Bass boom/ drone

englishbob

Standard Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
41
Reaction score
7
Points
35
Age
62
Location
Shrewsbury
My room is 14x11 at the moment I have Dali zensor 3 runing off a cxa60 stereo amp .pleased but bass is very strong and drones. Previously I had focal chorus 705v they droned also! .a song that highlights this is tubular bells the bass guitar intro.are rooms this size problematic
 
The first thing to check is that your speakers are not too close to the rear or side walls. Especially not both. At least a foot and a half away would be a decent place to start.
 
The first thing to check is that your speakers are not too close to the rear or side walls. Especially not both. At least a foot and a half away would be a decent place to start.
Thanks Paul there is as much space as I can give them without them looking stupid 1foot from back wall and they sit about 3ft from side walls.some music like the script Jessie j pink Floyd sound great but SIA lady gaga and Kelly Clarkson sound horrendous. The funny thing is the zensor 3 sound so much better than the focal 705v that rolled off at 65hz.even if I place the speakers almost in the middle of the room the drone is still there. The only thing I can think off is the speakers are right next to a door that his into a small room
1497692288481.jpeg
 
Hmmm... curious...

The more commercial stuff is hyper compressed as a rule and that's never good for perceived bass quality and definition.

But droning, if I get your meaning, right does sound wrong.

As an experiment, have you tried a few of the offending tracks with that door open?
 
Ps, does it sound as if the music is droning or do you perceive it as a cone drone ( as it were ).
 
My room is 14x11 at the moment I have Dali zensor 3 runing off a cxa60 stereo amp .pleased but bass is very strong and drones. Previously I had focal chorus 705v they droned also! .a song that highlights this is tubular bells the bass guitar intro.are rooms this size problematic

The droning you mention seems to suggest that your room modes are being strongly stimulated. You didn't say what part of the response band seemed most disagreeable. If it is mainly in the bass, these modes are related to the room's dimensions and speaker placement is important to minimise this unwanted effect.

If it's more mid range then possibly it is due to contribution from first reflections. Having your listening position up against a rear wall is one of the worst places, too, partly because the rearwards first reflections are near coincident in time and relative energy with the direct sound. Side wall reflections cause similar problems and are associated with image blurring plus comb filtering colouration, so adequate spacing or diffusion/scattering treatment can help a lot.

Placing speakers close to room boundaries puts them in the max pressure part of the room. Just to investigate the behaviour in your room, rather than try arbitrary positions, move them systematically until you know where gives the least droning. Think of your room as a test space while trying to solve your problem.Then you can put the speakers in the least bad place and consider room treatment to ameliorate remaining, less tractable problems.
 
Ps, does it sound as if the music is droning or do you perceive it as a cone drone ( as it were ).
Definitely music droneing if that is the right word. Take tubular bells the bass guitar intro. On headphones it is a nice tight crisp bass nice to listen to but on speakers it is annoying ; to loud and flabby loose boomy eeven if I stuff a sock in the ports it is there but quieter I think there is a huge 40hz peak in the room?
 
The droning you mention seems to suggest that your room modes are being strongly stimulated. You didn't say what part of the response band seemed most disagreeable. If it is mainly in the bass, these modes are related to the room's dimensions and speaker placement is important to minimise this unwanted effect.

If it's more mid range then possibly it is due to contribution from first reflections. Having your listening position up against a rear wall is one of the worst places, too, partly because the rearwards first reflections are near coincident in time and relative energy with the direct sound. Side wall reflections cause similar problems and are associated with image blurring plus comb filtering colouration, so adequate spacing or diffusion/scattering treatment can help a lot.

Placing speakers close to room boundaries puts them in the max pressure part of the room. Just to investigate the behaviour in your room, rather than try arbitrary positions, move them systematically until you know where gives the least droning. Think of your room as a test space while trying to solve your problem.Then you can put the speakers in the least bad place and consider room treatment to ameliorate remaining, less tractable problems.
Thanks Steve unfortunately after experimenting i think my room is to small for bass under 70hz I have turned the bass tone control allthe way anticlockwise but it just lowers the annoying bass and the speakers lose there nice warm tone
 
Last edited:
did you already consider this ?
 
Superb box of tricks.

I sold mine by necessity and I've missed it ever since.

I still have mine used in a room the size of @englishbob
and it is impossible to listen to anything cleanly without it

the whole audiophile world is waiting for the release of
the X4 that seems to be ready in the coming days of 2017

DSPeaker

Dspeaker X4 is rumored to have an active crossover too
that will help blend perfectly the main speakers with subs
 
I'd love to be able to afford one of those.

That and a big pair of actives and I'd be dancing :clap:
 
did you already consider this ?
Yes I would love one but to expensive for me to convince the wife. I used to have the antimode 8033C it did a good job on the sub (bk monolth) but I still had to use a very high crossover for the speakers to sound nice 100hz ; speakers half bunged but to my ears the sub never blended well .so I went down the pure stereo route but I never knew little bookcase would still give me trouble. The trouble with bookcase is they still do 40hz easy .so I think speakers like the keg eggs would suit my room ( not me[emoji52])If I had money I would look at harberth speakers there philosophy is bass hates small rooms
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom