Type of flooring in a listening room?

@slohand

Some acoustical materials are pretty.  GIK makes art panels where they will silk screen anything you want.  Some diffusers can look like sculpture.

I'm not sure what you are asking.  Did you think the vinyl was prettier?  The cork is really for any occupants underneath, but I encourage you to get flooring that's good on your feet.  Concrete sucks to walk on and reflects energy to your joints.

If you go with planks plus rugs, that should be fine, and help mix it up.  However, if it's all or nothing, the vinyl will be a bad idea.  When selecting rugs in the showroom, put your ear up to it, you'll hear the better material will make you feel like you are listening in a cave.

Don't forget your ceiling.  You can add some drama and romance with carefully chosen ceiling panels, or curtains draped horizontally.  I get it that you don't want a room to look like a padded cell, but a perfectly rectangular room in white is equally boring.  All carpet or all wood floors is also boring. Mix it up with some rugs, larger sculptures can act as diffusers. Soffit traps can add depth and color.

A flat weave Berber-style carpet with a high quality pad underneath should make both you and your wife happy.

If you do decide to go with wall to wall carpet please invest in a natural wool carpet. Synthetics do not sound as good, I've wasted a fair amount of money on synthetic rugs in my room and wondered why the sound became hard and unpleasant, a nice thick wool rug and all is good, I have to assume the same would hold for carpet. Alternatively if a 80:20 or above wool is too pricey get a plain carpet and look for some good wool rugs on sale to apply to the main area between listening seat and speakers

Yes get a nice Persian rug put it right in front of the speakers

like the flooring you are considering

wall2wall is so 70's  :)

Folkfreak has a good point about natural wool. It has much more natural sounding qualities. It also is tons more comfortable, and lasts about 3-5 times longer. However if you have a lot of humidity in your area and your basement, if that is where you are talking about, I would not suggest wool carpet or even carpet in general. But if it is not highly humid and you do get wool, your wife will probably be really happy with it.