An investigation of the sound field in a large reverberation room as influenced by a 2 in. mineral wool floor covering and or an array or 96 suspended plywood panels yielded significant results. The panels do not increase the decay rates, that is, their absorption is negligible, for frequencies below about 250 cps; their added absorption to the room increased progressively at higher frequencies to 24 sabins at 4000 cps. Decay rates for low‐frequency single modes in the empty room were linear and ranged from 2.11 to 5.7 dB/sec; the decay rates when two contiguous modes were excited were very nonlinear; their contours were predicted in terms of the decay rates and the phase differences of the two modes. With the floor absorptive, the 96 panels reduced the maximal levels of impulsive sounds (pistol shots), at frequency below 250 cps.s, for all elevations above the floor; the average decrease was 4.6 dB. With the floor absorptive, the decay rate at 250 cps was only 6.2 dB/sec when source and microphone were in the upper part of the room, and 39.3 dB/sec when source and microphone were in lower part. The influence or these decay rates on the quality of recorded speech and music was shown to be large.