New flooring, different sound?

[popolz]

well It did change the room a little... I had to lower one of my front 3db, raise the center 2db, lower a surround 2db and raise the subs ~4db... I didn't expect that kind of change

[EdwardGein]

I recently moved into a somewhat similar 2 bedroom wall to wall apartment, albeit on the 2nd floor of a 3 floor building as opposed to being on the ground floor before in a 2 floor building. Anyway, because the living room is bigger and slightly differently structured my front speakers are now 11 feet away instead of 9' but I basically set up everything the same as before. My CD sound is slightly different- it seems to be missing a bit of presence from my previous apartment that I'm sure no one notices except me. The bottom line is, I started tinkering with everything and the sound was worse not better so I set everything back to what I had it originally set up on & am leaving things this way. If you tinker with anything, at least write down the previous settings if you find yourself getting even worse sound. Also, because I was on the second floor, I got 2 heavy isolation pads (matts) for my 2 subwoofers & so far they seem to be working because no one has compained yet. They're about $135 each postpaid & you can get them online at acousticalsolutions.com/products/isolation/pads.asp

[Woochifer]

well It did change the room a little... I had to lower one of my front 3db, raise the center 2db, lower a surround 2db and raise the subs ~4db... I didn't expect that kind of change

Pretty much any change that you make to your room will affect the sound. Something as simple as rearranging your furniture can shift the sound absorption/diffraction patterns, and this will be reflected in your SPL readings.

But, the thing to keep in mind is that any change in the material used on any of your boundary surfaces will affect the sound because different materials absorb and reflect at differing levels for different frequencies.

Another issue that you won't be able to measure without a mic and some specialized software is the time domain. If you have strong room echoes that reflect back to the listening position close to full strength, it will smear the imaging and make the overall sound harsher. This is because in general, direct and reflected sounds that coincide within about 5 ms of one another will be interpreted by the brain as a single sound event. A reflected sound at full strength in close proximity to the direct sound will create enough of a time shift to decrease the coherency of the direct sound. It might not show up at all on a SPL or frequency response measurement, but you will notice it when you hear it. Generally, you want to either absorb or diffuse the sounds at the reflection points as much as possible to preserve the imaging articulation.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

A reflected sound at full strength in close proximity to the direct sound will create enough of a time shift to decrease the coherency of the direct sound. It might not show up at all on a SPL or frequency response measurement, but you will notice it when you hear it. Generally, you want to either absorb or diffuse the sounds at the reflection points as much as possible to preserve the imaging articulation.

It will show up in a frequency response measurement. It will show up as a boost or cancellation depending on how close the source is to a reflective surface.