More Power or use subwoofer to boost bass for music

Thanks Duke 

Or, as my experience and measurements have shown, you treat the room with some decent bass traps and wall coverings to ensure the treble/bass balance is correct but no.... that's too much ....???

@erik_squires I used to think that way too. Then I encountered the Swarm, and in looking into the theory behind it, realized that its the elegant approach to a vexing problem- reliably getting the bass right in nearly any room.


Duke didn't invent the idea- and he would be the first to tell you usually, but in this case I beat him to the punch. It comes from a guy pretty well known in audio engineering circles; Dr. Floyd Toole.


So this isn't a cult thing- its just that its an idea whose time has come, and all that's happening here is you've not read up on it. So I suggest you read or look at some of Dr. Toole's talks on YouTube. Here's a good place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpUDuUtxPM
Now this link doesn't say anything about a DBA, but it does very successfully show how the bass is so important in the way a speaker presents itself. Take the time to play the whole thing (the intro is done at about 4 minutes).


In a nutshell, you put Dr. Toole down at your own peril. He's one of the top engineers in his field. So- when someone is complaining about bass, no, you don't treat a room with traps because it literally doesn't work- although prior to running a DBA you might think it does. Its not a cult, its science. Don't be that guy who contributes to the death of science- look at how Dr. Toole developed this.

Very much interesting and excellent suggestions presented here.  My only contribution to the discussion addresses what I believe to be missing.  That is, in my opinion, the OP has never actually measured whether he/she actually has a bass loss problem.  The OP discussed how the bass sounded different in the store (real surprise here) than in the home.

The first thing I would do in this case is to actually measure the frequency response of the system from the listening position.  Using free Ipad/ipod software such as Audiotools, and a test cd such as Stereophiles test cds, you can farily accurately measure where the frequency response is at the listening position.  Do that first.  See where the peaks and valleys actually are in your system.

You actually may not have a problem at all.  My experience is that yes, the room quite often negatively affects the sound.  But, you have to measure it first to know if you have a problem and where it is.

Then, work of fixing it.  Many systems actually boost bass to get a physical response from people.  "Wow, that bass sounds great".  However, that bass response you hear often isn't accurate.  I've heard systems with wayyyyy too much bass.  

Anyway, not trying to argue with anyone here, but I would measure first, then determine if I actually have a problem and then find ways of fixing it.  It may be room treatment as opposed to bigger more powerful amps or multiple subwoofers.

just a thought.

enjoy and stay safe

Clearthink, if you took the time to read and understand my posts (if you have the requisite knowledge), you will note that I was pointing out that simply saying the amp does not double from 8 to 4 ohms, provides no real guidance on whether it can supply adequate bass to a load that bottoms out at 3-3.2 ohms, and that all we know is the distortion is 1% at 4ohms at a given wattage (what georgehifi posted) which means we know how it behaves at some level under those conditions and absent the output impedance / damping factor, (not to mention distortion w.r.t. frequency), the conclusion he made is simply not possible.

As a matter of fact, if a link to the full range of tests was provided, as in here: https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1373:bhk-labs...
then one could see that the limitation is very low until the output hits a hard limit at which time the distortion rapidly increases. One can surmise from the shape of the graph as it hits the limit that it is primarily voltage limited. The damping factor is also very high at 8 ohms, >500 throughout the bass region, indicating no output impedance issues through the speaker impedance range. Further, the rise in distortion across the frequency range when the power is increased from 150 to 200 watts coupled with the lower distortion at 4 ohms (SMPTE) again, communicates it is primarily running into a voltage limit. The decrease in distortion from 8 to 4 ohms, also indicates that it is unlikely to have issues with the odd dip to 3-3.2 ohms. Furthermore, that 422 watts (albeit at 10% THD), is all channels driven, or about 1260 watts total.

Since you have exceptional knowledge, perhaps you can point out exactly where the errors are in my analysis, using the best information I had at my fingertips.

xcool, based on the SoundStageNetwork test, unless you are running your amplifier into clipping or there is something wrong with it, it is highly unlikely to be causing your bass issue.