Help me tame my out of control bass


Hey all,

Hoping to get some advice on how to tame what appear to be some pretty bad room modes. See my system here:
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8800

I’m in a bit of a pickle for a few reasons. First, my NY apartment is on the small side and requires me to set up on the long wall with the listening position against the opposite wall. On top of that I upgraded to my dream speakers, Egglestonworks Kivas. They sound amazing but they’re big and have a lot of low end reach. The combination of these two factors leads to the waterfall you see in my system - a pretty massive bump in low end, particularly at 40-44hz and from 60-70hz.

There’s also a huge bump at 120hz, but I don’t understand how that one is possible. I think that might be a measurement or microphone error - I don’t hear that at all and it doesn’t go away even when I EQ 120hz out completely, but maybe it’s a resonance?

Things I’ve tried so far, each with modest success:
- Plugging the ports gave me about a -5db reduction in the trouble spots (all measurements are with the port blocked)
- I don’t have a ton of placement flexibility but moving them back from their original position gained me about a -3dB reduction in bass
- I added a pair of 5.5” thick GIK bass traps, but they didn’t do much that I’m seeing in the measurements. Maybe a -1-2dB reduction, tops. They honestly helped more with the mids and highs.
- Convolution curve in Roon - this works the best, but doesn’t solve the problem for home theater or vinyl

I’m pretty stumped as to what else I can do. I think that the amount of bass traps needed to fix this is more than my marriage can withstand. I’m considering the PSI AVAA active bass traps, but only if I can do a home trial of them first to see if they’ll actually help - I worry this 8-10dB bump I’m seeing will be too much for even a pair of those. I could get a DIRAC processor from miniDSP and that would at least then work for all digital sources. Vinyl is mostly not a problem since this is so low and most of my vinyl is rock and jazz.

Any other ideas? Rolling tubes that have less bass? Are there any less expensive EQs with digital in and out that I could use as an alternative to the DIRAC for home theater only?
hudsonhawk
The flame graph shows the 120 Hz is a constant, not related to the test signal. It could be mechanical, even a transformer humming, fluorescent ballast, or it could be coming through the speakers, but it is NOT related to the speaker response.
The odd thing is that 120hz didn’t seem to be there when there’s no signal. This weekend I’ll do some more measuring, there’s been a lot of good hypotheses about what it could be. I’ll run a test tone at 60hz to see if it’s a harmonic, more mic’ing of the room with no signal playing to see if it’s environmental, and with different sources to make sure it’s not an artefact being produced by my DAC or integrated amp.

@rego placement is the correct way to solve this, unfortunately the speakers are quite large and the room allows limited movement of the listening position or the speakers themselves.

Good news is I got in touch with PSI and am in the process of arranging for an in-home trial of the AVAA C20, which could be a good, if expensive, solution to my troubles.

I’m also planning on a few other measurement trials this weekend with different placement of my bass traps, this thread’s given me a ton of ideas thank you all for your thoughtful responses.
Odds are the microphone/mic-input is picking up 60Hz and rectifying it (hence 120Hz).
Hummmm, Maybe that's why I've never see one on my stuff. 2496 Behringer, it's their mic, it's all their stuff. Your saying the equipment the mic is hooked to may have a ground loop? AND that through rectifying it, that causes that spike.

It doesn't sound so "Rectified" "To be made right" A2D
Can you hear a spike like that A2D, or Erik?

OK I'll DMDD, I'll learn.. Maybe:-)

OP, can you hear that narrow spike?

Maybe I need to see if I can make it happen, and give it a listen..

I guess I'm lucky.  I have been in the same home for 40 years,  May..

Regards