The sub should only make its presence known occasionally because most music, except for EDM, doesn't go much below 40 hz.
Made Major Upgrade at $0 Cost in 1 Minute
I’m working my way up in digital audio. A few posts here have helped me along. I have a challenging listening room with much glass and a concrete floor. I’ve worked on adding area rugs, pillows, speaker placement, etc. - but am not willing to make major changes such as drapes or full carpeting. There’s no place for panels, as all of the wall space is glass.
My room is big - 20ft by 40 ft - so I’m listening in a near field setup. I tend to listen at lower volumes, partly to keep my wife happy. My favorite music is jazz vocals.
I haven’t visited any audio stores or shows - I live in a smaller city - so I really don’t know what high end audio sounds like. I’m missing my hearing in high frequencies - sometime I can hear the hammer “clunk” hit a high piano note without hearing the note. Oh well, maybe for me a brighter sound is better.
I bought some Moondrop Blessing 2 IEM’s and heard some wonderful audio quality on Tidal. On my main system, there were some occasional percussion sounds that sounded lifelike - as if they were made right next to me. But overall my sound tended to be a bit muddied, and especially vocals - my favorite music - did not stand out. This seemed odd to me because reviews of my B&O “pencil” speakers said that they excel in vocals.
I’ve also worked on upgrades like a new DAC, LPS for my Node, new router and a fiber optic link. I just bought a UMIK 1 and plan to experiment with REW this winter.
‘Reading led me to the idea that maybe I had too much sub bass. I have 2 sealed subs - 15in and 12in. The volume on both were set at the 12:00 position. Putting my ear next to them led me to believe that the volume matched the rest of my system. As an experiment, I turned the big sub down to about the 10:30 position. The result was a Major, Unquestionable improvement overall in my sound quality. Vocals came out front, even at lower volumes. Muddiness disappeared. There was much more nuance and detail in individual notes. The music was much more interesting, engaging, and less tiring to listen to. I could hear new instruments in the background that I never heard before. I want to listen more often and longer. The improvement was much greater than any of the individual changes I mention above. Funny…it cost $0 and took less than 1 minute.
Thanks to everyone on this forum who has given me comments and advice. I’m working my way along. I don’t know if this recent upgrade will in the long run become “normal” for me, and I will eventually become less than happy with my sound quality. But for now, IT’S GREAT!!
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Sounds like you haven’t put much effort into really dialing in your subs, which you’ve already found can make a huge difference in overall sound quality. If you haven’t already, I’d highly recommend first using the “crawl method” to identify the best placement options for subs in your room (since you have two subs you’ll wanna identify two workable placement options using this method where the bass sounds best and put the subs in those positions)… Then, with the subs in their optimal locations, I’d use these guidelines to fine tune the subs’ crossover, volume level, and phase settings… https://lifehacker.com/how-to-properly-set-your-subwoofers-volume-without-sh-1506136549 If you got big gains by simply lowering the sub’s volume you’ve likely got lots more improvement to be had by following these other fairly simple steps. Of course you can also buy something like a DSpeaker Anti-mode unit that can both integrate your subs and deal with frequencies up to 500Hz that might also be helpful in your particular room. Here’s a used one at about half retail in case this sounds like an interesting option… https://www.ebay.com/itm/166337429784 Hope this helps. |
Thx for the comments! Everything is helpful. Comments from this forum have gotten me to the place where I am now. I’ll keep working at it, as my next step is to experiment with REW. Then maybe I’ll try some kind of bass management or DSP. But I’ve noticed mixed conclusions from others, as some like it and others have tried it and gone back without it. Given my room, I don’t know what is possible. I have done extensive ‘sub crawling’ and speaker placement. It’s hard for me to be confident that, ‘yes, that sounds better.’ I was pleasantly surprised that turning down the subs was a definite improvement. in the meantime, I am enjoying the music! I will keep working to make it better. I’ve discovered some great new artists. |
I have always said "I'm not a big bass guy". So, interesting revelation for me was I have no trouble hearing the bass it was the high frequencies that were missing. Consequentially the bass was making the higher frequencies even harder to hear so the sound was out of balance. Point is, know your hearing capabilities before you blame the equipment, It all starts with your ears. I told this to the guy at Costco during a hearing test I have probably listened to too many hours of loud music and at concerts. He said (which I laughed at) - "Yeah but it was worth it" - Right on!
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