Total bass suck out at 40hz


So I'm a little slow, but it occured to me today to see if there were test tones recordings on Tidal of Qobuz. Yes there are. I have a radio shack SPL meter so I went to work playing them to see what I had in my room. I was shocked to find a total lack of audible bass at 40hz. At first I thought they must have made an error in the recording. Then I went to a different set of test tones and wow same thing. I never dreamed something like that would take place. I have read a lot of discussions about bass peaks and nulls and always thought it would just be slightly less in volume at the null, not completely gone. So Am I imagining this and if not what do I do to remedy it. I am apparently missing a lot of music and never knew it. I am currently listening to my freshly refinished Yamaha NS 1000m speakers(just put them in the system Wednesday after work) with a Modwright KWI 200 integrated amp and a Lumin streamer/dac. I also have stereo Rythmik  F12 subs. Thanks, Allen.
mizike

Showing 1 response by brownsfan

Mizike, it is not uncommon to have room modes and boundary effects combine resulting in nulls of 30 dB or so.  That pretty much constitutes a total suck out, as you put it.   I assumed you have 8 ft ceilings and put your room dimensions into the amroc room calculator.  You have 4 axial and tangential room modes between 40 and 50 Hz.  Those will be broad bands and will merge into on another, resulting in a deeper null.  It's possible you have boundary cancelations due to speaker and listening position adding to this problem.  If you google Speaker Boundary Interference Response, you will find SBIR calculators that will help you figure out if speaker position is adding to the problem.  You have gotten a lot of good advice above, but I suggest you approach this systematically.   Also, you must be aware that you can't just improve the 40 Hz null without impacting other frequencies.   What you want is not the flattest 40 Hz response.  What you want is the flattest response from 20 Hz up to about 150- 300 Hz.  If you decrease your 40 Hz null by 20 db but create a null of equal magnitude at a different frequency, what have you accomplished?  So as you work on improving the 40Hz null, pay close attention to what else is going on at other frequencies.

First, optimize the positioning of your Yamaha mains with the subs turned off. Without explaining why, I would try you speakers placed with the center of the drivers 34" from the side walls.   Because your room is atypically long, an optimal distance from the front wall and an optimal seating distance from the rear wall won't be practical.  You are going to have to play around with this.

Second, optimize your seating position.   I would advise not placing your seating position in the center of the room.  16 ft or closer to the front wall, or else 23 ft or further from the front wall will probably work best for you.  Once you optimize the seating position, move the speakers again a moderate distance forward and back, and make sure they are still placed optimally.

Third, optimize sub placement.  Asymmetric placement is best.  If you set your crossover at 80Hz, you won't need to worry about loss of image or time related aberrations.   If it were me, I'd try at least one of the subs elevated off the floor, perhaps as much as 4 ft. Try one in a front corner, then try it centered between the speakers.   Try a sub along a side wall out as far from the front wall as you can get. 

I encourage everyone who gets into this to think about investing the time required to learn to use and interpret REW.  The ability to rapidly run full spectrum sweeps makes room optimization and speaker placement much easier once you get past the frustration of getting started.