PROAC D48R Bass Booming

Hi b_limo,Hey hope you are doing well. I read a user feedback on your system after he visited you. Looks like your patience paid off very handsomely in terms of musical satisfaction. Enjoy your music my friend! 👍🏼

Hi Milpai 😁👋

@gnanasekhar ,Good to know that your issue is resolved. As a fun track, try to listen to "Jazz Variants" on your speakers.

@mozartfan,Have you personally listened to the ProAc D48Rs?
Unless you heard a component you cannot make judgements, because you are only "assuming". You must be aware that tons of DACs use the ESS SABER 9038 chips. Do they all sound the same? Looks like in your world, one size fits all :-) These D48s need room to breath and OP has taken steps to correct the issues that he had.

@mozartfan 

Did you read the review you posted or even hear these speakers?

It appears the OP has a room treatment or placement problem.

It looks like he has it resolved which is great news.

Oh I am sorry,
The woofers are not Scanpseaks,, Not sure which lab makes that driver,..
I’d never have gone with a speaker such as that midbass.
I only trust Scanpeak, Seas and SB Acoustics.
Before I buy any speaker I need to know who makes the drivers.
I never buy based on a name of the company.
A bit pricey to have this type of coloration going on,
btw they are made in England, home of B&W, another speaker line that i find upper bass has coloration = fatigue.

at 11G's , I expect nothing less than perfection  throughout entire spectrum

https://soundorg.com/news/proac-d48r-speaker-review-tone-audio/

these speakers very much. But the only problem is Bass-boom and because of that, some tracks are unlistenable.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think ProAc uses Scanpseak woofers, 
Yes?
WEll this **boominess* in upper bass, is part of that drivers character.
Which is why I went with Seas Magnesium to avoid the upper bass resonances.
I think Wilson also uses Scanspeak.
Scanspeaks offer incredible low bass. Tight punch in drums. 
Every driver has its tradeoffs.
Paper composite  vs magnesium.

Great news and happy to hear it worked out for you

Dear all,
                I am updating the latest development.  I sold the BAT VK 3000 SE and replaced it with a pre-owned Karan KAI 180 Integrated Amp.  I tried plugging the Downward Port with Foam.  Trust me, 80% of the Bass boom is gone and now I am listening bass-heavy tracks without much difficulty.
                 My sincere thanks to all.

Is it really the case where the speakers sound great with most recordings, but is too boomy for some?  Could it be that it is still a bit boomy with most recordings, but not so troublesome?  I ask because any sort of permanent fix to reduce the booming will also affect the sound with recordings that you are not troubled by.  It might be the case that an equalizer will be the best approach for you--you can then do recording-specific adjustments.

It may also be the case that a set of subwoofers will work.  You can adjust the crossover frequency and thereby cut the levels of bass coming from the ProAcs and then adjust the bass from the subwoofers to your liking.

In any case, your approach of doing more experiments with placement will always be the best first step.  But, do not assume that farther from the back or side walls will always reduce the booming bass.  There could be points that are actually near the walls that will do the trick; it is a matter of finding points that reduce reinforcing nodes and cancelling nodes.  I also generally like bass traps in room corners.  

I will try this, definitely.

@rego,I agree. And that is what I am suggesting. Placed along the 17' wall, he can try to move the speakers at least 4.5' from the side walls. That leaves 8' between the speakers which is ample for a room his size.

OP: If you plan to keep these speakers, Find a competent tech and have them add a volume control to the woofer circuit. They could hang the control from a wire so it comes out the bottom (where the bass comes out) so you wouldn't have to damage the cabinet. Problem solved.

@gnanasekhar, the  Proac D48R are perfectly fine Loudspeakers!
Do not let these slip away over placement issue.
Try spacing even closer together and changing the distance back and forward from the wall.
All you need to do is position for better integration in the listening space.
Also contact Proac Support by email and find out if any advise is applicable for you.

That room is way too small for your speakers. 
 I have the D38's in a room 3 x your size. Perfect 

Yes.  I am going to make some DIY Bass Traps.

If you make a equilateral triangle between the speakers and your listening position, things should improve even more. Have you thought of getting some corner traps?

Yes, I moved the speakers slightly from the sidewalls and the front wall.  A slight improvement is felt.  But the bass-heavy tracks still sound the same.  Other tracks sound wonderfully well.

@gnanasekhar,
Did you manage to move the speakers? Any changes? 

@jperry
Thanks a lot for your suggestion.
1.  I got a carpet on the floor.
2.  The walls are having partial Foam covering.  

@milpai 

Thanks for the comment. 

OP you don't have any room or system pictures posted. Do you have carpet or rugs in your room, and what is on your walls?

