New house, new listening room, new system

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Photos (use "grubby" the grey cat as a point of referance)





I can't belive how different it sounds, the high ceilings and suspended floors have swollowed a lot of bass, and I did shit my self before I put a couple of pictures on the wall ... There was very little bass indeed! Anyway, it's sounding pretty good now, but I can't really play it that loud yet, first night with new neighbours etc!
Will be babbleing more in good time I should think!!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Whey....hey - yer in!!
And it looks like you found spots to store the booze & the hifi! The two most significant places in any house!

It's begining to look like home already mate - I hope all your effort feels like it's been worth it.

It looks like your speakers will finally get the change they need to do what they can do.
Even the cat looks reasonably happy.
Cheers Mate!

[Alex_UK]

Love that you have the priorities right - stereo set up, booze in the fireplace!

Glad it all went well (assuming it wasn't a total nightmare!) - enjoy!

(Must be some sort of record from looking to moving in? Takes most of us a lot longer!)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

right let me tell you what we moved in today:
1. Everything you can see
2. Fridge
3. Matress

we are doing it room at a time in order of importance, the hifi came was here before anything else!

Let me tell you about the sofa though - it is 66cm tall 100cm front to back and 217cm wide! The door into the room is standard hight and the hall way is too narow to manover it into the room. So, it had to go through the window - the pinchline: the hole that the sash window creates - exactly 66cm tall and 100cm wide! No word of a lie! We did laugh! well, that's after I shit my self for about ten minutes after remembering measuring the sofa as exactly 70cm tall

[Spectral Morn]

Looking good Hamish, looking good.

I would try firing the system across the room i.e the speakers each side of the fireplace...the floor tends to be stronger there. I would also put a carpet down ( boo hiss....I know but it will sound better).

You can try all this when you are fully in and got a measure of how the room is effecting the sound.

Glad everything went well.


Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

We took the carpet up, it was hidious bright red and all dirty
we have big plans for a room "makeover" but the actual configuration of the room as it is does apeal to both of us
I think it might be worth while me getting some isolation for the speakers though, I remember listening to a system in a room with a suspended floor before with the speakers just on the floor and then on some stands that looked a little like Marcos hifi isolation things it apeared very effective in terms of bringing an overall tonal balance to the sound!
Migh something like this be worth investigating?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

There is def some tweaking to be done in here I think! I'm sure this floor must be some of the culiprit as the bloody cat walking past makes it wobble, but the room also seems a little bass less as even the tv sounds more thin!
I can see me posting in the artists pallet a lot in months to come!!
anyone got any thoughts on isolating the speakers better then? Maybe some granite under them? Or should I worry about the stand first?

[DSJR]

Suspended floors can absorb and transmit bass, so perhaps a form of isolation may be a good idea. Jimmy hughes took a concrete paving slab and covered it with tiles to "decorate" it. the end result looked really good and he claimed it helped a lot too..

The Linn and Rega way was to either re-inforce the joists underneath the floor-boards (Roy Gandy's old vicarage had large voids under the floor to which he built brick "platforms" IIRC and Linn got us to lay an MDF "island" where the speakers were. I'll try and post some pics soon, when I get in the loft to find the photos..

If you're happy with the speakers where they are, then fine. I myself would have tried them either side of the fireplace and maybe put the huge TV above the fireplace(?)

[The Grand Wazoo]

I used to live in a place with a really dodgy floor so I drilled through it then I bought some threaded bar the same thread & diameter as the spikes. I pushed it up through the boards from below, screwed it into the threaded bushes in the bottom of the speakers & then nipped up some nuts with big washers from below. It worked a treat but you have to know exactly where you're going to place them & be prepared for them to stay there. The holes are easy to fill later in needed.

However, later on in another house with a better floor, one of the best improvements I ever made to floorstanding speakers was to bolt 18mm steel plates to the bottom of them.

EDIT: The trick with the threaded bar came after trying Dave's trick with the MDF island - I screwed them to the floorboards, then sunk X-head screws through both & placed the spikes in the x-heads. The threaded bar workd better for me - but a bit more of a commitment!

[Marco]

Hi Hamish,

Glad you're in and settled now - that's half the battle! I wish Hannah and you (and all your pets) many happy and healthy years in your new home

I think it might be worth while me getting some isolation for the speakers though, I remember listening to a system in a room with a suspended floor before with the speakers just on the floor and then on some stands that looked a little like Marcos hifi isolation things it apeared very effective in terms of bringing an overall tonal balance to the sound!
Migh something like this be worth investigating?

In a word, yes! I've got the perfect solution too, some Mana Soundbases (surplus to requirements now I have the, erm, 'rather large' Tannoys), which would work superbly well under your PMCs - in fact, from experience I know just how effective they would be.....

If you want, Steve and me could pop down in the New Year and I'll install them for and you can analyse their effect to see if you like it

Marco.