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Bass: Jolida 502A + Klipsch Forte

I'm running a stock Jolida 502A with a set of '89 Kilpsch Fortes. I'm using lossless audio files on my Macbook Pro to feed a Musical Fidelity V-DAC via S/PDIF as my source.

Snare drums, shakers, horns, and electric guitars all sound fantastic. Acoustic guitars, string instruments, and vocals sound decent. The isolation and soundstage are pretty impressive given what I paid for the system. But...

Bass tracks in most songs sound super quiet, and the little I can hear lacks the depth and tactile quality of the other instruments. I know these speakers are capable of some serious bass: Is there anything I can do to get more bass out of this setup? Mods? New tubes? New crossovers? Better interconnects/cables?
saulgold
somec59
245 posts
 
Go to Bob Crites Klipsch site (critespeakers dot com) and purchase their titanium tweeters diaphgrams. A 20 minute project ($50.00) with amazing results
mootsdude
51 posts
 
Saulgold,
The most important consideration is room acoustics. Bass traps in the corners of the room will significantly help with bass extension. I have Fortes and recently made DIY corner traps with Owens 703 rigid fiberglass. This simple, inexpensive project helped not only with bass extension but over the entire frequency spectrum. I also have 30 lbs of sand in the base of the speakers and AudioPoint brass spikes. These speakers really shine with acoustic bass. The sound is natural and live. Good luck and happy listening.
Mike
jsman
246 posts
 
You will need to adjust the placement of the forte's, an equal distance from the side and rear walls is the place to start!!!
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
Things I'd check:

Are the Fortes close enough to the rear wall, I seem to remember they are designed to be close to the wall.

Bypass the dac and go audio out of the Mac. Just maybe the dac is restricting bass.

Check the Audio Out set-up in OSX of the the Mac. Application Folders>Utilities>Audio MIDI setup.

Cheap solution is to use the equalizer in iTune and punch up the bass.

A pricy what if; retube the amp.

Good Luck

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