@gnanasekhar ,If the speakers are in front of the 17' wall, then you have more than enough room to pull them close together. You can easily pull them 4' (each side) from the side walls and still have 9' between them. Which tells me that you can have the flexibility to pull them 4.5' from the side walls, and about 36" from the front wall. This should reduce the boom. In this position, your chair should be almost up against the back wall. So a pair of Monster panels from GIK (or other equivalent product available locally) should help you reduce the overall boom.I have got great results from Herbies products. Email them and ask for recommendation. My guess is that one of their product will help "tighten" the bass. Ask them for a product that can be used with the speakers spikes. Alternately ask them for suggestions, to place the speaker on a product with the spikes removed, since you already are on tiles.Is this a closed room? I remember a thread where you were guided to @jperry room (with similar dimension as yours and he has D40R). But I believe that @jperry room opens on the other side into another room. So the bass waves have more room to dissipate.Do keep us posted on if you were able to change the speaker layout and the results.

Another possible suggestion is to place the speakers asymmetrically in the room. Have one speaker places closer to the side wall than the other. One speaker closer to the back wall than the other. Move the listening position so that the speakers are equal distance from the listener and the listener is facing between the speakers.

The logic behind this is to not place the speakers in a position to reinforce the bass by interacting with each other.

I personally use a set up similar to what I have described including the use of five large leafy artificial plants behind the speakers. It took the bloom / boom right out of the room. Tone balance, timing, dynamics, imaging and detail is now superb.

@milpai 
The speakers are placed in front of the longwall and are placed on Tile floor.  What about the Herbie products

@gnanasekhar,
Are the speakers placed in front of the long or short wall?
Can you move them 24" from the side wall? Also Can you move them 50" from the front wall. Also try with the classic ProAc toe-in; which is to angle at the listening position with the "inner" side wall slightly visible from listening position. If that does not work, try to aim them straight ahead.
Looking at your profile, I think you have marble/til floors and thick concrete walls. So bass trapping in the corner will also help. The bass on these babies is certainly not "loose". It is super tight if the right.
The IsoAcoustic Gaia II will certainly help providing definition to the bass.Try to adjust the speaker position. The more you get it "into" the room, the less bass. Do your best before your decide to part away with this PHENOMENAL loudspeaker. Good luck!

gnanasekhar,

One more thing to consider--if the floor in your listening room is a suspended wooden floor, the floor could be acting as a giant sounding board which could be at least part of the problem.  With such flooring, the speaker should not be coupled to the floor (e.g., by using spiked cones), and instead, isolating footers or platforms should be used; you want something that will absorb/damp the bass energy that is shaking your speakers rather than coupling that energy to the floor.

I have the d40R (in my opinion better) and I ride them with the Accuphase M-8000 mono. I solved with (see photo my profile). Another excellent one was to use Gaia IsoAcoustics (they work great).

Stanislao

I have a friend who have the same problem with
his proac d40r, his temporary solution was to put towels
below the speaker port, essentially just laying the towels
below and not stuffing the port itself. He said it minimized
the booming.

I own a pair of D30R's and I experienced the same "bass bloom" that you have.  My room is about the same area.  Speaker placement is most important.  You have a good distance from the rear wall but are maybe too close to the side walls.  I am fortunate enough to have a few amps (SS and tubes) to alternate before making a new purchase.  I found placement and footing cured the problem without major expenditures.  Good luck.

To to a local @home, Hobby Lobby or other store that sells artificial plants.  Buy four of five large, leafy artificial plants and position them along the back wall, and between and behind the speakers.  Don't be afraid to use 6-foot or taller plants.  These will act as diffusers and help to reduce the boominess.  Add or remove the plants until you get the correct balance.  

I own older Proac 3.8's, and know for a fact they do not work well in a room that small. You should try stand mount monitors with a sub unless you want to go with digital room correction.

I had Proac Response 5's and D30 R's and had similar problems with too much bass and my room was much bigger than yours. The two things I did that helped were 1, run the speaker cables to the top binding posts (of the speaker) and jump the bottom. This will give you less energy to the woofers. If this method removes too much bass you can try a diagonal jump which is half way between the two methods.  2, if you use Roon, use their EQ function and cut the deep bass by however many db's it takes to reduce the excess bass. I first measured my room and found out at what frequency I had excess bass....Hope this helps.

Have you considered changing to something like a Lyngdorf TDIA 2170 or 3400. They are fantastic units and I can almost guarantee it will resolve your bass problems. The Room Correction software is really amazing IMO with no downsides. 

