Large speakers plus EQ, what have you done?

I get very good bass out of my Revel Salon 2s. But when I want more, I use the parametric EQ function in JRiver to boost bass by a couple of dB at 100 and 500 Hz bands. Does the trick pretty well.

An additional non-software tweak that really helped bring the low-end oomph was putting the Revels on Star Sound Apprentice XL stands - but that involved hardware, so probably outside of your area of inquiry.

@p59teitel  - Good to hear, sounds as if you had very few room issues to deal with. Lucky you!

Actually I think most audiophiles would find the large amount of glass in the sunroom quite troublesome to dial in the typical “you are there” sound (it does help to have a cathedral ceiling with the sound able to disperse adequately and not just ricochet). My approach is “they are here” and between Revel and the Symphonic Line source and amplification gear, it works for me.

You can "eq" the speakers through component selection in the crossover (even if unintentionally) and this is probably why some people prefer passive crossovers to active crossovers.

Case in point. All the values in the crossover have an "ideal" combination, but the combination can be tweaked to produce a hump or a dip in an area of the band that is pleasing to the listener.

The 5.8 mH choke with an 8 ohm load would actually like to "see" a 44 mfd cap to ground. A larger cap (e.g., 47 mfd) will create a greater roll-off, but it will also create a hump just below the crossover frequency. The larger the change from "ideal", the larger/broader the hump. So if you set the crossover to the "right" frequency and you "over-capacitor" it, you can add a "hump of bass" just below this frequency (which I have at 310 Hz).

Similarly, the combination of C2, C3, and C4 if "over-capacitored" will increase the roll-off, but create a hump below the crossover frequency, which puts it at ~1kHz where the ear is most sensitive.  This takes a bit of the high end hash out of the 2251 while giving voices a warmer, more pleasant tone. 

I've had a pair of Altec 604-8G in smaller than optimal cabinets, about 5 cu ft.    Spent a bit of time with REW and placement in a fairly large room, ~ 500 sq ft, and found the best overall support for the bass was, you guessed it, close to the side walls.  My Cardas speaker placement guide was laughing at me.  But the bass was strong down to 40 Hz with no EQ, and the nulls due to placement weren't noticeable.  But the horns seemed a bit peaky in the 1-3k range with certain vocals and brass.  Given the age of the stock crossovers, I made some using J. Markwart's simple crossover, listened to them for a while, but never quite liked the sound.  Went back to the stock crossovers and added some very steep notch filters at two of the frequencies that tamed most of the peaks.  Still short of perfection, but they're very pleasant to listen to for hours, and quite forgiving of less than ideal recordings.  To summarize, placement did the most good for bass, and getting control of the mid band peaks was the second step.  Have pondered DSP, convolution files in JRiver, etc.  It's all about the journey.....