I am curious. You changed amps, and eliminated sub-woofers in a 10' cube, and attribute an improvement to the amp. Why isn't getting rid of the sub responsible for the improvement.
And, how did you determine that the room had no standing waves or nodes. I didn't realize that such a room existed, especially a cube (which is supposed to be the worst).
When I tamed my room to some degree one of the things I noticed most was improved bass. Room nodes, standing waves, and echo slap distort and color sound energy pretty much in the entire frequency range.
The max low frequency a room can handle is a multiple of the longest room dimension. Your room max is probably around 50-60hz. I have a 24' dimension which comes out to 24hz. My speakers will go down to 20hz so my problems weren't that serious. But the room is only 12' and 13' wide.
If you attempt to reproduce even down to 40hz you are probably asking for it. Especially with two or more like room dimensions. Of course keeping the volumn down low, or playing material without anything in the lowest register, masks many problems.
By the way, it takes serious bass traps to effect even 40-50hz frequencies. To tame below that you almost need a room, or attic space as a trap to have any affect. Or, of course, an active crossover, and an equalizer to just mix out, or down, the offending frequencies (not cheap).
A rule of thumb in speaker placement for instance is uneven distances from side to head wall --usually floor to ceiling is uneven, but without chanaging listening position height there isn't much you can do about that.
If you place them say 2' from the head wall, you want probably at least 3' from sides, or vise-versa, as much as you can up to thirds, if you see what I mean. But I suspect that in a 10' room you have them pretty close to the corners, and fairly equal.
This is crucial in that matching speakers to room size, and their placement, gains the greatest result in taming room anomalies, and offers the greater effect on the quality of sound you hear. More so than any component. Especially the gear, cables and tweaks.
If you would like to get into greater detail in any of these areas feel free. I will enjoy it.
Fred
Southern California
And, how did you determine that the room had no standing waves or nodes. I didn't realize that such a room existed, especially a cube (which is supposed to be the worst).
When I tamed my room to some degree one of the things I noticed most was improved bass. Room nodes, standing waves, and echo slap distort and color sound energy pretty much in the entire frequency range.
The max low frequency a room can handle is a multiple of the longest room dimension. Your room max is probably around 50-60hz. I have a 24' dimension which comes out to 24hz. My speakers will go down to 20hz so my problems weren't that serious. But the room is only 12' and 13' wide.
If you attempt to reproduce even down to 40hz you are probably asking for it. Especially with two or more like room dimensions. Of course keeping the volumn down low, or playing material without anything in the lowest register, masks many problems.
By the way, it takes serious bass traps to effect even 40-50hz frequencies. To tame below that you almost need a room, or attic space as a trap to have any affect. Or, of course, an active crossover, and an equalizer to just mix out, or down, the offending frequencies (not cheap).
A rule of thumb in speaker placement for instance is uneven distances from side to head wall --usually floor to ceiling is uneven, but without chanaging listening position height there isn't much you can do about that.
If you place them say 2' from the head wall, you want probably at least 3' from sides, or vise-versa, as much as you can up to thirds, if you see what I mean. But I suspect that in a 10' room you have them pretty close to the corners, and fairly equal.
This is crucial in that matching speakers to room size, and their placement, gains the greatest result in taming room anomalies, and offers the greater effect on the quality of sound you hear. More so than any component. Especially the gear, cables and tweaks.
If you would like to get into greater detail in any of these areas feel free. I will enjoy it.
Fred
Southern California