I’m a big fan of the SBLs and I’m aware that I did get more bass with solid floors/walls than I do now, but I don’t believe I’ve ever felt the lowest octaves of sound. As others have said, they roll off.
That said, what I actually experience is that they do go down lower and more convincingly than I will hear consistently. Suitably provoked with an FM broadcast, the right LP or the right CD I do get a bass response that catches me off guard sometimes.
Similar to one of the earlier posts, mine are active on 4x135s, and there is more bass through that route but not a lot and certainly not to fill in the bottom end of the register.
I’m following the subwoofer threads with interest but I’d still prefer a ‘natural’ solution.
I had an idea to repurpose the Aeons as a pair of subs. (better this than overdrive the SBLs)
I’m not using them and have removed and sold the old electrostatic panels so I can get my trusty jig saw out and cut off everything above the sealed box bass unit.
Yes this is a great test track. It’s the smoothness of the violins and balance of the bass what matters here. SBLs against a solid wall will play ss’s organ symphony well.
Are you in the position to move the sbls just for a test how they can sound when positioned against a hard wall?
In that case they are probably the wrong speakers for your room, being specifically designed to use the wall to reinforce the otherwise severely diminished bass, which could be from as high as about 250Hz, much higher than subwoofers are normally designed to go so using a sub to try to fill in might not be wholly satisfactory.
At least you’ve identified why you the music doesn’t sound as you thought it should (and that is notwithstanding the question as to whether the SBL can go deep enough undiminished even if it is against a solid wall).
I have over ten different versions of the symphony. The early recording on Mercury Living Presence with Marcel Dupré at the organ has very extended bass particularly in the slow movement.
I suggest using REW software to find tge response of the SBLs and what is needed to supplement. Whilst I haven’t any experience of SBLs, my understanding of wall sound reinforcement suggests that the output is boosted below about 250Hz, so my guess is that the SBLs well away from the wall would have a stepped roll off from about there, and for frequency balance might need supplementing higher than the normal sub top limit of around 40-80 Hz (and of course,with reference to your opening post, the bottom octave is 20-40 Hz…!)
This is correct. When we did a AV1 demonstration with Naim in the 90s, the SBLs were used as rears in the hotel function room. It was a bit big so the SBLs were placed about halfway down the back of the room, not the rear wall. Naim reps had actually brought walls with them to place behind the SBLs! Visually they looked like sections of office partition. But my god were they heavy. They needed to be to fool the SBLs into behaving as though there was a load bearing wall behind them.
To get anything like correct performance from SBLs, they really must not be toed in or pulled away from a wall.
If I was the OP, I’d just look for a different speaker that suited my setup better. Of the same vintage as SBLs would be Linn Kabers. Which I have to say, I think were far superior if fitted with the Kustone plinths. .
Since owning various ESL, I am hard to please when it comes to box speakers and have tried to replace the ailing Aeons with Yamaha and Q-Acoustics floor standers and more recently, TDL RTL3se.
The SBLs are the only ones that I like and don’t want to risk changing them for something else.
Sadly, there is no option to put them against a wall so I’ll first use REW to examine the LF output and then experiment with one Aeon as a sub. I
I can build an active crossover with Linkwitz Transform equalisation (I’m not going to try and equalise the SBLs).
Being retired, I have plenty of time to experiment and it doesn’t make sense to change them just because the bottom octaves are weak in my smallish lounge.
I often hear SBLs being compared with ESLs. I doubt SBLs can image anywhere near as good but will have better bass to compensate. I think the comparison comes from the lack of boxiness that both seem to have. SBLs are certainly more room friendly.
Yes, the SBL’s disappear by not drawing attention to themselves, not dissimilar to the Aeons but with better imaging because there is no rear radiation to bounce around and blur the image.
However, they are not that room friendly when it comes to needing wall placement for bass enhancement.
I have modified my Aeon bass unit and measured the LF resonance which is 62Hz, Qts of 0.78, & Rdc of 5.6
I have ordered a Linkwitz transform pcb from Rod Elliot (ESP) and while waiting for it to reach me from Australia, I’ll measure the SBLs in their listening positions away from the walls.