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SourcePoint 888 owners – low-end bass in open rooms?

I’ve had my MoFi SourcePoint 888s for a while now and overall I really enjoy them. They are paired with a Parasound A21 and P6 preamp. Sources are mostly vinyl (MoFi StudioDeck with MasterTracker) plus CD.

What I love:

- clarity
- separation
- dynamics
- clean sound at volume

What I’m struggling with:

I keep feeling like I’m missing some low-end weight and room-filling bass. Bass is there and sounds clean, but often it doesn’t feel as full or physically present as I expected based on reviews.

My room may be part of the issue:

- current room is approximately 11x18
- one entire side is open to the rest of the upstairs
- listening distance about 8 ft
- speaker spacing about 9 ft

I’ve already experimented extensively with:

- speaker distance from front wall
- listening position
- toe-in
- volume levels

Some recordings sound excellent and punchy, but many leave me wanting more low-end fullness and physicality.

Questions for other 888 owners:

- Are you getting strong low-end bass/fullness from these?
- Did room size or openness affect bass significantly?
- Did moving to an enclosed room help?
- Did any of you eventually add a subwoofer (REL or otherwise)?
- If so, did it “complete” the system?

Trying to determine whether:
1. this is mostly a room issue,
2. a setup/integration issue,
3. or simply the natural character of the 888s.

Thanks in advance.

mcashiola
tablejockey
4,403 posts
 

"Some recordings sound excellent and punchy, but many leave me wanting more low-end fullness and physicality."

There's your answer. The recording/pressing starts the magic.

That's another topic- pressing pedigree. Also some genres of music just seem to be recorded terribly regardless. 

Get a pair of subs.

mlsstl
1,574 posts
 

Rooms can play havoc with bass and leave you with both nulls and emphasis at various frequencies. You might want to run a frequency sweep at your listening position with the REW program (freeware) and a measurement microphone (decent models available at reasonable prices) to see where things are.  That can either help you reposition the speakers with more certainty, or you might consider an EQ program -- lots of options available in that area.  i know that doing some digital room equalization on my system has made the biggest improvement for my system. 

gdaddy1
485 posts
 

Get a pair of subs and then stack them. Talk to Rel or SVS on exactly how its done. Even PSAudio is stacking their subs at the shows now. Huge difference.

audiorusty
355 posts
 

Some recordings sound excellent and punchy, but many leave me wanting more low-end fullness and physicality.

I agree with Tablejocky, your source is the issue. 

Room issues are usually nodes and nulls. A larger room will be better for bass than a smaller room, but it will take more power to fill it, but again you have satisfactory results with some recordings so room does not seem to be an issue at the MLP.

Subs probably will not help unless you have a way to boost the bass signal on the recording, aka eq.

If you add subs you will also need to add an external active crossover because if you don't you will be matching the subs output with the output of the 888's at their weakest point so the output of the sub will not be any louder that the output of the 888's or else you will have a mismatch in the low end output between the two speakers.

fatdaddy2
527 posts
 

Given the "things I like" don't mess with those aspects, a sub or pair is the way to go. Re" "external crossover", nonsense. Most good subs have that built in; check out REL; you can start with one to see if it makes a difference (it should), and place it according to REL's recommendations. Your description of room volume is deceptive, as you have an open wall; your actual dimensions need to include the adjacent space, and it's no surprise that your 88s don't produce adequate bass energy.

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