Hi, so had my system (see sig) for a few months, am almost entirely happy with it. I'm limited in speaker position though until room is reconfigured. My room is around14 foot by 9 with speakers on 14 foot side about 7 feet apart. I'm getting really bad boom on a particular note on the song A Real Hero by College Youth (from Drive soundtrack) and been unable to eliminate through any repositioning. Bar nothing all other music is great, so it's frustrating me!! Has anyone here noticed this, as wondering if a better amp would control my speakers to improve this. Obviously I'm not feeling need to change amp for 1 song, more just curious. Or is it just my room? (Laminate wood over concrete floor, no carpet, bare walls, I do have thick curtains on one side.) Or is the song just recorded badly (doubtful as problem not present on headphones).Thoughts appreciated.
Bothersome bass note
- Thread starter Jonathan Cox
- Start date
DocG
Well-known member
Hi Jonathan,
My guess is that it's a positioning problem. Not so much about the speakers' position, but your listening seat's: could be a nasty room mode.
How far off the back wall is your seat? Could you move it back and forth a couple of ft? Any effect?
My guess is that it's a positioning problem. Not so much about the speakers' position, but your listening seat's: could be a nasty room mode.
How far off the back wall is your seat? Could you move it back and forth a couple of ft? Any effect?
I knew you had RX1s before I even opened at your post!..
I had them briefly and found them to have hideous bass problems. I did have them around 8" from the wall but still, they were just horrifically boomy.
Can't offer any further advice I'm afraid.
I had them briefly and found them to have hideous bass problems. I did have them around 8" from the wall but still, they were just horrifically boomy.
Can't offer any further advice I'm afraid.
How does it sound through your headphones? The answer to your question is most likely either it's mixed that way or it's caused by the speakers or room acoustics. I'd be surprised if your PM66KI is struggling to control a pair of RX1s.
tino
Well-known member
Play some sweep tones and see if there is a resonance at the frequency (you can measure the offending tone in the track, too, but you may just recognise it without measuring). You can then eq it out (hardware or software) or try to cancel it out by speaker/listening positioning. The frequency will give you an idea by how much you need to change the position (abt quarter wave).
check page 20 here
http://www.genelec.com/download.php?page=documents/catalogues/Monitor_Setup_Guide/Genelec_Monitor_Setup_Guide_2013.pdf
check page 20 here
http://www.genelec.com/download.php?page=documents/catalogues/Monitor_Setup_Guide/Genelec_Monitor_Setup_Guide_2013.pdf
Carpets/curations (or the lack of them) aren't realy going to make any difference with bass. You probably have a problem frequency which is a consequence of the size of the room.
Sorry for lack of reply, but Led Zepellin at O2 on sky arts, what a treat! I really need an AV system! Full reply later, but thanks all.
Tilt your speakers backwards by a small degree, you will have less floor reflections and the sweetspot will be for a taller sitting position.
Some great feedback from you guys thanks so much. Can confirm track sounds fine with cans so my guess is room and positioning as suggested. Speakers point across short length of room I reckon is reason or maybe they're too far apart even? Will try all your suggestions ASAP and come back. Enjoy weekend all!
As a general rule (which like most is designed to be broken) speakers often sound their best firing down the longer length of the room, to give bass frequencies in particular the space to develop before they bounce off the facing wall. You said your room's width was 9 feet, so presuming your speakers aren't a great deal more than seven feet away from the facing wall, this is almost certainly going to be one of the problems. Is there no scope to move things around so they're firing down the longer length?
Also, try rolling up your duvet/getting some pillows/cushions and stuff them behind the speakers see if that makes a difference. Bass radiates out in all directions so bass waves hit the corner joint behind the speakers as soon as they are produced and reasonate there.
Jonathan Cox said:
get a receiver with room correction and you are sorted. Mint second hand ones are superb value. New ones not bad value either!
