Help! New House and Small Room

[angi73]

Hi

I have recently moved house, and predictably it has created chaos!

The system I have sounded great in my pervios place.

The room I am now in has a suspended wooden floor and is sized 11Ft by 12Ft, with two small channels either side of a fireplace to make matters even worse.

Previously I was in a flat, but it had sturdy concrete floor, and was twice as big.

My system;

Dynaudio Contour 1.4S
Avi Lab Series V2 Power Amp
Cyrus Pre XVS2 and PSXR
Meridian 506 CD Player into Naim DAC and also SONOS into Naim Dac.

It took me a long time to find speakers that I was happy with.

The Dynaudio does have a lot of bass output, some say quite a lot of mid bass.

In my previous room it was very powerful and had great punch and slam, tautness etc whilst being quite full, and with nice smooth high frequencies thanks to the fabric dome tweeter.

Now the bass is all muddy, I have lost the foam bungs too, so have experienced with some rolled up socks and or speaker wadding, but that just takes away the low end, and the mid bass still sounds muddy.

I have tried different positioning, but to no avail.

I think I am going to have to consider new speakers, which is a shame as I thought I would have these for a long time.

I think a sealed speaker, or perhaps front ported might be a good idea.

Having said that, I love the dynaudio sound. There are some secondhand Confidence C1's about, which apparently have less mid bass, and more bass definition. I might be kidding myself though as they still have a large rear firing bass port.

Speakers I have had in the past:

PMC GB1 - Too dry, did nothing for me.
Focal JM Lab Cobalt 816 - I liked these, I thought they were a great all rounder.
Robson Acoustics Custom three way - I liked these mostly, but not as much as the 1.4S

I have heard the original acoustic energy AE1 in the past and liked that. Some AE2 signatures might be the ticket ("dynamic" and front firing), but are like rocking horse poo.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I like to buy secondhand usually to get the most bang for my buck.

 

[mjp200581]

I know exactly what you mean, my parents house has suspended wooden floors which makes floor standing speakers sound very boomy.
You could try placing the speakers on top of a couple of concrete paving slabs. It would be an inexpensive experiment and you could replace them with something more aesthetically pleasing at a later date (marble/granite).
I'm sure others will give some more technical advice.

 

[Jimbo]

Granite slabs here too. They will help a lot. I used the chopping board ones from the supermarkets. They were about a tenner each then.

 

[Tenson]

I don't think there is really much wrong with suspended wooden floors. If upstairs then great, the floor will let some of the bass energy out which reduces overhang. If suspended just above the building solid foundations then a bit of acoustic damping material in the gap can transform the floor into a big bass absorber. Obviously though in a lot of cases there is meant to be some airflow under the floor to stop the foundations getting too damp.

The room shape of 11ft by 12ft will be most to blame I expect. You can't do a lot about that, but you can at least not sit against the back wall with the speakers on the front wall. Keep your speakers and seating position a few feet from the boundaries. Put about 7-8ft between you and the speakers. You can also try putting you and the speakers at 45degrees to the room. So the speakers are either side of the room corner and your seat across the back room corner. This spreads the room modes a little. Finally try raising your speakers by 10cm or so.

Eventually when you accept room acoustics is the biggest factor in sound quality get a digital correction system like DEQ2496, anti-mode, Tact / Lyndorf etc.. because they work magic in the bass range.