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Improving Bass Response?


Vick's Pit

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Hi All, I recently sold my RF-82's to a friend and upgraded to 83's

My friend has the 82's setup in his living room without a wall behind them.

He does not have a choice to put them in front of a wall based on his room

design. The room is roughly 25x17. There is not a sub or other speakers

involved in this setup. The 82's are being powered by an Onkyo SR804 A/V

receiver. I noticed when I came over to listen to the speakers that they had

seemed to lose about 25%-30% of that deep bass response. Even when I used to

play the 82's without a sub they still viciously shook the room, but I had mine

about 8" off the wall. So I tried to help the situation by changing some

of the EQ settings on the receiver, which did help somewhat, but not enough.

The speakers are also set to large. So my question is how can he improve

the deep bass response without putting the speakers in front of a wall? I

thought I heard someone once say that you could put a sock in one of the back

ports or tape off one of the ports? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

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I know that this will sound like a smart aleck answer, but you turn up the volume.

The wall effectively decreases the amount of space by 1/2 that the total acoustical energy of the speaker is radiated into, thereby increasing the gain by a factor of 2. With no wall, you effectively increase the space by a factor of 2 which also reduces the gain by a factor of 2. (Raising them off from the floor and putting them on stands has the same effect of removing the wall.

There is nothing wrong with the speakers. You are dealing with basic physics here. And I know of no neat devices that overcome this. Crosover processing can potentially adjust the sensitivity of the various passbands to increase the LF relative to the mids and highs. This is normally done in the design phase when the intended use is selected (or variable taps are provided for selectable sensitivity for varying applications. But I would try to avoid using an EQ as an amplifier. Additional volume can make up the difference in gain - especially in the LFs, compensating for the lack of LF coupling of the frequencies whose wavelengths are no longer within a 1/4 wavelength distance from the boundary surfaces due to the 'removal' of the wall.

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I have a similar setup. My speakers have no wall and the rear ports fire into the foyer and into the kitchen. I have the RF-83's and they do not have a lot of bass. I'm not sweating it cause my sub more than makes up for their lack of bottom end. I brought a QSC 265 watt/ch amp over one day and hooked them up to my CF-2's and the bottom end increased considerably. So what Mas is saying makes sense. You might want to suggest him adding a separate, more powerful amp to compensate for the difference.

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Relax Richard...

I'm sure they will come to their senses and realize that they were mistaken.

[;)]

But I think I just missed an opportunity to sell them a subwoofer...(which is a very good solution to augment the lower 2 octaves...)

[:o][:P][*-)]

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Thanks for the response guys. Turning the volume up
does make sense. There is definitively nothing wrong with the speakers as they
still have pretty darn good bass. I think I'll push him to purchase a sub down
the road. I guess I can put my socks back in the drawer.



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Plugging, or taping off ports makes no sense at all ........... would be counter-productive ....... and dumb !!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup!

Buc, we've got to stop agreeing...this is a dangerous precedent.

[;)]

This notion may be originating from the fact that you can modify the LF extension of an SVS sub by blocking a one or two of the three ports. But this is not a valid generic answer!

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I couldn't resist. Once again, I borrowed my QSC RMX1450, this time to try it out on my RF-83's. The amp totally makes a difference, especially in the bottom end. I can see how these speakers would pound in a decent room setup. For now, my sub will have to help out and that is probably the best bet for you as well. My 15" Velodyne takes care of all the deep bass. Sounds fantastic with the RF-83's. The amp does help tremendously, especially at 265 watts/ch. Since neither of us have a back wall for the RF-83's, a sub would be my first recommendation, or secondly, an external amp.

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