Dynaudio Contour 1.8's and maybe changing to another Dynaudio speaker ?

Actually, the 30" mark is a start point. Your actual final resting place will be dependant on the room acoustics. I guess this should have been the cop-out clause. Sorry to have wasted an evening of yours.

The 1.8s port is the cause of the less tuneful bass response. You can try things like the foam bungs, but I find that emasculates the sound somewhat. I prefer the freedom that the open port gives. That said, they aren't the most articulate speakers in the world (as far as bass goes), and this is directly attributable to the port characteristics of the 1.8.

Oddly enough, the Contour 3.0 port works differently, such that it allows the speaker to work quite close to the wall (say about 12"), even though it's a larger more expensive speaker. So your issue is by no means attributable to all Dynaudio Contour speakers.

That said, have you analysed the nature of the bass response through the RS1's? If you observe similar limitations to those exhibited by the 1.8s, you may be in the situation where the let-down is at the source end. A CDX resolves bass more tunefully and with far more pace than a CD5 (hicap or no hicap).

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Not sure what you mean by analyzing the bass through RS1. The only other speaker I had was Thiel which had a very damped bass.

Here are some measurements with the speakers 39" out (measured from the speaker back) and 31" from side wall:

1k baseline 80db
200 HZ 73db (-7db)
160 Hz 79 DB (-1db)
125 HZ 82db (+2db)
100 hz 84db (+4db)
80 hz 76 db (-4db)
63 hz 73db (-7.5db)
50 hz 76db (-4db)
40 hz 78db (-2db)
31.5 77db (-3db)
25hz 77db (-3db)
20hz 75db (-5db)

Oddly enough, the speaker sounds better at about 31" from the back wall, but I have not measured from there.

I contacted ASC (Tube trap folks) and they said the only things that would give lots of bass absorbtion are 16" rounds and tower traps which are 14.5"x 14.5"x 78". Both of which are NOT domestically possible. Should I be re-thinking stand mounted speakers?

[This message was edited by Jaybar on THURSDAY 09 August 2001 at 01:45.]

James:

Tried that. I did not actually create a spread sheet, but I tried LOTS of permutations. Unless I get them very very far into the room (in which case I can hear the individual drivers) and about a meter from the side walls, which leaves slighly less than 5.5 feet apart and a feeling of almost MONO, the bass characteristics are not very different, unless the speakers are 30" from side walls or unless the distance to the front wall is a multiple of the sidee wall distance, in which case the bass deteriorates even more.

JAMES, there are two major contributing factors that make the port issues that Frank raised MUCH worse:

1) Room is Concrete and Cinder-block. There construction materials hold onto bass big time.

2) Speakers like OCOS Cable which rolls off the bass and the upper highs (just a bit in the case of the treble, but somewhat rolled off in the bass. My gear (Spectral) wants to see MIT Cable which the speakers don't like.

the left wall is 23 feet. Thew right wall is 12 feet and the room is 12 feet wide. The right wall opens to the right to form a 7 foot x 9 foot dining area. The rear wall opens out into a large entrance area (7 x 10). Placement on the long wall is not an option. Because the L & R wall as so dissimilar with respect to lengtrh, if I sit with the couch on the right wall, then I would NOT be in the center between the speakers.. I would be MUCH more toward the right. Also, if I placed the speakers on the Long wall, there would be no side wall to speak of to the left of the speakers as there is a 7 foot break in that wall because of the entrance foyer. The "wall part, such as it would be, would only be about 4 feet. I could not put the speakers on the shorter of the side walls because the right speaker would then stick out into the dining area and meet the dining room table

The 1.3's might be better suited for the room and if all else fails, I would investigate them or the 1.1's. I am not running because of the monitary loss in the resale AND our cats. Why cats? We are cautious because the cats once trashed my Celestion SL 600's by jumping off the windowsil or bookcase onto the speakers and knocking them of the stands. If the Dynaudio stands have a low center of gravity and you can maybe bolt the speakers onto the stands then that would work. BTW, I have JUST by accident found a position that looks promising. Bass is only up 2 db at 125 hz and 3 db at 100hz with the srapes open. More experimenting! Thanks.

Jay