New speakers - masses of boomy bass

[ianlenco]

Re the Neat motive (SX2) - they are not overly bright and for their size they do decent bass which is tight and tuneful. I've always avoided Naim amplification but some love it and the Neats are supposed to work well with Naim. I really liked my Neats until I got the bug to build some full-rangers again and Alan Firebottle liked them enough to buy them after he heard them at my house in a room not too dissimilar in size to yours.

[Mikeandvan]

^^ This.

Lots of good advice so far, Mike, which you should follow. However, unfortunately the problem will not go away (or be lessened) until you address the issue of isolation, and in that respect, install something effective.

No loudspeaker with a decent bass response I've ever used on a suspended wooden floor, has failed to boom, simply plonked on the floor with no spikes or stands/isolation platforms. Therefore, no matter what else you do, until you fix that, your room will continue to 'sing along' with the music, but not in a good way!

Also, if you can, posting a couple of good, clear pictures of your set up, from different angles, might help us advise you in some other way of how to optimise things, perhaps with speaker positioning. Mains (and cable) issues can often also contribute to boomy bass.

Is all your kit, for example, simply plugged into a cheapo 'B&Q mains block'?

Marco.

Thanks for detailed reply Marco. I've yet to even put spikes onto the speakers! Does anyone know what size they are? My old Templars had smaller spikes. My kit at present which comprises of a the naim 72/140/teddycap is plugged straight into the wall sockets. The mains leads for the 140 and Teddycap are plugged into the wall socket via a 2 way adapter, then the cdp or Turntable gets sole use of the other side of the double wall socket, is this not ideal! Cables are a bit of a mess, all hanging down the back of the amps which sit on Ikea shelves - you know the cubic ones. So should I try paving slabs to site the Talisman II after I've got spikes for them? Or do I seek out dedicated stands? I'll post pics of my lounge tomorrow, thanks all. By the way, anyone have any experience of Monitor Audio Gold 3 (I think these are quite old now). These look to be compact floorstanders. I was thinking mini monitors but fear these might be too bright sounding for my Naim amps.

[anthonyTD]

If the bass is annoying the neighbours below then you need to decouple the speakers from the floor. If you couple them with spikes then you will just transmit clearer bass down to your neighbours. Lots of threads about decoupling speakers but if you search Townshend seismic speaker mounts on google or u-tube then that is a good place to start reading about the science of sound transmission.

[Mikeandvan]

I had to laugh at those prices, £1000 for 2 bits of metal, bet they don't sell many of those. Still, gave me an idea, halved squash balls under paving slabs.

[anthonyTD]

Try it, you never know!
As for the Townshend ones, I can vouch from personal experience that they do work! As for the price, well...

I had to laugh at those prices, £1000 for 2 bits of metal, bet they don't sell many of those. Still, gave me an idea, halved squash balls under paving slabs.

[Mikeandvan]

OK, spikes in, and metal floor protectors on carpet, bass still sounds boomy, next step paving slabs? Whats best slate, granite or just normal slabs will do?

[Macca]

Normal concrete slabs are fine.

I thin the problem is elsewhere myself, but it doesn't hurt to try it.

[Minstrel SE]

OK, spikes in, and metal floor protectors on carpet, bass still sounds boomy, next step paving slabs? Whats best slate, granite or just normal slabs will do?

I tried concrete paving slabs because they are a few quid each and that was good enough for me. I eventually made some fabric covered wood frames for them. I cant design and build a new floor so it was a calculated compromise. I didnt really have boomy bass but wanted to try taking the spikes out of floorboards, a solid enough plinth and testing spikes onto concrete.

If you have granite money there will be people telling you about the composition of slate and granite vs concrete. I probably wouldnt hear any difference if they were on granite but Im not going to pay the money anyway.

You could try some paving slabs and see if you like what they do.

[Mikeandvan]

Thanks Minstrel, B&Q beckons.

[Mikeandvan]

Normal concrete slabs are fine.

I thin the problem is elsewhere myself, but it doesn't hurt to try it.

OK, where else could it be? I'm getting another cdp on weekend, and my TT is getting a new armboard from NAS, my power amp has just had a minicap fitted and been serviced by a pro, and my pre amp was serviced last year, although I did twist the volume control way past its stopping point - don't ask why!