Good Analog EQ

Thanks for the responses.

PiedPiper: my speakers are Aerial 9's, my room is 14x25 and soundproofed with ASC wall-damping. This sort of traps bass in to some degree, but the issue is that the Aerials were designed with 'thick bass' in mind; they have 4 7' woofers for low frequencies, 1 6" for midrange. They overload my room. My room is also a home theater so the speakers are on the short wall, about 3' from front and side walls. Seating is at 12' from front wall and I can't change this.

The Aerials have downfiring ports. Instead of using the optional stands (which raise them a few inches, I'm using the stock plastic 1" feet). This seems to congest the bass slightly.

Dan: Your post intrigues me because I keep thinking that if I could could attenuate a choice woofer or two it might help. What is an L-pad? If you wouldn't mind describing what you're thinking of, I'd appreciate it.

I'll check out the leads for Rives and Marchand.

Thanks again,
Ian

Thanks again for the responses.

I do have the optional stands and I used to use them, but find they're more boomy with them than without (I attribute that to the bass port being more open).

I have spoken with Michael Kelly and I have auditioned other speakers. The others didn't overload the room the way the Aerials did, but the midrange sounded thin. I guess my room must be causing a null in the midrange as well. Both the Aerial 9's and LR5s seem do have a significant dip between 400 and 1000hz. I have a 15 db difference between these frequencies and 95hz where I have a huge bump (at least according to the graphs that Audyssey room correction shows me).

I have tried stuffing the ports of the 9's with dacron (from my pair of Von Schweikert VR4.5's, which never sounded boomy) but I think that just affects frequencies below where I have the bump and, as Michael Kelly predicted, makes the bass sound more congested at loud volumes.

I will try bringing my speakers further into the room to the positioning you mention, but since I cannot move my listening position, I wonder if I'd be too close - almost near-field monitor range of 4ft or so.

Marty, it sounds like that unit is digital? How do you have it connected?

One other embarassing question, when measuring speaker position from the front/back wall, do you measure from the back of the cabinet or front(woofer)?

Piedpiper,

Ceiling is 7.5' high. I think your math is wrong: if my listening position is at 12' and I move the speakers 8'4" out from wall, how does that leave 6' between speaker and me?

I did try this - almost. I probably have the speakers about 7' out and I must admit, the depth of the soundstage is intoxicating. Many instruments still sound like they're coming from the wall, but anything panned 100% to one side jumps forward. I only tried one album so far (Aja), but got the impression that midrange sounds a little thin. But I'm certainly motivated to experiment more than I had been previously - thank you.

Thanks for the response, Marty.

Strange that the high end EQs used in the pro audio world aren't considered by audiophiles. For example, there are some very expensive Parametric EQs by Manley (who also makes the Steelhead phono pre) that are well regarded and probably used during mixing of much of the music we're listening to (i.e. they've already been in the signal path).

The pro audio community seems to think these are pretty transparent. They have balanced XLR inputs and outputs, so why aren't these embraced?

Besides mixing, these are probably used for analog mastering.

I've heard the 9's in my family room and they sounded MUCH better. Unfortunately, I cannot make them work in my (theater) room. I've tried them 5' from back wall & 3' from sides (had them far out as 8'). I can barely hear singers the midrange is so recessed. And to be clear, I have the stands; they just make things worse (raising them opens the port to allow more bass).

My listening position is around 13-14'; can't change this (riser behind). I use Theta Citadel 1.5 400 watt monoblocks. I also have Bryston 7B 500 watt monoblocks. I don't think power is my problem.

Any other speaker I've tried has not produced the same bass problems (Von Schweikert, Genesis 6.1, Dynaudio C2s, Rockport Miras). Four bass woofers per speaker is just crazy.

Thanks for your thoughts just the same.