Bass Cancellation?

[stevieray]

I have a problem with bass cancellation on my hi fi, the room i use it in is 5m x 6.5m. I'm using a NAD c542 cd player, NAD c355bee amp, and MA RS6 speakers with a Chord silver siren RCA and Chord odyssey 2 speaker cables. Speakers are 2m apart and i sit around 2.2m - 2.5m away.

The problem is midband bass, all very low frequencies are heard but mid bass is canceled out. If i change the wall the speakers are against to the side wall theres midband bass and then no depth and doesnt sound as good as having the midband cut and the low bass instead. I was wondering if theres anything i can do about this? There's loads of bass in every corner of the room, and i've heard filling the corners with somthing thick like curled up rugs helps, but i would like to hear if anyone has had a simular problem and managed to fix it, before i ruin my room!

Cheers!

 

[SteveR750]

The obvious thing to check is that they are wired in phase, and that your IC's are also correct (so L to L and R to R). If so, then welcome to the biggest influence on sound quality - your room. Rooms are a pain in the a**e and to be honest to get the bst sond you will have to dedicate your room layout for the system. It's all about experimentation tyo find the best position of the speakers and primary listening position.

 

[a91gti]

Is it possible to move your listening position further away? An extra metre, maybe more, could help.

 

[stevieray]

The phase is correct and the IC's are too, are there any tips for sound absorbing bass too fix the problem? Or is my room never going to get the full potencial of my hi fi? Should i move house? lol

I've tried sitting closer/ further away from the speakers, but found the old tri angle rule works best, i think it's all to do with bass reflextion?

 

[Dan Turner]

How far are the speakers from the rear wall? If they are too close then the boost in the low bass may reduce the perceived level of the mid-bass. Try moving them futher out into the room by a little at a time and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Craig M.]

a guy in a shop explained this to me once, in the instance he was referring to, it was because of the rooms dimensions. if you've experimented as much as you can with positioning, then you will have to re-build your house! do you have the speakers toed in to point just behind your head? if the problem is really bad, it would probably be cheaper and easier to move. failing that you would need to identify the problem frequencies, and get bass traps for that frequency. you would need a few and that would only help with absorbing excess bass, where the bass falls in apparent volume you would need to boost those frequencies, which can't be done with room treatment.

or you could forget all of the above and try one of the new harmon kardon amps with room correcting dsp, built in. might work better and be a lot cheaper then the alternatives.

 

[Anonymous]

Speaker positioning is key.

Move the speakers away from walls or corners or any suitably hard objects ~ try to minimize sound reflection.

 

[True Blue]

Something obvious that no one else has asked. Is your room on a suspended joist floor (ie with a void / celler beneath, or do you have concrete floor?

 

[True Blue]

The reason I ask is because in my home cinema setup my sub used to "boom" lower frequencies whilst drowning out more subtle bass. My floor is wooden joists with a cellar underneath and the sub was causing vibration in the structure. Long story short, de coupled the sub from the floor (using a granite chopping board!!) and kerching!! all was well.

Think it is a lot cheaper than moving house!!

 

[stevieray]

It's a detached room with concrete floor and all four walls are solid brick aswell? I've also tried moving the speakers away from the wall, tired them at 1 meter away and as close as 5cm away... low bass stays simular.. gets boomy close to the wall... but the mid bass is still cancelled out? If i put them on a different wall i get mid bass that you can increase or decrease by moving them closer or futher from the wall... but the deep bass is then too quite or cancelled out? Which is the best too have too work with?

 

[smuggs]

your a million miles above me, but i have the br5's and had a problem with my bass being boomy and i have added a sub, set the crossover at 80hz and the put sub volume very low and seems to be very good. but thats through my ca 640h and denon 1909 so i guess you guys want more than me. I know its silly have you any bungs to mess around with or have you tried single wire and biwire.