Just wanted to add my profound observation that boundary reinforcement for lower bass is better achieved by the listener moving back towards the wall behind them. This usually gives the most even and lowest boost.
Great speaker sounds terrible in my room?
So today I took a ride to demo a set of speakers that has had my interest for quite some time, the Ref 3A Royal Virtuoso. These things are completely overbuilt, top notch parts and built like tombstones, the cabinets are made of Corian and are completely inert. They sounded excellent during the demo. The owner was running them with a beautiful VAC preamp / Pass labs amp and a Moon Dac-streamer. They were on 24” stands and approximately 2ft off the back wall. They sounded superb as expected…I pack em up, take em home. I rig them up…my setup is near field with the speakers 10ft off the front wall and the speakers are 5ft away from my listening position. I fire them up and….shocker. They got nothing. They literally were lost with Zero bass response. I actually thought maybe something was connected wrong…I checked the connections ( more on that in a minute) all good. These are higher efficiency (91db) than my ProAc Response D2’s (88db) yet the Ref 3A’s sounded much lower at my usual listening level. I’m still scratching my head over how this speaker is unable to kick ass. I have decent gear with plenty of firepower (ARC D400MKII amp, Levinson 380s Pre, Denafrips Terminator Dac, Aurender N100SC streamer. I’ve had Sonus Farber Concertino’s, Vienna Acoustics Haydn, KEF 150’s and my ProAcs all set up in the same manner and they all were excellent performers. The one thing that I’m wondering about is the Binding post on the Ref 3A…it uses the Cardas screw down clamp type post that only accepts spades or bare wire. my cables are banana terminated and I was using cheapo adapters. Could this all could be a connection related issue or just a speaker/room mismatch?
Thoughts / comments are much appreciated
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baylinor281 posts Couch lol I remember when the term “Davenport”was the norm. Lol! SOFA. There,I fixed it. |
The lack of bass is from lack of boundary reinforcement. Do what's needed to keep these speakers because to replace them with something that equals let alone surpasses them is going to cost lots. They present an easy load and are fairly sensitive. I liked what I heard. Something to try is to place them directly on the floor in the same position you have them now. This will allow you to hear what some mistakenly call room gain. Sure, the imaging etc. will suffer but not that much. Perhaps there is a height where the balance of sound is closer to your target. You have bass traps which is good. Do you also have some broad-band absorbers at the first reflection points? You need to consider that all 3 axes should be treated. Absorption on either the back or front wall needed or both. Same for side walls. For the floor to ceiling axis an overhead absorber is better than any carpet but you may reject the idea so won't waste our time explaining what and how if you're not interested. There is more to consider. If you find the bass increase to your liking when placing speakers on the floor then perhaps it's possible to mount the speakers in the kitchen area and then position your primary listening area about 38% from the back wall. At 50% into the room you are in a partial null unless you have extensive bass traps and employ a distributed bass array. Finally, look into a multi-sub approach. Somewhere in these threads I mentioned how this can be inconspicuously incorporated into the decor. Huge subs are not needed. You can consider 6.5" drivers in a sealed box with an 8" square footprint which is not difficult to hide. Perhaps use one to support a pot plant, hide one behind the sofa. 2 such subs plus your REL will do more, much more , than just bass. The entire spectrum is enhanced. Check up on the theory and application of a DBA. Also try plugging the ports for a sealed box response which makes it easier to integrate with subs. |
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