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“Real” bass vs. “Boom” — how do you know which?

Hi,

I'm working on positioning a new pair of Ohm Walsh 100's in my listening room. I think I'm getting close to an optimal positioning with regard to soundstaging and imaging, but I'm less sure when it comes to tonal balance.

How can you tell if the bass you're hearing is “real bass” vs. ”boom“ from room interactions?

Oddly shaped room, around 12' x 15', wood floors, speakers placed asymmetrically (out of necessity) along long wall: both speakers are 20 inches from rear wall. Right speaker is 16 inches from right wall, left speaker is around 5 feet from left wall. Two pieces of soft furniture: day bed (listening position) opposite speakers, and lounge chair to left of left speaker. Windows on three of four walls, with soft blinds on them, although I've generally been more pleased with the sound with the shades up.

Thanks in advance!!
rebbi
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,478 posts
 
Hey Rebbe,

Lots of good thing recommended here to try.

Bottom line is you need a frame of reference for what good bass is. Listening live (to a well produced performance) and listening on good headphones if you have them, where room acoustics are taken out of the equation, are two good ones.

Once you have the frame of reference, then you can try the various tweaks as needed to attempt to match it. Tehre is no way to take the acoustics of your room out of the equation though. In the the end you have to tweak your system to your room to simulate what you hear elsewhere.

Believ me, once you get all this worked out with those 100's, you'll know it and be a happy dweller in bass heaven!
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,945 posts
 
Agreed-
a test cd will help you solve this problem.
acoustat6
357 posts
 
"Agreed-
a test cd will help you solve this problem."

I say, are you still living in the ice age?

Try this instead; http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/

If you want to know if you have boomy bass just take a look at your waterfall plots. Dont forget to have a hanky handy, to cry into when you see what your room/system response really is.
Bob
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
If you want to know if you have boomy bass just take a look at your waterfall plots!

You can see an example of a waterfall on my virtual system. It is simple to do but I suspect most "plug 'n play" folks (who consider a major upgrade to be changing an interconnect or a speaker cable) would find this approach daunting. "Nerds Only" applies! ;-)
stltrains
845 posts
 
some fine thoughts above. you already know how the sound of your favorite musics bass sounds by now i'm sure. the master speaker setup will position your speakers in your room with the bass response right. if you have not done this you should do so it just takes a little time but believe me this will get your bass sounding like you know it should. along with all other frequencys you're speakers will couple into the room for the best sound response air and bloom. test sounds and frequency readings are not music and can miss lead you on what truly can be had using music instead to position your speakers. do a search and and you can read up more about the master setup. best of luck mike
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