IMO room correction needs room correction - receivers are only good for minor tweaks rather than significant management.. Only bass traps together with speaker/seating position is a real solution.
tino
Well-known member
RobinKidderminster said:
Some people don't want their room to look like a recording studio
Electronic room correction will probably have a significant effect - the dSpeaker device I mentioned earlier has had very good reviews and is particularly good at bass management. Whilst these dvices may not addess the fundamental root cause they can go a long way to fixing the effects.
emperor's new clothes
Well-known member
+1 for bass traps. Aesthetics aside, the best and most cost effective upgrade in over 40 years of HiFi ownership - obviously room dependant
jonathanRD
Well-known member
I have a similar room in terms of laminate floor on concrete base, and mostly bare walls. The room is 5m long by 4m wide with the speakers across the 4m. I too had some boom with certain tracks so I went online and researched the 'perfect' configuration for hifi. There is a calculation that you can make to decide where the perfect position is. So I moved my speakers as close to the suggested position as I could get away with. They are about 80cm away from both back and side walls and that seemed to cure the boom straight-away.
Sounds like you may have to change your layout so that the speakers fire down the long length of the room - if you can.
Sounds like you may have to change your layout so that the speakers fire down the long length of the room - if you can.
Had a mess about with it, tried pillows behind and to side speakers and on side wall. This made little or no difference. So I tried moving my own position, and as suggested, when I moved closer to the speakers by around 2 feet the boom I would say 90% disappeared. So with speakers 7ft apart my head was only 4-5 ft away. Trouble is I currently have a great huge dining table where I would be sat! Will leave as is until room done out and can move my listening position. Some scope for speakers firing down length of room, but would be near a radiator. Should this be avoided however? Thanks for all comments again, so chuffed with your interest.
matt49
Well-known member
Jonathan Cox said:
Yep, you've got a room mode there. Moving the listening position, as you've done, takes you out of the bass "hotspot", and that's obviously resulted in a huge improvement. However, it doesn't deal with the underlying problem, which is to do with the relation between the room dimensions and the position of the speakers. You may not be able to fix that, as your room is being used for living. But at least you know what the problem is!
Matt
Read a bit about room modes and standing waves, think problem frequency is a bass C (or B), and this has wavelength about same distance as from my speakers to back wall which would cause the boom or cancelling out of bass. I'm much more aware of importance of positioning etc though so hugely useful. Happy until I change room as I said as not noticed on any other music.
As an aside, to MajorFubar, would you mind giving your views on the Marantz KI signature? I'm happy with overall sound I get, but how would you compare it to other amps you've heard, between £300-£650 sort of price range? This is the only decent amp I've listened to, other than Marantz PM6004 and PM6003 at speaker auditions. Read good things about Exposure, Rotel, Rega Brio as I like mostly rock/metal. Thank you again.
As an aside, to MajorFubar, would you mind giving your views on the Marantz KI signature? I'm happy with overall sound I get, but how would you compare it to other amps you've heard, between £300-£650 sort of price range? This is the only decent amp I've listened to, other than Marantz PM6004 and PM6003 at speaker auditions. Read good things about Exposure, Rotel, Rega Brio as I like mostly rock/metal. Thank you again.
Sadly I can't answer that one as I've never compared it against anything newer in that price-range, only a couple of cheaper budget offerings from Nad and Cambridge that I compared it against about five years ago, and it walked all over them. PM66KI is an absolute peach of an amp and when WHF reviewed it in 1996 they suggested in a roundabout way that Marantz's bean-counters had somewhat underpriced it at £500 (which is nearer to £800 in today's money). I doubt there's any other (new) integrated amp this side of a grand which will seriously embarrass it, though the amps you mention (and others) may have a different sonic signature that you may prefer with the rest of your system and in your living room. One problem though is finding a dealer who will let you borrow a few products on home demo on the understanding that you may not even buy any of them...
Never doubted it, but I now have first hand proof of the huge importance of room geometry and speaker positioning, what a brilliant transformation. Now to get the room and floor decorated, I feel the old lady will have great trouble getting me out of there and the hifi off once done! Thanks so much again for all the input, and I hope will benefit many others! Catch you all later! Now to try get that picture on here....
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