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No bass in the Proac Response 3

I've just had the opportunity to buy a Proac Response 3 from a fellow agon just recently. One of the foam the 6.5" woofer was
torn ( with holes) so I already had it replaced with brand new foam. The treble improved quite a bit once I had the foam replace. The midrand is still the same and I have to say the Proac midrange is beautifull. I can sit and listen to female vocal (Krall, Elle, Cassandra) music all day. There is no sign of harsh or etch at all.

However, my problem now is that the bass is nowhere to be found when I play rock/pop. I do the regular Proac reccommended speaker placement of 2 feet away from the wall and the deep bass , mid bass are all but lost. If I moved the Proac very close to the wall then I get stronger bass, but now my image and everything else got all messed up. A simple analogy would be like I don't feel the singer is standing in the rooming sing anymore once I move the speakers toward the wall. Everything is just so flat ( 2-d), but the bass is good.

The most simple weak link that I can see in my system is that maybe the Krell integrated is just not big enough to produce the kinda big bass that I used to. But another interesting thing to know is that before I got the R3, I also got a much smaller Proac supertower that produced bass twice as much as the R3; and the R3 is twice the size, but lacking in the lower freq department.

My system is following:
Krell KAV-300i (integrated amp)
Arcam DV-27 (CD player)
Sony DVD player + PS Audio UltraLink DAC
Proac R3 (Full range speaker)
ducchau

Showing 6 responses by ducchau

ducchau OP
12 posts
 
Thanks a lot for all the quick response. I've had the Response 3 for about more than a month and the surprising thing that I found is that when the 6.5" midwoofer was tearing up, the treble was the first to go ( very surprising). SO I've had all the foams professionally refoam. And the treble came back ( I always thought that the high frequency came from only the tweeter. But it's not true with the Proac).

Anyway, back to the R3 bass, I've tried a few speaker placements experiments before. However, have not had good success. However, based on the urge of you more experienced gentlemen, I will go home tonite and try a few more locations, even I will change my sitting location. Also, another thing I forgot to mention is that I've filled up the sand pretty full. Could someone please enlighten me more on this sand filling thing in the R3. Please understand I am a pretty newbee in audiophile. And another school of thought. I've heard that class A amp will do wonders with bass and even less harshness in female vocal. Is it true that getting a new amp will help or it's still more a speaker placement problem..Thanks, ducchau.
ducchau OP
12 posts
 
Racamuti...Nope. Have not had burn-in time for the new woofer foams. Just picked up the drivers last weekend so probably not than 20 hours of playing. But really burn-in time for foam also. This is the first I've heard. Thanks, Ducchau.
ducchau OP
12 posts
 
Hifibri, how could the sand filling change the internal volume of the cabinet when the cavity that contains the sand is totally separate from the other box that contains the drivers ? So this is the point that I don't quite get from all the techniques of higher end speakers designers use.

However, I did remove half the sand last night and it seems to help the bass quite a bit. Although not to the point that I am happy. So more speaker placement experiments.

Jea, thanks for the technical trick to test out the polarities of the speaker connections. Although I feel that I did connect the speaker wires correctly, I will try what you suggested.
ducchau OP
12 posts
 
I see. We'll see how it goes over the weekend. I send out report of how things pan out.
ducchau OP
12 posts
 
I've waited for more than two weeks already for the woofer foam to break in or break up and now the sound has started to open up. Although as Shadorne has put it, I don't get the boomy sound with chest-pounding/in-you-face bass, the sound coming out of the Proac is a very deep and tight bass. Anyhow, it's just something that I am going to have to get used to.

ducchau OP
12 posts
 
This is response to previous two responses.

Abramsmatch , yes I made sure that the connection were properly in phase.I even went ahead and followed instruction from one of the gentlemen who posted earlier and used a small AA battery to bias the woofer. It worked great .If the woofer were incorrectly connected the woofer would move in, instead of moving out (please see above) if connected inphase.

Indofunka, I know how valve/tube amp sounds like. They sound seductive, but I am a freak for bass and it just doesn't cut it for me. Currently , I've got my hand on a real Krell DVD/CD and sold away my cheap Sony DVD and the PS Audio DAC and first impression is that it sounded way better than what I had before. Boy, the combination of Krell amp + Krell CD + using balanced cable is just incredible.

However, on a side topic, the Krell DVD Showcase I just bought is giving me a lot of problem with playing scratched disc, and etc... Plus every 20 sec or so, depending on the disc, it would shutoff. This is the most frustrating thing I've seen. I've had cheap 15$ DVD players made in China/Japan that play scratched disc and do not have mechanism to shut down just the like the Krell that cost 500 times more. This is just so stupid. If anyone has experience with this problem please let me know . I haven't contacted Krell yet. As I am trying to get hold of the invoice form from the dealer so that I can get warranty.
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