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Usher cp-6381, lacking in bass?

First I will roughly describe my system
Usher cp-6381 speakers
Krell s350 cd player
audio research ls2 preamp
krell kav250a power amp

My listening room is less than ideal I know but it is what it is. It is basicaly the sun room or Florida room and is made up of windows all the way round including back into the house, floor is ceramic tiled. Speakers sit on rugs on spikes on their cast iron bases about 12 feet apart and about 10 feet from my normal listening position.

I find the soundstage and voices to be impressive, however the lower bass is not, what is there is nice and tight but does not seem to go overly low. I also realise the amp is really a home theater amp hence the kav monicker but it was available and affordable...lol.

Room and layout cannot be changed for practical reasons at this stage so what might anybody more seasoned suggest to try and increase lower bass response and punch a little bit?
I mostly listen to hard rock both old and new.
Preamp? Power amp? CD Player, Speakers?
Any or all could be my concern, have had this setup like this for a good 2 years and am happy but just would like to take it to another level if possible without a second mortage!
Thank you

uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Thank you George
I will research that as well....
rbstehno
1,552 posts
 
I owned these ushers for years and they had plenty of bass. I think it's your krell amp. IMO a lot of the krell amps that I have heard don't  have a good bottom end, similar to carver amps, a lot of power but no lower end.

i did add bags of sand in that compartment below the speaker terminals on the back to tighten up the bass
mb1audio
151 posts
 
" I owned these ushers for years and they had plenty of bass. I think it's your krell amp. IMO a lot of the krell amps that I have heard don't  have a good bottom end, similar to carver amps, a lot of power but no lower end."

For bass, his Krell is the strongest component. I had 2 of them. I can't be 100% sure, but I would say the preamp is the weak component.  
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Now I am confused...lol
Some say the Krell is the problem, others say the preamp
Going to perform some tests today swapping components out of my ht rig like front speakers, power amp etc
Results soon......
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Alright, have performed a couple of tests this morning using 2 reference cd,s . Pat Benatar, best shots and Nonzamo by IQ, both have some really good tight punch bass lines in them and soaring vocals( for rock anyway!)

First I pulled the ht fronts and swapped them in, these are sonus faber concerto grand piano and they gel perfectly in the ht rig but here with no other changes....a complete disaster!
Really muffled bass of miniscule proportions, nasal vocals and soundstage all but gone, could just be equipment matchs but also possible that in the ht rig I have the sub crossed over at 70hz so just maybe I do not even know the letdown as it is not apparent there, or maybe they just work much better with the components in the ht rig?
Whatever hooked the Ushers back up and back to near bliss.

Next I swapped out the Krell poweramp for the ht 2 channel poweramp( i have Emotiva xpa2 and xpa5 for ht duty). Different......
Not bad just ...different.....
I would say the bass was maybe a little deeper but not as tight, vocals seemed strong and sweet but the soundstage was possibly a little more compressed. Overall I think the Krell did a better job but the difference was nowhere near as drastic as the speaker swap.

I know Emotiva does not have the best rep but seriously the bang for the buck at 1300 for both amps used off eBay was not to be missed and they work extremely well in the ht rig.

Looks like the next step has to be moving the behemoth 110lb REL sub in and giving that a whirl...I am working up to that one.....
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