Primaluna. Evo 400 - bass issues
This will be long, I really need some help determining why I’m getting poor bass response. I’m pretty sure it’s this amp, the PrimaLuna Evo 400 power amp. I’ve been trying speakers with it with poor results. In the interim I’ve been using cheap Mackie MR5 studio monitors out of my preamp, the Evo 300. I’ve had great results with these and that is the problem. These are tiny 5” near field monitors and the bass response I’ve been getting is excellent. The bass has been so good I decide to try to find a bookshelf speaker that is similar as I like how they disappear and based on the bass I was getting from these I thought I’d be good to go. I listen to predominately jazz so I’m not looking for thunderous bass just enough to fill in the rhythm section and bass walks etc. These Mackie’s do that. With that said, they don’t compare in the mids and highs but the bass is there. Here are the specs on the Mackie: https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-24164-Mackie-MR5.html
Equipment:
VPI Prime Signature, Hana ML, Herron VTPH-2a, Evo 300, Evo 400, Audioquest Niagara 1200. Stock tubes in the 400, Evo 300 has upgraded Psvane and 1960 Mullard rectifiers.
Room:
16.5 feet long 15 feet wide (room opens to the right another 12 feet) 8 feet ceiling
Mackie’s are 2 feet of the side wall and the back walls. I keep that for all the speakers I’ve tried.
Speakers I’ve tried:
Tannoy Turnberry’s
B&W 805
B&W 606
Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2EX
Probably my favorite were the 805 but there was no bass. With all of these speakers I found very minimaL bass response. I thought the Ascend would be good because of the impedance curve but they sounded the worst.
Personally I think the issue is the room, but then how am I getting good bass with the Mackie’s? So now I think it’s the amp. When I read about other peoples experiences with this amp bass doesn’t seem to be an issue. What gives? Am I just use to the solid state monitors and how they provide bass vs tubes? Is it the room? Poor speaker matching? I recently had the 606’s over again as they are a friends that he uses in a surround setup. They really sounded nice but again poor bass and they are rated to go deeper than the Mackie’s.
Thanks for reading.
This is quite the PrimaLu a discussion, I have the EVO 400 amplifier, even with the stock tubes bass was great with the Forte IVs, now with the EL34 NOS Mullards is really good. ALL I do is Stream with airplay so I have a Naim Dac and streamer hooked to the amplifier, everything sounds great, a friend has a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium Preamp, would I gain anything buying this? I will never hook a phono or anything but the Dac streamer I have now… |
@lanx0003 brings up an excellent point…the Mackie MR5 are powered speakers that also have some sort of a LF adjustment. So your comparison is not exactly apples to apples if you compare to passive speakers. The Mackies may be “tuned” or EQd to emphasize the bass from the factory. |
In reading through this whole thread, @audphile1 finally said what I was thinking right from the start. Being internally powered it's very likely that the Makies are EQed to lift the low end the make the small speaker sound bigger.
There may not be any problem with the bass at all, but is primarily based on your developed expectations. Our ears adapt. What we listen to for extended periods of time becomes our 'normal' |
