Moved house, new speaker , short list Dynaudio 30, ATC 40, ProAc D30RS and...........

Posted by: crackie on 29 December 2018

I have discovered the pain of having to move house and my existing speaker matching in a new room. In short, my ProAc D48R is now too much speaker for our new house. As much as I have tried every trick I know to make them work I have given up, way too much bass boom and muddy bass.

My short list of speakers to try out is Dynaudio Contour 30, ATC SCM 40 and ProAC D30RS.  As much as I loved the ProAc sound I am open to other brands to try out, the Contour 30's can have the bass output adjusted a bit by the supplied, 2 size, port plugs (if need be) , the ATC are sealed so a bit more room to move against a wall if needed I guess, just not sure about the D30RS I suspect this will be the one that may cause the most room issues - as the D48R clearly showed.

Any orther speakers i should short list ?

Cheers.

 

Posted on: 29 December 2018 by leni v

After the D48 why choose a 2 way speaker. And the atc according to many comments is no good at law levels. Wish you a lot of success.

Posted on: 29 December 2018 by crackie

Cheers Leni, sorry what do you mean by why choose a 2 way again ? Do you mean a 3 way like the SCM 40  or 2 1/2 way like the Contour 30 instead of another 2 way deasign ? 

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Foot tapper

Hi Crackie,
A real shame; this speaker-room interaction business is so very hard to get right.  Have you tried isolating the speaker from the floor with something from Townshend Audio or the Isoacoustics Gaia?  Several Naim dealers will loan a set to see if they work for you.  They can make a genuine improvement to bass control, depending on the construction of the floor in your new room.

If isolation doesn't work, you have a good list there but might just want to add Kudos S10 or Kudos Titan 606 to your shopping list, as the isobaric bass drivers seem less prone to causing room boom than ported speakers.  Having said that, I really rather like the Proac D30RS too...

Good luck with your auditioning, FT

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Timo

PMC Twenty5.23 aren’t particularly fuzzy about placement with their ATL design.

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Christopher_M
crackie posted:
Any orther speakers i should short list ?

Room dimensions? Construction? How much glass? How damped? etc.

Cheers, Chris

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Rich 1

As Timo said, and I speak from experience, PMC would be worth a listen. Even their floor standers aren't bad in smaller rooms. Rich 

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by leni v
crackie posted:

Cheers Leni, sorry what do you mean by why choose a 2 way again ? Do you mean a 3 way like the SCM 40  or 2 1/2 way like the Contour 30 instead of another 2 way deasign ? 

What i meant is that after a big full range 3 way speaker like your d48 you choose to demo 2 way speakers that may cause you to loose  the combination of scale and detail a3 way USUALLY have.As for the atc40 just noticed many comments about their poor performance at low volume, shurely unlike your d48.

 

 

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by crackie

Chris, room dimensions are 6m x3m x 2.5m it is a solid brick and concrete slab with hardwood flooring. Throw rugs and soft furnishings, book case on one wall covers about 1/3 rd of it roughly. Glass only on one side and only about slightly less than 3/4 of that wall. 

Did the clap echo test and it’s not too bad for brightness, pretty good actually. Just a mismatch with my D48R and excessive, one note and muddy bass. 

Thinking about adding Sependor D7 on my short list too. Possibly the D9 as well, only because of the Spendor bass porting system has me interested, and how these appear, on looking back on other threads of members that they appear very room friendly IRT bass management.

I’ll be willing to give PMC another go, however it didn’t go so well in my last house when I had them on demo. Nothing to do with the bass at all, it was the mid range / treble that I couldn’t get along with. But you never know, different room and all.............

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Chag...

I often wonder whether the D20R would be a good alternative to D30RS, or to D28 for that matter, as for lighter and tighter bass control in medium size rooms. ????

Chag -

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Timmo1341

If you are able to demo Stillpoints Ultra SS (£1,800 for 8) you could well be amazed! Added to my ProAc K6s they not only removed every vestige of bass boom, but added significantly to musicality and sound stage. I would never recommend buying ‘unseen’, but well worth seeking out, especially if you love what the D48s do.

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Alan Willby

If you are willing to consider standmounts put the Kef Reference 1’s on your list. They are three way and have two port options. You need to allow for the dedicated stands. I have mine on IsoAcoustics Gaia feet. You don’t see them mentioned very often on the forum but I reckon they are superb.

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Kevin-W

[@mention:1566878603951658] If you can, try auditioning Dynaudio Special 40s. I did, and was blown away by them. Absolutely sensational speakers that seem to work beautifully with Naim electronics. Gorgeous looks and finish too.

They do need to be a fair bit away from the wall however, unless you want to use bungs to block the bass reflex ports.

Posted on: 30 December 2018 by Christopher_M
crackie posted:

Chris, room dimensions are 6m x3m x 2.5m it is a solid brick and concrete slab with hardwood flooring. Throw rugs and soft furnishings, book case on one wall covers about 1/3 rd of it roughly. Glass only on one side and only about slightly less than 3/4 of that wall. 

Did the clap echo test and it’s not too bad for brightness, pretty good actually. Just a mismatch with my D48R and excessive, one note and muddy bass.

Thanks. I wonder if that length: width of 2:1 is at the heart of the problem.

C.

Posted on: 31 December 2018 by crackie

Cheers for the advice all. Some great tips these. I’ll try the speaker isolation first. Gotta try all I can to save the D48R - simply the best speaker I have ever had or heard with my naim gear.

I’ll seek permission from SWMBO to try arranging the room to move them out even more than they are now from the back wall.