Dead rooms are boring. Subwoofers are essential.
You don't lack bass, you have too much treble
One of the biggest surprises in audio and acoustics is how damping a room with treatments makes small speakers sound so much bigger. Yes, you get a broader, deeper soundstage but you also seem to get a lot more bass, more power, more extension!!
What's going on?
What happened is your room was too bright. The overall balance was too heavy on the mid and treble so as a result your systems balance was off.
For this reason I often suggest before A'goners start chasing bigger and bigger speakers, that they think about the room first, add damping and diffusion and then go back to thinking about the bass.
Not saying you don't need a bigger speaker, but that some rooms may never have a big enough speaker in them due to the natural reflective properties.
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As usual many half truth by our friend:
This is completely false except for those who had no idea what they acoustically do ...Room acoustics by the way is not only the use of passive materials on a few panels. More active devices can be used as resonators; and yes even materials treatment and especially active treatment with among others devices as Helmholtz resonators can make the acoustic recorded translation of any album bigger and more holographic in your room new fine tuned acoustic space ...
The op is right here then mijostyn too ... 😊
Go only measuring gear with your other gear/tools and room ad infinitum till perfection ...😁 For us any measures set must be coupled to hearing/brain experiment biological controls too , save inner ears measures and HTRF tracking measures the most important one anyway with the room geometry and size and acoustic content ... |
So I’m listening to Jazz @ 65-70 dbs and a trumpet pops in @80-85 dbs and it makes my ears hurt. The same can be said for Saxophone, electric guitars and some female singers. I currently have 6 absorption panels and furniture and CD racks for dispersion. Carpeted floor and a lot of soft things in my room. I have tried 2 preamps(both tube hybrid), two sets of mono blocks (both sets are tube hybrid) and a Hegel H390 (that is on the warmer side) and I’m still getting that sharpness above @80dbs. My streamer is still the modded BS Node N130, going to the Denifrips Pontus ll and the speakers are still the KEF Reference 5’s. Any thoughts? |
@curiousjim You may have the speakers toed in too much. Many speakers are really designed for little to no toe-in, so the slightly off-axis response is a lot smoother. Another thing to try is the floor behind and in the floor between speakers. Bare surfaces there can often result in a lot of hash. Also, most underestimate the benefit that treating the ceiling between speaker and listener. Lastly, check the wall behind your head. Try absorption or dispersion there as well. |
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