What to do in my situation...

Jrinkerptdnet - We listen to a variety of things...lots of rock from '50s to new stuff, with some country, and a little jazz, classical and standards thrown in. We use the setup also for video, but don't watch a ton of movies, so I'm not concerned with rattling the windows.

The room is the upper floor of an old daylight ranch, so it's about 12 x 25, with an offshoot dining room in an "L" shape. The stereo system is placed on the short wall, with the speakers facing into the living room but facing away from the dining area. They are about 6 feet apart and about 15 inches from the back wall. Due to the way the house is with the short wall there, I don't have a lot of placement options, as there's only about 9 feet on that wall until the fireplace. I'm using all of the stock Alon stuff, including the Black Orpheus wire and the spikes sitting on metal cups so they don't scratch the hardwood.

Don't buy anything until you do some work looking into your room. You say you want some more bottom end and your comment that you may be running out of power to me often says that the bass is out of control and loose/muddy/undefined (pick your term). With some acoustic issues addressed for your room, you are likely to find that the problem is neither the amp or the speaker as much as the room.

I changed listening rooms recently and had my system in an untreated room for a few months before I got around to addressing that issue. I did this yesterday - and let me tell you the difference is much bigger than changing any component would have delivered!

placement of the Alons may be part of the problem but you are apparently limited in placement options. try moving the speakers even a little bit and see if your impression changes.

You've got a lot of issues here. As a former Alon II and Alon V owner, I would suggest:

Even if just for an hour, try remove the discs from under the spikes, and see if it makes a difference. Better yet replace those cheesy spikes with something better(not getting into brand names here).

All the room/placement suggestions are good. These are very sensitive to placeement. If you are limited in where you can put the speakers, don't forget to experiment moving your seat. Even a few inches will make a difference in what room modes are picked up by your ears. Frequencies get cancelled out in certain spots depending on reflections in the room. If you get a spl meter you can easily see this for yourself with any test tone CD.

As for the gear itself, Alons were voiced for tube amps. They don't need tons of power. They do need clean power, and although I have always liked Aragon/Acurus stuff, you will probably get better satisfaction with a tube amp.

Spending on a sub, and the integration issues there are exactly the wrong way to go. Money out the window; you will end up with bass at too high a musical cost. You've got some problems that will take a little work, but you can solve this. Cheers,

Spencer

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I tried moving the speakers out from the wall a bit, and it didn't seem to do much for the bass. Wondering whether the factory spikes were useless, I took them off and placed the speakers directly on the floor. Big mistake, as it didn't improve the low-end at all and made the midbass sound cheap and boomy. The factory spikes do seem a bit cheesy...any suggestions for more solid spikes/cups or rounded cones that won't dig into the hardwood floors?