Question Hopefully the final amp.

[podknocker]

UNBELIEVABLE!

Went into my cupboard and into the box and found the foam bungs, unopened.

Popped them in and it really has made a huge difference. Foam bungs. About 50p a pair?

Wow! They sound so much more controlled and 'dry' without that warmth and boom.

As soon as they were in, I could hear and feel the bass disappear. So much better now.

I've never known such a quick and effective change to my setup. Science eh?

Thanks for reminding my about the foam bungs. They were in the box about 2 years!

 

[plastic penguin]

UNBELIEVABLE!

Went into my cupboard and into the box and found the foam bungs, unopened.

Popped them in and it really has made a huge difference. Foam bungs. About 50p a pair?

Wow! They sound so much more controlled and 'dry' without that warmth and boom.

As soon as they were in, I could hear and feel the bass disappear. So much better now.

I've never known such a quick and effective change to my setup. Science eh?

Thanks for reminding my about the foam bungs. They were in the box about 2 years!

Does this mean you're not going to upgrade anything?

 

[npxavar]

He doesn't have a thorn in his back anymore, by the looks of it.

 

[podknocker]

Does this mean you're not going to upgrade anything?

Haha!

I've turned the music up and I'm hearing things I've never heard in 2 years! The music's no longer sat in a muddled sea of bass. I'm very familiar with the songs I tend to play nearly every day.

Loads more detail in a cleaner soundstage, without the honk and drone. They sound like different speakers now, without that bloated boominess. I love the sound, but still not enough sparkle and detail at the top.

The Leema will still get a listen and might give me more bite and detail. IF not, then I'll be looking for a small, compact floor stander. Unsure if I'm going to find a sealed one, without some sort of reflex design.

I'm no longer a fan of ported designs to augment the bass. I don't understand the obsession with bass TBH

It's the bass that's the most difficult to 'fit' into the room. I'm shocked how much better the QAs sound with their plugs in.

I'm listening to some Eli & Fur, with very quick and often off-beat bass sounds. They are now separate sounds and don't sound like they're tripping over each other.

The sound isn't smeared and smudged etc. Foam plugs. Bonkers. My QA 3030i sound clean and dry and I no longer feel the bass pressure, in my listening position.

They sounded like a car was sat outside, with the engine idling, with some after market exhaust fitted.

A cheap a simple way to improve the sound. They don't sell them on the Futureshop site. No surprise there.

 

[gasolin]

port noise,boomy bass from a port can be a problem, that's why i wanted to avoid a traditional ported subwoofer

 

[plastic penguin]

Haha!

I've turned the music up and I'm hearing things I've never heard in 2 years! The music's no longer sat in a muddled sea of bass. I'm very familiar with the songs I tend to play nearly every day.

Loads more detail in a cleaner soundstage, without the honk and drone. They sound like different speakers now, without that bloated boominess. I love the sound, but still not enough sparkle and detail at the top.

The Leema will still get a listen and might give me more bite and detail. IF not, then I'll be looking for a small, compact floor stander. Unsure if I'm going to find a sealed one, without some sort of reflex design.

I'm no longer a fan of ported designs to augment the bass. I don't understand the obsession with bass TBH

It's the bass that's the most difficult to 'fit' into the room. I'm shocked how much better the QAs sound with their plugs in.

I'm listening to some Eli & Fur, with very quick and often off-beat bass sounds. They are now separate sounds and don't sound like they're tripping over each other.

The sound isn't smeared and smudged etc. Foam plugs. Bonkers. My QA 3030i sound clean and dry and I no longer feel the bass pressure, in my listening position.

They sounded like a car was sat outside, with the engine idling, with some after market exhaust fitted.

A cheap a simple way to improve the sound. They don't sell them on the Futureshop site. No surprise there.

Don't understand the bloated boomy sound. Unless you have a system in a tiny box room, give the speakers a couple of feet breathing space, you should never hear any boom.

I've always found bungs stifle all the frequencies, tried them with the RS6Ss and it was 'orrible. The old Arcam was great with RS6s but the bass could sound cluttered with a little bloated LFs, fitted the bungs and it killed the overall presentation.

Purchased the Pulse, with the RS6s in situ, and everything tightened up without losing any musicality.

Personally I think you're hearing something different as opposed to better.

 

[npxavar]

My Dali Oberon 3s sound terrible with the reflex port plugged too: The low frequencies are out of sync. However, the smaller Klipsch R14Ms sound way better with the port plugged.

It has to do with the combination of woofer, cabinet and port design parameters I guess.

 

[podknocker]

My speakers sound great with the bungs in place. Moving them further away from the walls is not possible, in such a small room.

 

[Gray]

Where speakers have been designed with an open port, bungs must necessarily compromise that design.

But, where needed, that compromise is possibly a price worth paying (the lesser of two evils).

(I had to ditch some otherwise decent Proac speakers, due entirely to the interaction between their rear ports and the front wall).

 

[Noddy]

I have to bung my Kef LS50 Metas, measurements on the Kef LS50 speakers prove that they only have an effect in the bass region especially below 100 Hz. The impact on higher frequencies is negligible and not audible.

Without bungs you may get room resonances in which case the sound is heavily distorted anyway.

 

[plastic penguin]

My speakers sound great with the bungs in place. Moving them further away from the walls is not possible, in such a small room.

