Need Help Tweaking My Tower Speakers

[davepriz]

so i have some decent tower speakers that i am just for the first really starting to fiddle with and position to get the best possible sound. i have made vast improvements but am still lacking the low ends that i want. now you might say, well the speakers don't have the bass power you want. however, when i stand in weird spots in my apartment or behind my speakers, i pick up some pretty beastly low ends. how can i get these low ends to project forward to my listening area? help! i wanna rock out to james blake.

[xxmartinxx]

What kind of speakers are they?  Are they rear ported? 

[davepriz]

Zu Essence and yes

[slinch]

Hey, first off, the bass "pockets" you get are not necessarily what the actual linear response should be at those frequencies. Aslo, placing the speakers on something sturdy is also very important, if you have them standing on the carpet try using spikes or a heavy slab of granite/marble under them.

 

To start finding the right position, try to place the speakers one third of the room length from the front wall, and your listening position one third of the room length from the rear wall. This is a great starting point as the standing waves should give you minimum amount of problems there. Then you slightly move the listening position to find the spot that you feel has just the right amount of low end. Not the spot that has the strongest bass, because that will be the spot where bass is most emphasized and will give you trouble with further tweaking.

 

Next, play with the distance of the speakers from the side walls. Placing them closer to the side walls will give you more midrange, so if you feel the bass is still overpowered by the mids, try to place the further from those walls. Also toy with the toe-in angle. Depending on the room (and of course the speaker design) you can get the best response anywhere from having them almost parallel to the wall, to toeing them in to the point where the axes intersect in front of the listener. 

 

If you still get strong bass pockets, which at the same time means you'll get strong bass cancellation spots, you'll have to look into some room treatment. Actually, no regardless of the result you should look into it, because it will only improve the listening experience. For starters try to make some "quick and dirty" bass traps from slabs of stone wool. These work great and placing them in the room corners and on the back/front walls usually yields great results. They're also pretty cheap to make. If you need any info on how to make them just let me know.

[davepriz]

thanks a lot slinch! super helpful!