Bass traps

Instead of hit-and-miss, there are logical approaches to this which will maximimize the chance of success. Just throwing in panels and traps is not the way. Take a look at www.realtraps.com or www.rivesaudio.com for useful information. You do not have to buy their products to learn what sort of products you need for the problems you face.

BTW, I have experienced a significant improvement in the quantity and quality of the bass in one case where the listening position was in a null that was reduced by trapping at that frequency.

Kal

Does the bass sound different in various locations in the room?

The second step would be to get a Radio Shack SPL meter and a test tone CD or software and determine if there is any suckout at the listening position and elsewhere. The severity of the recourse depends on the the results. If the bass drops directly in front of the speakers, there's probably an equipment issue. Bass traps are not created equal and are designed for a frequency range.

Kal is of course right ("throwing in traps is not the way"), but I would just like to throw in that I tried something Jon Risch suggests along those lines. He mentions that you can buy a couple of bags of pink fibreglass and stick them in the corners behind the speakers if you want to know if a bass trap would change anything. I did that (you can imagine the WAF) and many things improved; not just bass, but also smoothness in the mids and imaging.

The pink bags are long gone, their contents in a wall somewhere, and an unfinished living room is still keeping me from installing anything better targeted to the space. However the memory of the improvement keeps me persuaded of the bass trap's viability. This particular measure was totally slapdash but boy, it worked well.

Bass traps can cure bass problems. They can help control standing waves which is dependent on the distance between parallel opposing walls and the floor to ceiling distance, and not on speaker placement. I used rolls of R19 stacked up to the ceiling in one corner of my room, and that tightened up my bass tremendously.

I also use R19 rolls to eliminate first order reflection off the side walls.

I am sure purpose built sound traps will work better.

Regards
Paul

Bass traps can certainly help bring the bass out more strongly by lessening the megaphone effect that room corners have, thereby attenuating reflected bass frequencies that can phase cancel the direct bass from the speakers.

I use the Auralex Lenrd traps, three in each front corner in stacks and this made a noticeable imporvement to the bass response. It also cleared up the low mids.