A cure for too much bass ?

Steve i had N804s and found the following things tame bass,unfortunately some impact on other parts of the frequency spectrum.
Slabs under speakers.
Spikes placed onto phillips screws in the floor.
Oak cones under CD player and or pre-amp.
Seperate spurs for each component.
Cuddly toys in the corners.
Slope speakers slightly up-wards ie front spikes longer than rear.
These measures are effective. I have changed from N804s and have gone on the opposite search for more bass less forward mid.

Regards
David

If you wanted to buy Allaes, why not get some s/h SBLs? They're far better than the Allaes (IMHO) and will certainly offload a shedload of bass - what remains will be dry, tight and clean (I had a v.similar system to yours but with SBLs; it certainly couldn't be described as bass heavy). SBLs are cheap at the moment and likely to remain so.

Steve

Steve & Kate-

As I have a very similar system, I thought I would mention two things that will certainly help tune up the bass in a system like yours. The first is free: get yourselves an appropriate spanner and tighten the mounting bolts on your bass units. Second, although they are not huge speakers, the N 804's do reward a positioning out from the rear wall, and freedom from proximity to the side walls can also help clean up the low and mid bass. Experimenting with speaker position is time consuming, but extremely important. As a rule of thumb, the farther from boundaries, the cleaner the bass performance.

You may want to consider a better stand than the supplied feet. Sound Anchors, in the US market anyway, makes an excellent, and moderately priced stand for your speakers. Finally, if you are running Naca 5 single wired into the B&W's you may want to experiment with having your speaker cables make their initial contact with the "bass" inputs on the speakers, and use jumpers to go up to the tweeter. This will tend to offer greater control over the bass. Alternatively, you could go into the tweeters first, with the jumper going down to the bass level. Finally, if you can't get things tuned up in other ways, you may want to look into a "bass trap" from firms such as ASC.

Hope this helps.

Steve,

Remember this from last year: Room Acoustics ?

Have you considered Linn Kans ?

Allan

Hi Steve,

THE solution for too much,flabby,uncontrolled bass is a tweak called 'master base'.

I don't know it's sold in the UK, but here in Holland the HiFi-scene is very enthousiastic about these (ugly) pieces of ehh... stuff.
And I auditioned it and can only say they are right!
I had a demo once where the played a track from CD, first without master base under these big Klipsch speakers.

(btw: it was in the same shop as on the picture, with also the same system)
When they played the same track again, WITH 'master base' under de corners of the speakers, the bass got much tighter/faster.
(and not only that!)

it really does work! The same effect was widely echoed on a topic regarding 'master base' on a Dutch HiFi-forum.
(only downside is, that these 4 blocks look shite, and there's nothing you can do about that)

One store (of a few) that is selling 'master base' is Multifoon in Rotterdam.
Perhaps they could sent you a package of Master Base. (4 pieces a package, so you'd need two)
(Multifoon, tel: +31 (0)10 - 413 71 99 )

One package will cost 45,- euro (about 28,- UKP)
It's a small risk, but it might be worth a try...

Greetings,
Alco

Steve and kate!

It might also be an idea to try blocking the ports of the 804s. A foam bung or even a pair of thick socks might help as you convert the bassreflex system into a sealed one. This might help to control the bass.

Also sometimes some soft feet under speakers with to much bass is helpful. I use these myself and they work good on my speakers: www.sonic-design.co.uk. First they seem to slow things down, but after extended listening i realised that the sound was more detailed, better seperated and with a tighter and more tuneful bass. It also made listening at loud levels more comfortable.

Good luck

sorry it should be sonicdesign.co.uk

www.sonicdesign.co.uk

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond - I have only occasional access to a pc !
OK - James, home demo's are not so easy, as I live in southern Spain, and the nearest Naim dealer is about 8 hours drive away !
I have the speakers as far out as they can be, and did imagine that the room just is not big enough. The foam used is Auralex acoustic stuff - Bass traps in all corners, and other bits dotted around on walls and ceiling
David P, Bjorne and bdnyc - will try your hints, and ebirah, will look into selling the 804's and trying the sbl's, but I do like the space that the 804's have, so that will have to wait till later..
Allan - yes, I rememeber...and no, i have not even heard kans
Alco and Graham - will try both suggestions

Once again, Thanks to all of you, and if I don't get to another pc before Christmas, have a good one !

Steve

Happy Christmas to you too Steveandkate.

DNM speaker cable should get you even further down the same road as Chord Odyssey - fast, tight and light in the bass.

Alex