Well, my room is 12 feet something x 17 feet, and I have mine firing across the 12 feet, I certainly don't get any booming -- it's as tight as a drum.

Either it's BS or something fundamentally wrong.

 

[Noddy]

Well, my room is 12 feet something x 17 feet, and I have mine firing across the 12 feet, I certainly don't get any booming -- it's as tight as a drum.

Either it's BS or something fundamentally wrong.

It isn’t BS, rooms don‘t always interact well with speakers, and some speakers have an exaggerated boomy bass. Some speakers are designed to sit about one meter from a rear wall, others are designed to sit close. And listening with your back close to a wall is not good either due to reflections.

I‘m lucky as the speakers are in front of a brick or concrete block wall, with no corners nearby, and a carpeted floor. So at about 70 dB I get pretty good sound. However, the opposite wall is not far behind me, so not perfect.

 

[podknocker]

Well, my room is 12 feet something x 17 feet, and I have mine firing across the 12 feet, I certainly don't get any booming -- it's as tight as a drum.

Either it's BS or something fundamentally wrong.

I can guarantee it's not BS. They are provided for a reason and they have removed the nasty boundary interaction, which was giving me a droning car exhaust effect, particularly at my listening position. I doubt you have the same sized or shaped room and you are not using QA3030i speakers, one of which is 12 inches from the corner. It's like a different pair of speakers and the foam plugs are staying in!

 

[plastic penguin]

I can guarantee it's not BS. They are provided for a reason and they have removed the nasty boundary interaction, which was giving me a droning car exhaust effect, particularly at my listening position. I doubt you have the same sized or shaped room and you are not using QA3030i speakers, one of which is 12 inches from the corner. It's like a different pair of speakers and the foam plugs are staying in!

Apologize for using the BS but you did start off thread in early April by saying you wanted to "declutter", as you wanted to ditch all of your current set-up and first mentioned the Quasar, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested a demo.

There are plenty of other all-in-one streamer/amps: Audiolab 9000, Cambridge Evo 75 or 150, Naim blah blah blah.

Given you like a shrill, bright sound then probably the Naim is the best bet.

 

[podknocker]

There's no need to apologise. It takes more than a wry comment on a forum to upset me PP!

I am truly shocked however, with the QA speakers, after the foam bungs were inserted.

As soon as they were inserted, I heard and felt the bass disappear. The bass pressure on my ears has gone.

I'm still looking at the Leema Quasar and hopefully Richer Sounds can get one in for a demo.

I do agree the amp will need a quicker, cleaner and more precise speaker, to do it justice.

There are so many things you can do to improve the sound of your system and I have been truly surprised by the change in my system, since I used the foam bungs. So cheap and simple, but truly effective.

This stuff never fails to surprise me and I doubt many things, until I actually try them for myself.

I hope the Leema Quaser lives up to my expectations and I might find the perfect speakers for this amp.

As you can imagine, I'm no longer a fan of reflex ported speakers, but acoustic suspension designs are rare.

 

[plastic penguin]

There's no need to apologise. It takes more than a wry comment on a forum to upset me PP!

I am truly shocked however, with the QA speakers, after the foam bungs were inserted.

As soon as they were inserted, I heard and felt the bass disappear. The bass pressure on my ears has gone.

I'm still looking at the Leema Quasar and hopefully Richer Sounds can get one in for a demo.

I do agree the amp will need a quicker, cleaner and more precise speaker, to do it justice.

There are so many things you can do to improve the sound of your system and I have been truly surprised by the change in my system, since I used the foam bungs. So cheap and simple, but truly effective.

This stuff never fails to surprise me and I doubt many things, until I actually try them for myself.

I hope the Leema Quaser lives up to my expectations and I might find the perfect speakers for this amp.

As you can imagine, I'm no longer a fan of reflex ported speakers, but acoustic suspension designs are rare.

Once you do settle on a amp then something like ATC or used pair of Harbeth could be the answer, albeit they are trad standmounts.

 

[plastic penguin]

There's no need to apologise. It takes more than a wry comment on a forum to upset me PP!

I am truly shocked however, with the QA speakers, after the foam bungs were inserted.

As soon as they were inserted, I heard and felt the bass disappear. The bass pressure on my ears has gone.

I'm still looking at the Leema Quasar and hopefully Richer Sounds can get one in for a demo.

I do agree the amp will need a quicker, cleaner and more precise speaker, to do it justice.

There are so many things you can do to improve the sound of your system and I have been truly surprised by the change in my system, since I used the foam bungs. So cheap and simple, but truly effective.

This stuff never fails to surprise me and I doubt many things, until I actually try them for myself.

I hope the Leema Quaser lives up to my expectations and I might find the perfect speakers for this amp.

As you can imagine, I'm no longer a fan of reflex ported speakers, but acoustic suspension designs are rare.

Have you got any pics of your room layout, it may help to understand the issues and perhaps advise on how to improve the sound without major surgery.

Here's a pic of my room taken back in 2012, it's still the same layout wise now. The RS6s were about 18" from the back wall without using bungs.

 

[WayneKerr]

Once you do settle on a amp then something like ATC or used pair of Harbeth could be the answer, albeit they are trad standmounts.

ATC is a good shout PP Would like to try a pair one day. They also haven't jumped on the ridiculous price bandwagon like most other British speaker manufacturers.