I’ve read a few articles, forum posts, and social media posts mentioning Dr. Floyd Toole’s claim that controlling floor bounce in a home audio environment isn’t necessary, Why? Because, according to Dr. Toole, ground reflections are the single most common reflection on the planet, something humans evolved to deal with, recognize, and/or unconsciously compensate for when we are listening to all sounds. After all, throughout all human history we have been standing or sitting on the ground and ground reflections are always present in everything which we hear. Since we instinctively deal with ground reflections without awareness, and since it is 100% completely natural and always present, there is no reason to attempt to address floor reflections in a room designed specifically for critical audio reproduction.
Everything Dr. Floyd claims about floor reflections and human nature is true, except the conclusion that always ends this discussion is not true.
Yes, our brains expect to hear ambient reflections from around our bodies and when it is missing it sorta freaks us out and can really ruin a listening experience. Tests where listeners are put in a huge anechoic chamber and played direct recordings of instruments or even listen to a live performer in the chamber resulted in the listeners freaking out, even getting a tad nauseous and experiencing headaches. We NEED ambience because anytime our brains are processing sound, the primary subconscious mental energy is focused on interpreting location information for what we are hearing – where is the primary sound? where am I in relation to the sound? if I need to run from or attack the sound where do I move? If the sound is absent of location cues, such as echo and reverb, our brains instinctively go into panic mode because all of those natural processes are not capable of understanding anything about the location of the sound or the space in which the sound and the listener are located. You may be able to judge the direction of the sound source, but it is harder to understand the distance or whether it is near a surface, if I you are near a surface, or any other of a million aspects of the environment our brains are processing all the time.
So, yes, reflections and reverb are absolutely 100% essential to enjoying reproduced sound.
These facts are why too much absorption in a home listening room can actually make listening to audio uncomfortable, especially after a prolonged period of listening. They are why the now famous LEDE (Live End Dead End) listen room acoustical designs were a simple and reproduceable methods for dealing with room acoustics. They are impetus for my common advice to absorb sound for early reflections and bass trapping only and all other room treatments should be reflective, such as angled reflectors and diffusors are better than adding more absorption.
So, what about Dr. Floyd Toole’s comments about floor reflections?
Well, while it is true some ambient reflective acoustic energy in a room is critical, saying floor reflections should never be treated is insane. AND… and this is important, to some extent Dr. Toole himself addresses floor reflections in his own listening room. He mentions in his book that he puts either a shag wool rug on the floor between his speakers and his listening position OR he moved a large fabric covered ottoman to a location which block, absorb, or break up floor reflections. People show some recent photos of his home listening room and claim they show proof of his commitment to use absolutely no treatment on the floor between his speakers and his listening position. However, in discussions about his room, he says the photos he’s allowed to be released are of his room set up for entertaining, not for listening. He says he is “fortunate” to have furniture which can be easily moved in the space and when listening he moves the sofa or a smaller dedicated listening chair closer to the speakers AND either moved the ottoman in front of his sofa or tosses the large, thick sheep wool rug on the floor in front of the chair. He IS addressing floor reflections in his room! However, he is not going to extreme lengths to eliminate them.
I remember on the old S&V forum where I took a ton of shit from members of other “expert” forums for recommending wood floors for listening rooms over traditional synthetic carpet. If anyone remembers my advice, it wasn’t to have a bare hard floor between the speakers and the seating. Instead, I was saying a room with a wood floor AND strategically placed heavy and thick natural fiber rugs between the seating and speakers is more ideal than carpet. Why? Because carpet has a very specific and narrow set of absorption characteristics which “tunes” the room to have a dead zone in the frequency response of the ambient sound while being extremely live and ambient at other frequencies which the carpet does nothing to control. I was still recommending some floor reflection control where it is most important – early reflections.
Continued...
Everything Dr. Floyd claims about floor reflections and human nature is true, except the conclusion that always ends this discussion is not true.
Yes, our brains expect to hear ambient reflections from around our bodies and when it is missing it sorta freaks us out and can really ruin a listening experience. Tests where listeners are put in a huge anechoic chamber and played direct recordings of instruments or even listen to a live performer in the chamber resulted in the listeners freaking out, even getting a tad nauseous and experiencing headaches. We NEED ambience because anytime our brains are processing sound, the primary subconscious mental energy is focused on interpreting location information for what we are hearing – where is the primary sound? where am I in relation to the sound? if I need to run from or attack the sound where do I move? If the sound is absent of location cues, such as echo and reverb, our brains instinctively go into panic mode because all of those natural processes are not capable of understanding anything about the location of the sound or the space in which the sound and the listener are located. You may be able to judge the direction of the sound source, but it is harder to understand the distance or whether it is near a surface, if I you are near a surface, or any other of a million aspects of the environment our brains are processing all the time.
So, yes, reflections and reverb are absolutely 100% essential to enjoying reproduced sound.
These facts are why too much absorption in a home listening room can actually make listening to audio uncomfortable, especially after a prolonged period of listening. They are why the now famous LEDE (Live End Dead End) listen room acoustical designs were a simple and reproduceable methods for dealing with room acoustics. They are impetus for my common advice to absorb sound for early reflections and bass trapping only and all other room treatments should be reflective, such as angled reflectors and diffusors are better than adding more absorption.
So, what about Dr. Floyd Toole’s comments about floor reflections?
Well, while it is true some ambient reflective acoustic energy in a room is critical, saying floor reflections should never be treated is insane. AND… and this is important, to some extent Dr. Toole himself addresses floor reflections in his own listening room. He mentions in his book that he puts either a shag wool rug on the floor between his speakers and his listening position OR he moved a large fabric covered ottoman to a location which block, absorb, or break up floor reflections. People show some recent photos of his home listening room and claim they show proof of his commitment to use absolutely no treatment on the floor between his speakers and his listening position. However, in discussions about his room, he says the photos he’s allowed to be released are of his room set up for entertaining, not for listening. He says he is “fortunate” to have furniture which can be easily moved in the space and when listening he moves the sofa or a smaller dedicated listening chair closer to the speakers AND either moved the ottoman in front of his sofa or tosses the large, thick sheep wool rug on the floor in front of the chair. He IS addressing floor reflections in his room! However, he is not going to extreme lengths to eliminate them.
I remember on the old S&V forum where I took a ton of shit from members of other “expert” forums for recommending wood floors for listening rooms over traditional synthetic carpet. If anyone remembers my advice, it wasn’t to have a bare hard floor between the speakers and the seating. Instead, I was saying a room with a wood floor AND strategically placed heavy and thick natural fiber rugs between the seating and speakers is more ideal than carpet. Why? Because carpet has a very specific and narrow set of absorption characteristics which “tunes” the room to have a dead zone in the frequency response of the ambient sound while being extremely live and ambient at other frequencies which the carpet does nothing to control. I was still recommending some floor reflection control where it is most important – early reflections.
Continued...