the speaker spikes going through the carpet layer.
But if it really was the rooms that made these systems sound extra good. I don't know.

[Spannko]

Linn used to have a listening room which had a floating wooden floor on a concrete and steel sub-base, however the loudspeakers were placed on concrete pads which sat directly on the concrete sub-base.

[John]

My favored listening room is my living room which is on a suspended wood floor. It consists of 3/4 inch tongue and groove plywood glued and screwed to 2 X 10 inch joists. Atop the plywood is stapled 1/4 luan underlayment covered with 12 X 24 inch X 8mm thick cork tiles which are glued to the luan subfloor.

My main rack of gear is on a poured concrete basement floor below located well away from the location of the loudspeakers above.

[Hermann]

Many different floors have supported my systems so far. From ash concrete to floating floors, floorboards on beams to concrete floors. Since the racks of my system react very differently to the floor conditions, the only option for me was a concrete floor with stone tiles, which I used to lay out the living room about 10 years ago. The reason is the four spikes with which Mana racks or sound stages are set up.

A major disadvantage of the Mana story is the many spikes, of which the ones on the floor are the most important. If a spike sinks even a tenth of a millimeter, it destroys the entire setup. Especially if the stacks increase over time.

For wobbly floors, I had some stone slabs cut to about 50x50x2 cm and thus created a smooth, continuous surface. If the floor wobbles, it is no longer just one spike that is loaded, but the entire tower moves slightly, which was not a tragedy.

Currently, it is a floor that in earlier times had to support heavy machinery. Every 50cm a steel beam is embedded in the 22cm thick concrete ceiling. Since no screed was applied, the possibility of spikes sinking in was very high, the total weight of the rack is taken into account with sound stages underneath, as is that of the devices. Since the smooth floor has been laid, no outside influences disturb the setup.

[John]

Many different floors have supported my systems so far. From ash concrete to floating floors, floorboards on beams to concrete floors. Since the racks of my system react very differently to the floor conditions, the only option for me was a concrete floor with stone tiles, which I used to lay out the living room about 10 years ago. The reason is the four spikes with which Mana racks or sound stages are set up.

A major disadvantage of the Mana story is the many spikes, of which the ones on the floor are the most important. If a spike sinks even a tenth of a millimeter, it destroys the entire setup. Especially if the stacks increase over time.

Yes, that was my experience with my five tier Mana amp rack on a suspended wood floor as well as when I moved it to the basement directly on linoleum glued to poured concrete floor, The solution was to remove the linoleum around where the spikes landed so that they were in direct contact with the cured concrete below. It solved the “spike sinkage” issue that would put the rack out of tune over time.

https://flic.kr/p/2qkp5Ge

[Hermann]

Apparently glued linoleum. To avoid this wobbling, I had drilled holes in the laminate I had laid myself at the appropriate points. Mana racks absolutely require a stable floor.