Booming bass from WP6


Why do I have this problem?
ML 432 amp
ARC Ref2 Mk2 preamp
Esoteric DV50 CD
HT-Pro 9Plus SC
Analysis Plus Interconnect.

Live in a condo 300sqft - listining room - woodfloor.
Been told my WP's too big for room- Kharma 3.2 recommended instead, but auditioned them and found sound too etchy...
Advice please..
iujona
How close to the room corners are your PUPs? If the back of the woofs is within 1-2 ft of the corners, you'd need to bring them out another 1-2 ft. Be sure that the distance (from the spkr front)to the corners & to the side walls is NOT equal. Your imaging should also improve.
Also, if the PUPs are not up on spikes/cones, try elevating them so that the bottom is minimum 2 inches off the floor. Temporarily, you can use non-resonant objects like books or reams of paper to support the speakers.
If possible, cover the bare floor between the spkrs and your listening position with a rug.
Happy listening!
Perhaps your sitting in an area affected by a standing wave. Try moving your chair and see if there is any change. Ditto your speakers. If you want specific help you can post your room dimensions and indicate where your chair and speakers are now located, or do some research into room acoustics in the archives on this site, in Audio Asylum FAQ's, and/or look at the Rives site.
If your condo has a common wall with a neighboring unit, you may actually be hearing the booming sound of a broom handle being pounded against the other side of the wall.
It took me a while to identify the characteristic leading-edge "slam".
It's probably true. Your room is too small for the WP6. A speaker that size really needs room to breathe. I wonder how the cubs would sound in there though. Small rooms need small speakers. I doubt that any full range floor standing speaker isn't going to come off sounding "boomy".
Newbee already mentioned us (thank you), but I wanted to be sure that you found this part of our site:
the room simulator
This allows you to put in your room dimensions and move the speakers and listening position. Watch the frequency response graph below 500 Hz. You would like to get a good flat response. The WP6 is not in the database, but the Sophias are and should be a reasonable replacement for this exercise. Placement can improve things to a degree, but in your case it is not likely the cure.
In a room that small there are relatively few modes at the lower octaves and the result--even with good dimensions (in terms of ratio) is boomy bass. The two alternatives is a smaller speaker that is less likely to excite these modes, (or at least to a much lesser degree) or to use a device such as our PARC, which compensates specifically for this one speaker-room interaction problem.

Have you tried stuffing something (like a sock) in the port to cut down on the speaker's bass contribution?
Thanks for your responses..I think uppermidfi is correct- my room is probably too small...
Iujona, in the long run it might be cheaper and more effective to contact rives http://www.rivesaudio.com and see if the room can be fixed up enough to allow you to keep a really good pair of speakers. It would be a shame to see you see the WP6 if you didn't absoluely have to sell them.
I have talked to Rives and they really know their stuff. The room makes soo much difference in how the speakers sound. Usually fixing the room is the cheapest option.
Iujona, More encouragement to experiment - I have full range speakers, w/a -3db point of 28hz, in a 263sq ft room (13.5x19.5x9) and I do not have boomy bass, unless you call a 5db hump at 32hz boomy. Lots of listening, testing and mapping (and moving stuff about) produced some excellent results. It can be done unless the room's dimensions (not the square footage) are working against you .............