Do my ears deceive me??

My ears never deceive me, but the brain that they are connected to often does.

@unreceivedogma Heh heh, that’s a good one!

Your post above tells me a lot.

"But if it's not feasible or economical to change the room, wouldn't that be a great reason for EQ." 

NO.  You have $6000 available, spend some on room treatment which will prove to be your best investment and will leave you with sufficient to buy 2 or preferably 3 or better still 4 subwoofers. Many YouTube videos explaining this. 

I can see you headed for expensive disappointment with your current mindset. There is a reason you want to try and EQ the bass levels up: You have holes in your low frequency response. Big holes.  Lots of precious bass disappearing into a black hole. How do I know? All rooms do, that is, until you do something about it.

What to do:  Buy a suitable microphone for $100 and download the free REW program. Plenty online info to help. This step will put you on the path to sanity and great sound with your existing speakers. Just do it.

How does it work:  The holes in the response are caused by low frequencies combining in and out of phase causing nulls and peaks. If the cancelling is a full 180 degrees out the null will be total. Less phase will produce partial nulls.

What does this mean:  It means a full null will produce no sound, zilch, nada. We are talking bass, bass that you want to boost with EQ. But you can't fill that hole with more power, it will just cancel with the same power and if you try, your amp will soon run out of steam and blow your tweeters!  (how this fries tweeters is for another thread)

How to sort this out:  Add bass traps and absorption panels which will flatten the response and also consider adding minimum 2 good subs but only if they sport variable phase control. SVS an excellent choice because they can be adjusted from the listening position via a simple app. Works brilliantly. Do not try this with EQ. The subs are capable of rock concert bass.

What will you hear:  Bass , Bass that was never going to be heard, even if you buy new speakers that are known to produce prodigious bass. Well how can they? there will still be cancellation issues.  Fill the holes and all the foundational musical information will be heard.  Bass traps will reduce the decay time and the subs will vastly improve everything, including mid-range and high frequencies. I know of no other way to achieve this. You will be immersed in full rewarding bass rich music of any genre.

ROOM, ROOM, ROOM is paramount.

There are no guarantees in this endeavor but I can confidently state that you will be thrilled with the results. The only last bit of advice is to totally forget EQ and get a small thick rug to place between your feet for when your jaw hits the floor. 😲

lemonhaze, I hear what you said. I know the room is 100% important. But I can’t get 3 or 4 subs in this room. It is a bedroom, and way too small. Unless I do Goldenear/Definitive with subs built in. I stil have to be able to walk around the room without hitting something. If I ever do a dedicated listening room, I would do all the above.

   On a side note, I picked up an Arcam avr-30 from best buy on closeout to demo for 14 days.  It sounds phenomenal, even on my old Definitive BP 2006 speakers.  I haven't even hooked up my parasound external amp or run dirac yet.   May try to do that on Wednesday.   I think it's a keeper but will keep playing with it.    As to speakers, I hope to get my focal 836s back in the next week or two.  Probably going to take some time (3 to 12 months) to buy new speakers now.   

Ok, understood.  Perhaps next time you could provide more info about your existing room, you will receive more to the point help. I thought you mentioned including a sub.

Just one sub will make a difference when space is limited and it does not need to be huge. SVS make a micro sub for small rooms but the design will not disappoint.

If a sub of any size is out of the question still attend to your room acoustics for the reasons mentioned in my previous post. Bass will appear as if by magic regardless of your final speaker choice.

Good luck.

I didn’t read every post but if no one else mentioned them, check out Volti Audio Razz.  Nice combo of kick a… dynamics , tone, image. Around $6K w/ many finish options