I want more bass…


Superb pair L’Instrument large horn speakers with two 12” woofers in each speaker.
So how to get more bass? My PassLabs XA25 was too little, my Luxman M900u was too sweet, of course these are not party or club speakers but my guests who are not audiophiles (you know the one’s who ask what are those? I say tubes…) let’s call them the sound bar set!

These speakers are rated down to 18Hz can anyone suggest the best value amp that can deliver bass to these speakers take control and make them move? 98dB sensitive by the way…

Give me some used cheap but real good amps to try please. Exposure? Class A. Not my weak knee’d Bouyrrang A50 300B 😉

Even my D240 MKII Audio Research seem not to push them deep and strong enough for the sound bar set. Can’t imagine I need a subwoofer…

 

 

128x128johnread57

Are you sure that the music you were listening to has adequate levels of bass that you can even hear? Lots of recordings have very little bass. I hooked up a spectrum analyzer to the secondary outputs on my preamp, and I was amazed at how many songs did not have bass in the original recording. Recordings after 2010 seem to sound much better than anything before that. I went onto TIDAL and download it a test down album. My speakers won’t go plenty long enough. It’s just that it doesn’t exist on the recording. It has nothing to do with where my speakers are placed , or watt amp or what set of cables or what kind of power it just doesn’t exist in the recording. If it exist in the recording, you’ll hear it. The test tone CD then I played I found it I could get my speakers to go down to 30 Hz sounded great once I got below 25 Hz , it almost couldn’t be heard. I did the same thing going in the opposite direction and found that I couldn’t hear anything above 13,000 Hz. There’s no reason for me to worry about what’s happening at 18,000 Hz because I can hear it anyways. You can download a Spectrum analyzer for your iPhone and it will tell you a lot about what’s going on. Try it. Sing a visual alongside what you’re hearing. It’s amazing how much you’ll learn about recordings.

Yesterday I did a few things

1. Got my subwoofer working again I’m not sure why there was no sound out before. Something to do with the AVR settings. 

2. Ran Audessy again across the whole system setting front horn speakers to large

3. Ran bass heavy music from Tidal and SACD

4. Made sure the ARC D240 MK II was connected to play the front horn speakers. It rated at Power output. 120 watts per channel into 8 ohms, 240 watts per channel into 4 ohms ; Power bandwidth. (-3dB points) 8Hz to 60kH. The speakers are rated at 98dB.

This has raised the level of bass in the system and room. It’s a three sided room. It’s enough for me as it reaches deep and has some good thump. I think it could do more. 

These speakers are not biwirable. Eventually I’ll get to swap out a better preamp. I do have an LS10SE that’s allocated in another system. This is a problem of two systems in one. A stereo music system and a movie system. Previously I ran these separately. Now in my living room where the horn speakers are located, I need a movie system. And same in my HT too. The issue is the same speakers are used for both systems. 

Still think need more powerful amp. However, 98 dB speakers are easy to drive. My speakers are like upper 80's or low 90's. Can understand why you have 120W/ch amp. So maybe 200W/ch amp max would do it. Sure, subs will solve the problem; no question about that. Just that these are full range speakers and should not really need the subs. Unless people are correct here and this unusual 3 sided room is causing issues.

The only other power amp I have on hand at the moment is a Marantz 8077 HT amp. Plus I have a corresponding AV pre the 8805 that I could swap out for the 1509 packing as a pre. 
Alternatively, I’ll need to switch these to the LS10SE preamp or try my heavy duty PMC MB2SE speakers, may give a better result too.