I also forgot to mention that I have felt sliders underneath the feet of the speakers so that I can slide them back-and-forth on the wood floor easily for speaker placement. After reading comments from some of you, I removed those to see if it would make a difference. I can’t imagine why it would because they’re pretty thin, but it seems like it’s actually helped somewhat. anyway, just wanted to mention that. When I get to carpeted flooring I may have to try the iso acoustic footers
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.
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If you think about it mcashiola, whether it be acoustic feet for your speakers, room treatments, understanding the scope of your sonics that make up your listening habits, cables, cleaning up the electrical signal that feeds your gear...all of that.. the minuteau!..is where you should explore before going the route of installing subs, which if deployed in a room without those things, will cause more problems than it would provide solutions. If you had a pair of bookshelf speakers that are designed to pair with a sub for low-end, than that would alter the remedy, but your current speakers should - in the end - provide adequate and pleasing bass for your music. Area rugs will work just as good as carpeting the entire floor. I would try the Acoustic feet for your speakers first. At the least, that would clean up the bass and help make it more pronounced in your room. This would help you understand where the bass emanates into your room via a bass crawl. |
@mcashiola, Mingus played an acoustic 4-string bass. The open E string on that is around 42 Hz. As a jazz fan I've long used that frequency as a minimal requirement for any speakers I've considered. With that it has worked well for me with all the various music I listen to. The problem with square or nearly square rooms is each dimension affects standing waves at a given frequency.. When those dimensions are repeated (wall to wall, wall to floor/ceiling) that doubles the impact on that frequency.. That can produce greater emphasis or suck outs. In my experience the smoothest in-room response is best. Rooms can be affected in three ways - reflection, dispersion, and absorption. It will require experimentation so you'll need to try combinations of those in your new room. Maybe added absorption on one or opposite walls to reduce the doubling. But a problem comes from thicker material being necessary for lower frequency. Also suspending the absorption panel out from the wall can increase effectiveness. Good information can be found online at a few particular sites. |
The OP once again, is presenting my observation. It's not stated what actual recordings-pressings are used. New reissues/reissues done in the 80's or whatever. Mingus album is a 1960 recording done arguably in the height of analog recording. Charlie Mingus – Blues & Roots – Vinyl (LP, Album, Mono), 1960 [r3496796] | Discogs Current reissue of that period Jazz is either "audiophile" or generic CD copy. Doesn't make sense the OP is "sometimes" hearing a great recording, while most of the time not because the reason is some need for tweaky footers/advanced computer analysis of room nodes etc etc. Not saying all those suggestions are invalid, or without merit. The reason for subs is to enhance what's already there and add atmospheric/ambient low end. |
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