Subwoofer boom is too much for me...

Tony1954 above has the answer. I would do the same. But I already did.

Stuffing the port of a sub will make it less of a sub. The lowest notes of a ported box come from the port, not the driver. And if the box was not designed to be used stuffed as well as a higher bass cut off you could get boomy bass even from a 'sealed' enclosure if the new Q of the system is high.

Plus good ported bass sounds different from good sealed box bass. It tends to be richer due to more overhang than a good sealed box, A sealed box will tend to be more detailed but drier sounding.

I happen to have big bass boxes with 18" woofers designed to be used both sealed and ported because the designer was afraid of too much bass in some rooms. I discussed what I heard as described above to him and we totally agreed on what we heard. But I ended up with a closed box(with 10 Hz less bass extention). And even though he knew the closed box was more accurate he used the ported format.

I am using two subs.  My girlfriend has an old pair of JBLs with an old 80s era receiver, which sounds way better than my rig.

@erik_squires My sub doesn't have a port; however, I've been running a cable into the low pass with my Ragnarok as Schiit says their speaker terminals are both active (and thus I don't use their REL cable). However, most guidance says to avoid the HPF altogether. What do you recommend?

However, most guidance says to avoid the HPF altogether. What do you recommend?

Either plug your MAIN speakers or use a high pass filter, or both.

Here’s the deal. Audiophiles get all squirrelly over ethereal sounding qualities of sound but somehow manage to ignore the really big changes. I mean 10 dB or more changes. As a result they are averse to good subwoofer integration.

Here are the problems:

• In the room, the bass output from the main speakers can be wonky. Too much, or peaky, often extending well below 30 Hz even for 2 way speakers. In fact so many users have problems they should deal with acoustically or by placement but they buy a sub instead... :D
• As a result, the only way to use a subwoofer is to fill in that very small range, 16 Hz to 30 Hz or so, and to attempt do do it while side stepping any other room mode problems from the main.
• Distortion in the main speaker is never reduced.
• Dynamic range of the main speakers and amplifier is not increased.

They buy a subwoofer but then treat it like the unloved stepson that barely gets to do anything positive. So audiphiles go through the expense and toil of getting a subwoofer but refuse to use the high pass filter for fear it introduces more noise and distortion, which if true, would be hundreds of times smaller than the problems it fixes. They want a pure benefit, no downside solution only. Never mind the pure benefit is so vastly superior to the downside.

Kind of reminds me of my father, an avid cigar smoker, who claimed he never inhaled, just liked the flavor.

So, high passing the main speakers improves the frequency response by ensuring the mains are out of the way of the worst room modes. Then there’s the distortion benefits. Reducing the bass in a speaker reduces distortion. Subwoofer’s have much better distortion/dynamic range profiles in the 20-80Hz range than your mains. So if you let them overlap you have your main speakers distorting long before the subs do. Especially bad with 2-way speakers as IM distortion/Doppler distortion in the mid range can be pronounced.

The truth is that for your average floor stander to 2-way speaker everything gets easier and better sounding if you limit the output of the main speakers, either by plugging ports in the mains or by using a high pass filter or both. Everyone else is just screwing around.