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

Making your room more square is going to create other issues with your bass response especially.  Rectangular rooms are always better.  It may wind up working perfectly for you somehow.  But my opinion is that it isn't the recording if it's consistent.  Most modern recordings are mastered fairly flat in the bass response.  Most likely your room nodes are causing big nulls in your frequency response in your sub bass. 

Closing off the room sounded great until I heard you're turning it into basically a square.  Keep us posted.  If the response is the same or worse, you will most likely need 3 or 4 subs in that configuration if you want a flattish response.  Sometimes two can do it though especially if you run your towers full range but it's nice to take the sub energy off your towers.  I've found that by doing that it makes them sound better because those 8" drivers aren't having to produce 20 hz etc.  Best of luck!

@mcashiola 

"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."

You just have to accept the fact that earth shaking bass doesn't exist on all recordings. Producers, engineers and artists make very legitimate choices about how they want their music and recordings to sound. If that's what you want and have the forum recommend how to fake bass with subs etc., knock yourself out! You've come to the right place.

If that's what you want and have the forum recommend how to fake bass with subs etc., knock yourself out! 

Faustuss has a point! Adding more bass via an equalizer or subwoofer (in a stereo setup) is getting away from the original music. You may rue the day you decided to engineer and mix music to your own liking. Probably better off taking the music in its original form and if the track doesn't smack you upside the head, find a better version of it, or move on.

The recording/pressing starts the magic.

Tablejockey is right about that. You did not mention the quality of your recordings, but hi-resolution tracks are required on your speakers.

Getting a pair of subs, however, may not be the solution you think you want. Be careful before plunging into subs as that may cause a host of other issues, like unwanted room bass.

Probably nearly as many here who listen to 2-channel exclusively have jettisoned their subs in time because of the realization that it does, in fact, take away from the rest of the spectrum of frequencies. 

You did not mention what type of music you listen to, but if it was hip-hop or rap, you likely would not be missing bass in your music.

If it's rock, folk, easy-listening..bass is generally not prominent in the original recordings. As Erik says, clean up your high frequencies (far less room treatment but you need to be exact when treating your reflection points) and more bass will emerge. A Bass crawl will help map room modes, so know where your bass goes before you add more of it. Subs will require bass traps and a square room would be quite challenging when it comes to room modes.

With respect to longevity, wait until you get your room finished before making decisions on components or room treatments. 

If you like the sonic presentation on some recordings one should ask the question, "Do I have enough amplification power/current?"  Underpowered systems will give up the bass first on demanding tracks.

@mcashiola, a few further thoughts.

My room is carpeted but not extra thick.  Construction is engineered wood I-beams with plywood sub flooring.  The front wall behind the speakers is load bearing over a wall in the lower level.  Overall not as substantial as concrete but no sense of flex.

Like most, the room has good and poor issues.  It is not a pure rectangle, but has adjacent openings on both side walls.  The ceiling has two coffered areas.  The downside is lots of glass along one side.  I agree with the comment of avoiding nearly square dimensions if possible.

With a 4.5-6 ohm maximum load my >100 wpc has proven adequate with no sense of inadequate power.  But I don't listen to overly loud levels, typically up to around 80 dB.  In my experience Parasound offers very good amplification so I don't believe that is a problem.

One of the multiple sonic tests I use is the opening to the soundtrack recording of Ken Burns' "The Civil War".  There are two drums played in a large open area, one is a snare, the other a small bass.  On many systems there is not a clear and clean discrimination in the pitch of these instruments.  They can somewhat blur together.  Form the beginning my 888s produced clear definition with those pitches.  But after installing the IsoAcoustic footers their differentiation became even greater.  Opposite your experience my bass is full and sometimes surprisingly present, depending on recording quality.

Anyway, good luck in sorting this out.  They are great speakers and hopefully you will bring them up to their potential.