Your getting some great advice here. I had a similar issue with myD-30R’s. Bass was overpowering my room and sounded a bit sloppy at times. Did the easy stuff first, trying to position them correctly.
This helped somewhat. I then replaced the stock spikes with a set of Audio Points which made a huge improvement. Not only was the bass tighter and more defined, but the mid range and top end improved as well. The D-48R’s are wonderful and capable speakers and worth the time and effort to get right. Good luck

My friend has those Proacs in a room twice the size of yours and they are outstanding. He also is using a subwoofer with a high pass filter. I really think that that room is too small for those speakers. Changing the amp will not resolve the problem!

Go to a home store and ask for some pipe insulation. Measure the opening at the bottom of your speaker (looks like four or five inches). They make pipe insulation out of foam rubber and many different sizes so get some big enough to block the bottom of your Proac. This will cost $10 - $15 dollars.

I whole heartedly thank all of you for your valuable guidance.  Apart from this problem, these speakers are sweet sweet sweet sounding .

*What we are not seeing is his room with a multiple of 2 and having full Range Speakers positioned in the corners is the challenge*.*Because of this (any full-range speaker) in the corner will be up 9 to 12 DB * because of the corners of the small room are near the speaker. Its not the speaker fault or amps (((extravaganza recommend amps which reproduce tight bass))) No leaner wire or amp will fix this magnitude of an issue. If amp manufacturer made an amp that its frequency response was down 9 to 12 DB at 80HZ that amp would be considered broken.
If bringing the speakers closer doesn’t solve. Vandersteen makes an analog nondigital assessment box start at 20k then 33k move up to 50 K and higher until the problem goes away finalize with the specific X2 High Pass 140 bucks
Schiit Loki EQ = 150 Bucks would also take down excessive 80 Hz bass.
Put Felt on the wood surface under the ports. once installed your in-room bass response will be more neutral try going back to where the speaker’s position sounds their best.
Best, JohnnyRAudio Connection

Looking at reviews on your amp it was noticed the bass was good but not particularly tight. Combine that with speakers that arent really known for tight bass and that may be part of the reason. Another cheap thing to try would be a Schiit Loki EQ or something similar to shelve down the low bass a bit. I find it completely transparent. 130 bucks worth a try imo. 

Try this guide for speaker placement.

http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_calculators.php

The first step is always proper speaker placement.  It is also one of the hardest and most time consuming pursuit.  It is not enough to apply the rough generalization that--away from the corner, bass is reduced.  You have to move the speaker inch by inch to find the right spot.  Google the Sumiko method of speaker placement. 

Room treatments might help, but, that is a step that should come after speaker and listener location changes have been tried.  With excessive bass, look to employing bass traps in the corners of the room.  Traps tend to be big, but, that size is required to tame the long wavelengths of bass sound-waves.

ProAc D48s do tend to have a full, and not particularly tight, bass response.  You can alter that a bit by, as someone above mentioned, adding some resistance to the port output.  Aside from this "modification," any other equipment change will have only modest effect on the sound.  You can try leaner sounding speaker cables and interconnects.  I don't know about the particular amps you are considering, so my general comment is that it is really hard to predict how any given amp and speaker, in any given situation, will play together; you have to try out the combination or count on luck.

What type of floor are the speakers placed on? If suspending wood floor, make sure they are decoupled from the floor. You can also experiment with blocking the side vents near the floor to see if that helps.  

Do you have bass traps or other room treatment? I use an active bass trap instead of passive, but the idea is the same https://bagend.com/products/series/active-bass-trap/

You could also try some electronic room EQ, which should be able to fix your problem.

I would recommend amps which reproduce tight bass(krell,gryphon,dan d'agostino) ,avoid tube amps

Too much speaker for too small of a room.  

That’s the nature of these speakers I am afraid.

I had to let mine go because of excessive / boomy bass too.

Check all speaker screws and make sure all are tightened properly be careful not to over tighten. All the best

The speakers are 40" from the front wall and 18 " from the side walls.

Try positioning them away from the corners and walls as best you can.Also experiment with your listening position.Plus what dweller suggested.

Where are the speakers located? How close to a wall? If really close, move speakers out into the room to diminish the bass. If all else fails (assuming these are bi-wire speakers), bi-amp with another integrated amp so you have control over bass volume (I just remembered that my Proac D38s had a funky bi-wire structure. The top speaker-wire posts ONLY FED the tweeter. The bottom posts fed everything else).If bi-wiring practical, the VK-3000 makes it extremely easy with dual "pre out" connections. Another thing to try is plugging the bass port with something (foam rubber, pair-of-socks) anything to reduce the bass. The bass exits the speaker at the bottom so try stuffing some towels in the space to reduce output.