Great speaker sounds terrible in my room?

@oldhvymec

I don’t have a dedicated listening room. I’m in a studio apartment and my listening area is basically my living area / kitchen so I have to keep things aesthetically pleasing and utilitarian as opposed to looking like a hi-fi shop. That’s just not my style. That being said, My floor is concrete and granite with a carpet covering the listening area. Spikes are purely for keeping the stands secured as I heard no difference between the spikes and the footers. I prefer Herbies fat dots under the speakers as they are nicer don’t ruin the finish of the speakers like blue-tac or sorbothane. As hard as I’ve tried, I can’t detect the micro nuances of coupling material, outlet covers, ethernet switches and cable lifters although I’ve kept a few tweaks that I thought made sense and were well made (eg: damping plates).

Also, The REL is raised off the floor on a 1.5in granite slab. I had ridiculous room boom with the sub on the floor and putting it on the slab and taking it out of the corner solved the problem perfectly.

Good to hear you did decouple. The way they are made you did the best thing you could to actually make a music sub. REL is old tech with great paint. I've fixed quite a few VMPS and REL subs for music.. Boom Boom is easy. Audiophile is a little tougher.. I secure a butt plate and add, springs, pods or air ride. I've used all with great success. Air bags decouple the most complete, they can be a PITA if not thought out.. I used a 10 and 15" bicycle tire tube under 2 400lb columns. worked perfect for 15 years.. You could tell when they needed air. Once a year two pumps each. 

Nobound with ear plugs stuffed in the springs does ok.... :-) Get the black ones, they don't stand out like a sore thumb..

I'm only in to ugly women, my gear has to look really good. Easier maintenance for both to tell the truth. :-)

Regards

@oldhvymec 

Retiring soon brother and leaving this God forsaken state. a dedicated listening room is in my plans and down the audiophile rabbit hole I will go. Might even do the ugly chick thing too…Haha! 

Rooms are the worst offenders in audio systems.  Cheap to fix, but most people don't want to bother.

I did not read everyone's comments but the one where you are asking why would the amp/preamp be an issue.  They don't always match that is why.  Kind of like a recent speaker a manufacturer sent to us.  We build components but the speakers we received were not tube friendly at all.  So we had to change things around to get them to perform the way they were supposed to.  Some speakers prefer some feedback and some don't that is just the way things go.

Happy Listening.