Bass/Room probelm

Well said, Sean!

There is a way to make an end run around the bass problems in a typical room. And that is to start out with speakers that adequately address the situation.

One such design is the Gradient Revolution, whose dipole bass loading results in exceptionally smooth in-room response. Okay I'm not normally one to get excited about numbers, but sometimes something you can hear shows up in measurements, and it strikes a chord. In 1997 Stereophile's John Atkinson measured the smoothest in-room response they ever recorded, and it was from a pair of Revolutions. Plus or minus 1.3 dB from 32 Hz to 10 kHz in an actual room, using 1/3 octave pink noise. Yup, re-read that. Very few speakers can pull that off in an anechoic chamber, let alone a real room! The point is, there are unorthodox techniques that offer significantly better real-world performance by seriously addressing the speaker/room interface. I tip my hat to Jorma Salmi for his brilliant design.

The secret to the Revolutions is dipole bass loading, which very significantly reduces the amount of reverberant bass energy put out into the room's resonant modes, along with cardioid radiation patterns for the mid/tweet modules. These unorthodox radiation patterns minimize the room's influence on the sound. The net result is a speaker that not only sounds very good, but does so in a normal (i.e. crappy) room.

Hi Greg,

I own a pair of 2.3 s, and was experiencing bass problems with my 12 x 15 listening room. I have had good luck with floor to ceiling Jon Risch’s DIY Bass Traps. I have also been corresponding with ASC and Garfish(Agon) on their new Planar Trap for sidewall reflections.

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/

I currently have my Thiels 46” off the rear wall and 31” from the side 5’ 6” between the speakers. Listening position is 3ft behind the nearfield listing position. For my room this is the most natural sounding location.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Sean's advice is excellent. You could try the CARA software as well. It's very helpful at speaker and listener positions. As Sean said, it is doubtful you will solve the problem, but you should be able to reduce the problem to some degree. Everest's book describes some more elaborate bass attenuating devices (such as Helmholtz resonators). They can be difficult to build, but can be very effective, when you have a very specific peak as you do.

Great advice on this thread. I've had good luck with ASC quarter round bass traps in the two corners on the speaker wall. Unfortunately, you don't see them used very often on Agon.

You can make an end run around all room interface problems with the Tact RCS 2.0. It will correct time as well as frequency anomalies It's a great pre-amp as well!