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I want profoundly better bass

Looks like I caught your attention. I have a moderate sized stereo room that is about 12.5 feet wide and has no rear wall for almost 32 feet. With a large opening for the stairs on on side of the front of the room I have a fairly large area in which to propogate bass. My current speakers are either a pair of Apogee Mini Grands or a pair of Meadowlark Audio Hot Rod Herons. I have VTL MB-450s, A forte 4 and Vtl Tiny Triodes (with Infinicaps) with which to play amplifier roulette. Preamp is a hot Rodded VTL TL. 2.5 and Digital Source is an Ayre Cx7e. Vinyl is via a Dynavector 20Xh strapped to a Rega P-25 that feeds A Plinius Jarrah.
Here is the $64.00 question. Given the 2 speaks I have now and their proclivity to warmth and subtle detail, what would somebody suggest I do for speakers with PROFOUNDLY better bass? Budget is somewhere in the 5K range used preferred. If your thoughts are to subs, no thanks as I have been down that road. Even the Minigrand's subs are a bit too much slop and giggle compared to the panel parts of the Apogees. Here is another hint. BIG sound is good as long as images are not too stretched. Re. I do not want a 10 foot tall Diana Krall in my living room. I already married a gal who looks like her (only better) and would be very afraid of a ten foot tall woman. Thanks in advance

Meadowman
128x128meadowman
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
If that is what is most important to you, then Talon Khorus speakers are it for you.

Bill
jazzdude
332 posts
 
I think drubin gives wise advice on the issue. Also if Meadowman could give some qualifiers as to what he think 'profoundly better bass' should sound like then that would help others in their recommendations. Does better bass mean more bass response, smoothing out the peaks and dips in bass response, additional extension, enhanced pitch resolution, better driver control, etc.
philnyc
162 posts
 
Yeah, I'm with Drubin. Room treatments and speaker placement are the first things you should experiment with before laying out a bunch of cash. You've got a narrow and long room...narrow will give you big corner distortions (12.5' will give you a node at 42hz), and long (lots of cubic footage) will make it tough to keep sound pressure in the room.

Try some bass traps in the front corners, and some "triangle" absorbers for the upper front corners. Something in the intersection of the front wall and ceiling (right in the middle) will also help eliminate some slap echo and clean up low frequencies. Some companies with good products for these are: Echo Busters, Eighth Nerve, RealTraps, Acoustics First. The Eighth Nerve and RealTraps stuff is extremely affordable, and an excellent value for the improvements they will make in a room that currently has little treatment.

(disclaimer: I'm a dealer for Eighth Nerve and Acoustics First)

Not quite sure what you can do about the length of the room to keep sound pressure in except perhaps to "shorten" the room with some furniture or barriers to divide the room (bookcases, etc). What are your limitations in terms of aesthetics and functionality? It sounds like this room might be your living room?
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
I don't know that your prejudice against subwoofers is warranted.

In order to fill your huge room subwoofers might be the best option. Not all subs are created equal. Vandersteen subs and REL subs seem to be highly musical (i.e. fit for the most critical two channel audio listening). Positioning them at the back of the room may help "fill" the void. I would recommend a pair, since much low level info does come on either left or right channel.
My listening room is 13x23 and is filled quite easily by the bass created by twin pairs of Eminent Technology LFT-8A's as main speaker, along with pair of Vandersteen 2W subs. That's 10 8" drivers for bass. Even the lowest frequencies are reproduced without effort. I actually have the Vandy subs dialed down a bit since there's so much clean bass, they don't have to work hard at all.
I would caution using a sub with larger than 8" drivers in multiple configuration for use with panel/hybrid speakers, since it won't be able to keep up with the speed of the panels. But trust me, the Vandersteen sub can work fabulously with a panel speaker. I've used it with Magnepans and now with Eminents quite successfully.
wc65mustang
524 posts
 
>> But trust me, the Vandersteen sub can work fabulously with a panel speaker.<<
Amen. I'm using one Vandy 2W per channel in conjunction with a pair of Quad 988's and the sound is breathtaking. The three 8" drivers are superb with the Quads; very quick indeed. I have also adjusted the 2W "down" to match my room.
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