Need more bass

[kanini]

Hi folks,

wonder if you can help me improve my bass.

Ive recently spent quite a bit upgrading my kit as I converted a room in my house into a music / library/ pc room.

the main issue i think is my tannoy dc6t se floorstanders. I was really expecting a good bass response from them from the reviews. They only seem to have occasional sub bass (which is a bit boomy) , but the normal bass you get from bass guitars and house music seems rather poor. In contrast, my mates old cheap wharfedales had a better sounding bass, which was quite embarrasing!

I was using an old ion obelisk amp, so upgraded to a roksan kandy k2 bt to make sure i had plenty of power for the speakers. There has been an improvement in sound, but not particularly the bass.

tried all sorts of speaker positioning. They are either side of my bay window and my settee is opposite with the back against a wall.

im using an arcam irDAC being fed by sonos, and a technics sl1210 turntable. decent speaker cable.

room is 4x4m

just need a boost in the mid bass area. really dont want to tell the mrs i wasted money on the tannoys and i need some different speakers!

I also tried adding my sub from the tv room and it was really difficult to keep consistent between different genres and tracks without having to keep tweaking the level.

 

[Freddy58]

FWIW, I found the same when I auditioned those speakers, poor bass. There's only one thing I can think of, change them. In the end I opted for the Kef R300's (stand-mounts) which have superb bass, imo.

 

[dim_span]

buy an old pair of B&W DM2 speakers (the 1st edition) .... these are 3 way transmission speakers

you can get them on ebay for uner £100 .... try them, if you don't like them, sell them

I've had mine for over 10 years, and wont part with them

 

[davedotco]

When you say the bass sounds poor, what do you mean?

Does it lack clarity, power or punch? Does it boom or drone, is it different depending on your sources?

First thing to try though is getting the sofa, well the listening position anyway, away from the wall.

 

[ifor]

First thing to try though is getting the sofa, well the listening position anyway, away from the wall.

Not practical in all too many situations.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Sit on the floor. Move around. If the bass improves then its your room & you will need bass traps.

 

[Waxy]

Sorry...

 

[MajorFubar]

If you've got a dedicated room and the sound isn't to your liking the first thing I'd recommend above everything else is get the room acoustically treated. The difference it will make is incredible. You can have the luxury of this in a room which doesn't have to look pretty above all else. Search YouTube for tutorials on how to install bass traps and acoustic panels in home studios. Proper acoustic panels and bass traps from studio suppliers can cost £WTF but it's amazing what you can cobble together with some bits of old foam, thick curtains strategically placed and deep-pile rugs.

 

[DocG]

First thing to try though is getting the sofa, well the listening position anyway, away from the wall.

Yes, my first thought too. Then again, that will probably give better, but less bass. Not sure it's what the OP is after... But it's a lot cheaper and less embarrasing than getting new speakers, so definitely worth trying!

 

[Thompsonuxb]

The bass you're looking for you will not find with 'hifi' speakers.

They major on hi-fidelity - your best bet is a trip down to cash converters and see what's in.

Large conned disco boxes with a proper power amp is what you need.

If the day comes and you start to crave a little more refinement you can dig out the 'hifi'.

 

[Freddy58]

If you've got a dedicated room and the sound isn't to your liking the first thing I'd recommend above everything else is get the room acoustically treated. The difference it will make is incredible. You can have the luxury of this in a room which doesn't have to look pretty above all else. Search YouTube for tutorials on how to install bass traps and acoustic panels in home studios. Proper acoustic panels and bass traps from studio suppliers can cost £WTF but it's amazing what you can cobble together with some bits of old foam, thick curtains strategically placed and deep-pile rugs.

Good advice. I'm pretty sure though that with these particular speakers it might be a lost cause. My impression was that the clarity was very good, revealing without being harsh. But where was the bass!? Non existant, as I recall. Very disappointing, given the size.

 

[steve_1979]

The bass you're looking for you will not find with 'hifi' speakers.

They major on hi-fidelity - your best bet is a trip down to cash converters and see what's in.

Large conned disco boxes with a proper power amp is what you need.

If the day comes and you start to crave a little more refinement you can dig out the 'hifi'.

There are plenty of hifi speakers which 'do' proper deep powerful bass. You just need to make sure they are the right ones partnered with the right amplifier and the right room.

 

[hg]

In order to fix something one first needs to know what is wrong. It is not clear from your post what you consider to be poor about the bass response.

Firstly your speakers have a 6" woofer. These are too small to deliver decent amounts of deep bass but are perfectly fine if used with subwoofers.

You have a square room and this is almost certain to give strong peaks and valleys in the bass response of the room. To demonstrate this to yourself play a range of bass tones and move about the room listening to how much they get louder and quieter. There are things that can be done but first it may be wise to establish that this is the main problem and not something to do with the speakers.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

Large conned disco boxes with a proper power amp is what you need.

Are "conned disco boxes" those ones blokes used to sell out of the back of white vans?

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

buy an old pair of B&W DM2 speakers (the 1st edition) .... these are 3 way transmission speakers

you can get them on ebay for uner £100 .... try them, if you don't like them, sell them

I've had mine for over 10 years, and wont part with them

A client I recently did some decorating for had some DM4s, which he inherited from his parents. They were in superb condition, still had the stands, and sounded wonderful. I'm not sure if the DM2s are better, or a step down, but since hearing them, I've been keeping an eye on eBay for 2s and 4s. A lovely looking pair were on eBay recently, and they'd been bid up to £54 with just over a day to run, then next time I looked, the listing had finished. So not sure if someone did a sly buy it now, or if the seller had a last minute change of heart. Was a bit gutted though.

Sorry for taking the thread slightly off-topic.

 

[Freddy58]

buy an old pair of B&W DM2 speakers (the 1st edition) .... these are 3 way transmission speakers

you can get them on ebay for uner £100 .... try them, if you don't like them, sell them

I've had mine for over 10 years, and wont part with them

A client I recently did some decorating for had some DM4s, which he inherited from his parents. They were in superb condition, still had the stands, and sounded wonderful. I'm not sure if the DM2s are better, or a step down, but since hearing them, I've been keeping an eye on eBay for 2s and 4s. A lovely looking pair were on eBay recently, and they'd been bid up to £54 with just over a day to run, then next time I looked, the listing had finished. So not sure if someone did a sly buy it now, or if the seller had a last minute change of heart. Was a bit gutted though.

Sorry for taking the thread slightly off-topic.

I had some DM4's, good they were too.

 

[davedotco]

Moving the listening position, even temporarily will help you work our what is going on. Having your ears close to a boundary (wall) is effectively the same as having your speakers close to a wall, sometimes you need space, just like speakers.

I am not a big fan of room treatment other than in exceptional circumstances, the correct amp/speaker/room combination will, in my experience, get the job done, though maybe in this case the equipment is just wrong for your requirements.

 

[JoelSim]

In order to fix something one first needs to know what is wrong. It is not clear from your post what you consider to be poor about the bass response.

Firstly your speakers have a 6" woofer. These are too small to deliver decent amounts of deep bass but are perfectly fine if used with subwoofers.

You have a square room and this is almost certain to give strong peaks and valleys in the bass response of the room. To demonstrate this to yourself play a range of bass tones and move about the room listening to how much they get louder and quieter. There are things that can be done but first it may be wise to establish that this is the main problem and not something to do with the speakers.

Couldn't agree more. My speakers are hifi and absolutely not lacking in bass. They shake the walls if I go over volume 5, which I don't as I tend to get a text from the girl downstairs when I go above 2

Sounds to me that those speakers are not right for your taste. Sell them on and audition something new.

 

[kanini]

Wow cheers for all the suggestions.
Tbh not sure I can get away with moving the settee forwards or putting things on my walls as the Mrs uses the room too!
Starting to get the feeling I need to change speakers. Like I say my mates old ones sounded good so I'm sure my room can cope. The suggestions of getting some cheap 2nd hand ones sounds less painful.
To answer another question. I get plenty of sub bass but its sometimes a bit too heavy and then it goes quiet around the mid/low bass area.
The speakers are very clear in mid range but I like a bit of bass. I can even hear it dip in volume at the midbass when one of those frequency sweep tones is played.

 

[Thompsonuxb]

You get q dip during a frequency sweep?

That sounds like a problem with your amp, if you have access to another amp it may be worth testing/comparing the sweep with your speakers.

Check your speakers are in phase too.

Wow cheers for all the suggestions.
Tbh not sure I can get away with moving the settee forwards or putting things on my walls as the Mrs uses the room too!
Starting to get the feeling I need to change speakers. Like I say my mates old ones sounded good so I'm sure my room can cope. The suggestions of getting some cheap 2nd hand ones sounds less painful.
To answer another question. I get plenty of sub bass but its sometimes a bit too heavy and then it goes quiet around the mid/low bass area.
The speakers are very clear in mid range but I like a bit of bass. I can even hear it dip in volume at the midbass when one of those frequency sweep tones is played.

 

[kanini]

I had the same issue with my previous amp so pretty sure its not that.

 

[davedotco]

Wow cheers for all the suggestions. Tbh not sure I can get away with moving the settee forwards or putting things on my walls as the Mrs uses the room too! Starting to get the feeling I need to change speakers. Like I say my mates old ones sounded good so I'm sure my room can cope. The suggestions of getting some cheap 2nd hand ones sounds less painful. To answer another question. I get plenty of sub bass but its sometimes a bit too heavy and then it goes quiet around the mid/low bass area. The speakers are very clear in mid range but I like a bit of bass. I can even hear it dip in volume at the midbass when one of those frequency sweep tones is played.

Try altering the distance from your speakers too the back wall, you may be getting cancellation effects with the relections from behind being, effectively, out of phase with the output of the speakers themselves.

It could be room issues too, move the sofa well forward if you can, only for experimental purposes, put it back after, but it will tell you if you are hearing standing waves in your 'against the wall' listening position.

 

[hg]

I get plenty of sub bass but its sometimes a bit too heavy and then it goes quiet around the mid/low bass area. The speakers are very clear in mid range but I like a bit of bass. I can even hear it dip in volume at the midbass when one of those frequency sweep tones is played.

You have a square room which means the room modes are even less spaced apart over the bass frequency range than usual. The fewer peaks and dips will be more pronounced and noticeable. Having established the problem is the room with your sweeps and the like why do you want to change the speakers? It would seem wiser to me to experiment with what you have got to see what can or cannot be done to improve the situation before spending any money.

 

[jonathanRD]

When I was reading about speaker placement in relation to wall boundaries (BTW a square room is not ideal apparently) the advice was to avoid having the distance from the back and side walls being the same. So I moved my speakers slightly closer to the side walls, so that the distances were different by at least 15cms. As others have said, experiment with speaker placement.

 

[MajorFubar]

I get plenty of sub bass but its sometimes a bit too heavy and then it goes quiet around the mid/low bass area. The speakers are very clear in mid range but I like a bit of bass. I can even hear it dip in volume at the midbass when one of those frequency sweep tones is played.

Sounds like your room to me, your seating position, or a mixture of both. But different speakers may also cure it because all speakers interact with the room differently.