No bass in the Proac Response 3


I've just had the opportunity to buy a Proac Response 3 from a fellow agon just recently. One of the foam the 6.5" woofer was
torn ( with holes) so I already had it replaced with brand new foam. The treble improved quite a bit once I had the foam replace. The midrand is still the same and I have to say the Proac midrange is beautifull. I can sit and listen to female vocal (Krall, Elle, Cassandra) music all day. There is no sign of harsh or etch at all.

However, my problem now is that the bass is nowhere to be found when I play rock/pop. I do the regular Proac reccommended speaker placement of 2 feet away from the wall and the deep bass , mid bass are all but lost. If I moved the Proac very close to the wall then I get stronger bass, but now my image and everything else got all messed up. A simple analogy would be like I don't feel the singer is standing in the rooming sing anymore once I move the speakers toward the wall. Everything is just so flat ( 2-d), but the bass is good.

The most simple weak link that I can see in my system is that maybe the Krell integrated is just not big enough to produce the kinda big bass that I used to. But another interesting thing to know is that before I got the R3, I also got a much smaller Proac supertower that produced bass twice as much as the R3; and the R3 is twice the size, but lacking in the lower freq department.

My system is following:
Krell KAV-300i (integrated amp)
Arcam DV-27 (CD player)
Sony DVD player + PS Audio UltraLink DAC
Proac R3 (Full range speaker)
ducchau
I agree with the rest--the issue is not the amp. My buddy has a pair of R3's and we have found that they benefit from much experimentation in placement. And, they are somewhat fussy in this regard--as you report there are often tradeoffs to be made when moving them around. Even under the best of circumstances, however, the R3's do not produce what I would call strong, foundational bass. Despite the cabinet size they can be a little lightweight in their presentation, despite some other very good qualities. Also, this is a speaker that has issues with aging woofer foam, as you have addressed. I've been trying for years to get my friend to move to another speaker but he won't budge--likes his Proac's just fine.
Give it time - better bass is often less resonant and in your face than what you typically get from boom boom tizz speakers...
Thanks a lot for all the quick response. I've had the Response 3 for about more than a month and the surprising thing that I found is that when the 6.5" midwoofer was tearing up, the treble was the first to go ( very surprising). SO I've had all the foams professionally refoam. And the treble came back ( I always thought that the high frequency came from only the tweeter. But it's not true with the Proac).

Anyway, back to the R3 bass, I've tried a few speaker placements experiments before. However, have not had good success. However, based on the urge of you more experienced gentlemen, I will go home tonite and try a few more locations, even I will change my sitting location. Also, another thing I forgot to mention is that I've filled up the sand pretty full. Could someone please enlighten me more on this sand filling thing in the R3. Please understand I am a pretty newbee in audiophile. And another school of thought. I've heard that class A amp will do wonders with bass and even less harshness in female vocal. Is it true that getting a new amp will help or it's still more a speaker placement problem..Thanks, ducchau.
I don't know how many hours you've played the speakers after replacing the foam surround, but maybe they need to be broken in some. If you want to break them in fast just reverse the speaker wire polarity on ONE speaker only and place the speakers facing each other very close and let "em" rip. You can also put a blanket over them if it is still to loud. I have heard speakers with very little bass when new have great bass after loosening up some by about 50 hours.
Racamuti...Nope. Have not had burn-in time for the new woofer foams. Just picked up the drivers last weekend so probably not than 20 hours of playing. But really burn-in time for foam also. This is the first I've heard. Thanks, Ducchau.