Great speaker sounds terrible in my room?

Ten feet from the front wall is way too far! No wonder they appear to lack bass! Try one or two feet instead!

It has nothing to do with the binding posts or any defect in the speaker. It is the interaction of the speaker in your room. If they sounded excellent somewhere else than you also can make them sound excellent. Moving them back just a foot can dramatically change the bass response but forget about getting much under 80 Hz with a 8" driver unless you sit a meter away from the speaker. Many speakers have boosted mid bass to make up for no low bass. A speaker that is flat might sound bass light. The best way to deal with this problem is with a calibrated USB microphone and a computer. Knowing is always better than guessing. This is true of any system. Finally, adding subwoofers with digital bass management is an incredible way of making little stand speakers sound like big Wilson's

Unfortunate.  The same thing happened to me several times.  I have said many times that in a domestic environment with limited placement options, it is a total crapshoot how speakers would work.  In my own home, a tiny pair of Harbeth P3s had better bass response than the much larger Model 30s.  Totem Forests and Hawks sounded horrible, but the Model 1s were very good.  Outside of finding a better placement, I don't think there's anything you can do.  See if the seller would consider taking them back with maybe a sweetener of a couple hundred for his trouble.  

If they were from a store sale, call the store. Or return them.

If it was a private sale, then offer the fellow, or woman, a dinner (or something) to help you set them up.
(If they did it once, then there is proof that it worked for them.)

Phase and polarity are not the same thing! Polarity is a function of positive and negative wiring, while phase is a function of time.

Am I correct in understanding that you you went from from a normal listening environment with wall reinforcement to a near field set up?

If so, the situations are bound to sound totally different, and you cannot expect similar results. Moreover, only some speakers sound good near field pulled into the room. You have to decide how you are going to listen and pick your speakers accordingly.

Changing absolute phase, as suggested may help to a certain extent, as your amplifier setup may differ in polarity to the dealers. But you will always find that a certain percentage of your music collection sounds better the other way round anyway. Having a phase reversal switch can come in handy.

Try reversing the polarity on both speakers and see if that helps!

Each speaker has a different ideal location, so you have to experiment. The comparison is between each pair at their respective ideal location.  If you use an experimental method, like the “Sumiko” method, you will be able to find many different locations where bass will be good. Sometimes a change in location of one speaker by as little as an inch will effect a huge change.  I would bet that you could find decent bass fairly close to the spots where your speakers are currently located if you use this method.  You could have located your speakers, by chance, in a node where certain critical bass frequencies reflecting around the room are cancelling.

Beard the speaker stand. Just use a piece of cardboard the width of the speaker all the way to the floor from the bottom of the speaker. I bet that fixes it.

THEN understand what you did and make a real nice looking piece to make permanent. Not all bass drivers are created equal or stands perfect for every speaker either.. The right stand can make or break a stand mount..

You can place them where you want, with a lot better BASS..

Regards

@jond @roxy54 

I have verrrry limited placement, I’ll experiment tomorrow. Thing is, at best I can move them back another 3 feet so they will still be 7ft away from the wall. These Ref 3A’s have 8” woofers, my ProAc’s have 6.5” and can rock my room. I’ve never expected this just based on the specs of the 3A…I had little ass KEF’s in this room that sounded better!

Agree with jond...get them closer to the wall.

You liked the speakers at the sellers 2 feet from the wall and you don't like them 10 feet from the wall. Have you tried pushing them back closer to the wall? They are small monitors and likely need some bass reinforcement from the room you're not giving them.

@jl1ny

room boundary l-f reinforcement is a big deal for dynamic box speakers, especially ones with somewhat limited bass output, so you may need to change your setup significantly to get those ref 3a’s working right... move em closer to the room corners, start at 2 ft like in the store, then fiddle gradually...