I have timber floors using spikes for my speakers, its a suspended floor. I get bass reverb, any suggestions to get the speakers decoupled from the floor would be great!
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When I started work in my small work I needed to take action to address problems in the low octaves and these were created even by small monitor speakers interaction with the room. From the outset it needs to be said that one should expect unevenness in bass at some point(s) in the low and mid bass frequency range due to room modes as discussed above. Armed with Roger Smiths book and measurement tools from XTZ and REW I was able - over a period of time - to make meaningful remedial action. My story is here. As the story goes acoustic treatment applied to small rooms can address bass boom issues and thankfully can enhance listening pleasure by addressing other small issues to - like slap echo. |
I know what I am going to write is politically incorrect but it has proved correct in my humble experience. I was brought up on the evils of equalizers and I shunned them all my life up to a few years ago. I have Pioneer TAD 2404s in a relatively small room with with a large bay window on the right-hand speaker side and sub-optimal positioning - they are firing across the short walls and not the long (this is my concession to my wife). The bass was boomy and it obscured significant detail. This was largely cured by the insertion of a BSS FCS 966 30 band graphic equalizer just before my power amp. It is set for significant bass cut particularly for the right channel and some treble cut. The settings were determined by one of the most distinguished US studio designers who has been in the business for decades and who spent several hours using some pieces of gear which I understand are no longer available. So I do not know how easy it would be for an ordinary mortal like myself to attempt to determine the settings. So my post may not be that useful. But after some 40 years in the hi-fi hobby this was a revelation to which I had to be dragged screaming before I would give up my prejudice against EQ. IMHO EQ works very well if done right with a professional piece of gear like the BSS. My room is also quite reflective and it has benefited considerably from the placement of some custom acoustic absorbent panels. Again, I had to be dragged screaming to this realization too, but it was easy after hearing the natural resolution of a studio room designed by the same studio consultant. But in my experience, this type of add-on acoustic treatment is great for absorbing stray sound waves to give you more detail but does little in helping speakers that overpower a room with bass. I hope this helps. I am posting this not to upset people with firmly held differing views but just to let the OP know of my experience. Enjoy the music! |
My audio journey related to the above goes like this. Last Nov we moved to Atlanta and my new dedicated audio room decreased in size (14 by 12 by 8). I have relatively medium size floor standing speakers with powered woofers. The sound was boomy and very bass heavy. Just could not listen to music at any reasonable volumes. Fustrated with this new setup, I invested in a mic, usb sound card and REW room measuring software and evaluated the room. To my surprised,there was a 12 db peak at 41 hz which was overbearing. Got soome room absorbtion panels and bass traps from GIK Acoustics. It improved the sound in many respect but could not get rid of the bass boom. I use Squeezebox Touch as my source and there is a plugin called "Inguz" which is a DRC and also has a 31 band equilizer. Installed it and I gave it a 12 db cut at 41 hz and adjusted some other freq, and hold behold. Night and day difference. The bass boom just disappeared and now the system sounds just fantastic. I can play it as loud as my ears can handle without any distortion or compression. Hence I agreed with some of the posting above that room panels + bass traps along with digital equalization is the panacea for boomy bass and room modes. |
IMHO modal issues affects both sound pressure and reverb reducing modes with eq solve part of the problem 40hz too low for many traps Gik tritrap not effective for me at 80hz or lower monster trap extends much lower more effective though able to counter bass peak and reverb at same time bass trap can absorb too much at other freq better to use tune bass trap or a combo of various traps rpg traps very good |
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I've had some success in using GIK Acoustic products, particularly their new Scopus tuned trap range in treating / solving boomy bass. I've made some observations on the topic in my blog HERE |
In case anyone is still dealing with this issue, my 2 month saga is officially over. I moved into a new house and in my new listening room, the only option was to have my listening position nearly against the back wall, which resulted in boomy bass that was a major distraction. Talked to GIK acoustics and put some monster bass traps on the wall behind the listening position. They helped some, and I really like that product, but the issue persisted. After much reading online, I bought an XTZ room analyzer Pro and it identified a big room mode at 38hz, suggesting a -22db correction. I attenuated it down about 15db with a McIntosh MQ 107, and the boomy bass issue is now completely gone. One of the most immediate and dramatic changes to my system ever. And very easy and inexpensive to fix. It's really singing now! |