Where is the bass on my B&W 802d speakers?


I always read that the B&W 802d (1st gen) speaker has very strong / authoritative bass. Yet, I find the bass to be very lacking in all recordings.

What gives?

onehorsepony

What do you have for amp,preamp  as well as loudspeaker cables  and power cords  each one part of the sum of the whole  can has a sizable impact 

if you would state what  you have  it can be determined if it is sufficient 

I have 40+ years in audio , and owned an Audio store .

first thing  how big is your room ?  How har are speakers from the wall ?

the closer to the wall more bass reinforcement   All of the above count ,

another big thing since I have rebuilt the important Xovers 

if your speaker is over 10-15 years old the Capacitors dry out  which would cause Detail and or low frequency response  to be greatly effected !!

Bass nulls and bass booms are caused by room nodes. These are created by the shape of your room and the position of your speakers within that room. Changing speakers will do nothing. Room treatments will not help a great deal as bass  nodes require fundamental changes in the room shape to be dealt with. Bass boom can be solved by DSP but bass nulls, as you have, cannot,  as it is not good practice to boost frequencies a lot with DSP as it can lead to clipping. However, you could try supplementing the bass with subs. Oh, I’m sure you have done this, but check the previous owner did not leave any foam plugs in the ports - B&W supply these to help temper bass boom issues and they are often left in there when selling. Alternatively can you fire your speakers down the room the other way and move the listening position ?  That will fundamentally alter the bass nodes  

With regard to your other issue of too much glare in the top end, unlike bass issues these are easy to treat with room tweaks: rugs, curtains, simple absorber panels at reflection points etc. 

What is your room size and what amp are you using?

Approximately 16 x 25 with 6 1/2-foot acoustic ceiling panels

PSaudio BHK preamp and BHK 300 monoblocks

 unfortunately as you hear for yourself in your space... Speaker/room synergy is more important than any amp you buy.

Well to be honest, replacing my Bryston BP26 and Classe CAM-200's with the PSaudio BHK preamp and BNK 300's did make quite an improvement.

The soundstage became larger, much better separation between instruments and just an overall fuller sound.