Will raised basement floor increase tactile bass response?

Raise your basement floor to make it more comfortable to walk on and provide a small margin of flood resistance. (your carpet will probably last longer too) Get some buttkickers for tactile bass, unless you have the space for a couple of those Orbit shifters or giant infinite baffle (IB) setup and the amplification for either to make it sing. just a thought. merry krimble
Edited by weaselfest - 12/26/12 at 3:05pm

I would like to hear a few opinions on this myself. From my VERY limited experience I would say that the physical sensation of bass on a wood frame floor vs. a slab is significant. Not exactly scientific, but my father in law and I have the same Paradigm subwoofer. His is in a large open space on the second floor of his house. Mine in a small enclosed room on a basement slab. Both corner loaded. The difference in transmission through to the seating is night and day. At the in-law's you can feel the bass in every seat in the room, even though to your ears it doesn't seem that loud. Even now that I have upgarded to dual 12's I have more impact in the chest but no where near the tactile response in the seat.

Yes, it will improve the tactile bass sensation a lot. Dolby did exactly that in their SF theater,which is built on 3 layers of concrete. They not only built the seats up on risers, they provided an open channel so the sound of the subwoofers could more easily reach under the seats.

In my room, already built on the second story of a house, wood joists and subfloor, I built my 2nd row riser 12" tall but used 6" joists to allow airflow (filled with pink insulation) and to prevent direct contact with the floor. The riser is also separated from the side walls by a small gap, and the frame itself sits on the foam carpet pad that I left in place after pulling the original carpet. The bass sensation is really good, feels totally natural, and is totally free. The front row has some tactile sensation also, but noticeably less. So you can vary how much based on how rigidly you build the subfloor. If is is very rigid and in direct contact with the concrete, it may be rather mild.

My guess is this helped. When I did my room I split treated 2x4s and spaced them 16" apart by gluing them to the concrete floor with liquid nails and used OSB for flooring. I can feel the bass with this setup but it's not even close to as effective as what I can feel in the family room above. I've had water in my basement before and this actually saved the carpet since the water was under the flooring and I dried it out but lifting the carpet, drilling holes, and pushing air in the the affected areas.

No problem with tactile response here. I am also on Concrete floors with no risers.

How is that possible?

Well, after checking out Dave's sig it looks like he has 4 x 18'' XXX drivers in an IB and he is adding 3 more soon! I would say just about anything is possible with that much firepower.

I believe that concrete is actually a great conductor of sound so if you have enough subwoofer up front you should not have any problems with tactile sensation. I would guess most people maybe don't quite have enough subwoofer to get the sensation they are after. And then for some people it will simply never be enough!

I can attest that my "smallish" built in subs contained in my Def Tech Mythos STS towers shake my main floor wood floor like crazy! So I am hoping my Orbit Shifter will be able to provide some tactile sensation via my concrete floor. I will be doing a riser as well and I anticipate that the sensation will be much greater for the second row riser. I am currently planning to put my OS on a sand filled stage and this will probably decrease the transmission of sound and I am a bit worried about this. Maybe I should place the sub directly on the concrete and only have the stage built in front of the false wall? I dunno.

The most insane tactile feel I have ever experienced was at member DesertDomes at the recent Omaha Home Theater tour. He has an in floor IB setup with 8 x 18" drivers. His floor is wooden and is likely near 80-100 years old. It shakes your entire body! Everyone in attendance had a huge grin on their face. It was actually a little bit too much for me but very very fun.

I am sure one also needs to consider distance to the source when attempting to get more tactile sensation.

You could always put a second sub on top of a riser like the one Roger described. My riser will be constructed in this fashion too.

I have had mixed results with tactile transducers. It can have an artificial on/off feel to it if not done correctly. I would rather have my bass be ''natural'' with all of the smaller increments of sensation intact. But, if my OS just can't go through my stage and concrete then I will look into tactile transducers and/or near field subs.

Edit: I would consider doing the raised floor just like XB described but my ceiling height is an issue. Maybe just a layer of plywood would help? This may or may not hinder any soundproofing efforts you have.