Lack of bass

Hi all, I haven’t played my 282 plus 250 for a while and I’m runnning similar tunes through it tonight and feel is lost a fair bit of its bass…. Anyone experienced anything like that before ? Thanks all !

Date of last service, on the 250…?

Cable issue? I had a faulty Hiline in my system where the ground cable was off and it sounded thin. Maybe pull out/insert attached cables.

It’s less than a year old !

G’day Hallyboy,

Would you know the frequency of response and the efficiency of your B&W speakers? I have a pair of Celestion SL6Si speakers that have been recoiled, as I was not happy with how they sound. They are soft in the bass department, too. I understand that this is how British speakers were in their days 30 or more years ago. I do not know if today may still be the same situation. I have learnt to live and appreciate it.

I reread your original post and see where you are coming from thinking about the equipment. If both channels are the same, it would point to … I have no idea. Have you added anything to the room recently? Do you have a power conditioner to supply the mains? I am only guessing. This is a strange one.

I had a thought after a hot cup of coffee (not tea) and some raisin toast. I use the dBX App on my phone, which, apart from displaying the average and peak dB levels. It also has a frequency vs dB level graph. Possibly giving this a go will provide you with visual feedback and maybe everything is OK or not. At least you will be able to check your bottom end visually.

Warm regards,

Mitch in OZ.

Odd that you only mention your amplification. I’m not sure what you mean by playing “skmilar tunes” - are you talking about the same pieces of music, and is this the exact same system in the same room and same positioning/layout?

Have you been playing/listening on anything else since you last used that system, possibly becoming accustomed to different sound?

And have you changed, moved or disconnected/reconnected anything since last using the system with its better bass?

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Are you sitting in the same seat? Bass is very location-dependent in the listening room.

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Probably needs warming up - was it left powered off? Might still be burning in if not that old. Don’t panic.

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With respect that is rubbish. Some British speakers back in the 80s through early 90s were as tight and punchy as they are today. Certainly not all British speakers were soft in the bass… far from it. Popular genres at that time such as electro and jazz-funk would just not have sounded right with soft bass.

BTW it appears back in the day I read the Celestion SL6 were known for their recessed treble and modest bass performance, but excelled in their mids. This was in contrast to other peer brands such as Tannoy whose competing products were more V shaped in performance, providing a punchier and brighter performance but not always matching as well on certain productions.
Back at that time I used Tannoy Mercury speakers.

I feel that is most likely what you are experiencing. In regular rooms bass is at the mercy of reflections cancelling (or booming) energy depending on speaker placement and listening position.
Solutions can be more absorbing (not necessarily soft) furnishings on walls near and opposite speakers as well as adjusting speaker and listening positions. You can use products designed for the job to absorb energy (to reduce reflective energy) from specialist manufacturers, and some look quite attractive now.
It’s also worth considering bass sounds in music are generally between 100 and 400 Hz… so if there are strong cancellations here in your room around this range, then the performance will sound thin, cold and bass light. Conversely if there is a build up of energy in this range the performance will feel slow, ponderous and bloated.

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Also if speaker connections have been disturbed an obvious thing for the OP to check is that they have not been connected out of phase, an easy thing to do with resultant loss of bass. (These thoughts were behind some of my questions.)

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Well indeed, but if wired out of phase it won’t just be the bass that sounds different.

True, but the missing bass might be most likely to strike instantly.

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I had exactly the same with a Super Lumina cable I had bought s/hand

Had your ears syringed recently ?.

I did and what a difference……you would be surprised !!!

If the system hasn’t been played for a while in a dusty environment (typical of Naim users :innocent:) I would imagine it has been overwhelmed with static.

There is a demagnetise and burn in track from this disk that I have played in similar scenarios to solve issues.
Further a strip down clean is recommended.

Snake oil, you can’t demagnetise anything with a CD ….fact

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Dear Simon,

Possibly, my use of language is incorrect. I do recall reading a reviewer in a magazine and possibly a review about the Celestion SL6Si, with an aluminium dome tweeter that was not to be confused with the copper dome tweeter, the SL6 that was lacking in the bottom end. As a generalisation, the reviewer went on to say that this was the case for British speakers and amplifiers, which are the opposite of American products. I took it as a generalisation. Do I have the article? No. Just one from out-of-my-grey cell storage. I apologise if I offended you and gave misleading information.

So when I said soft in the bass, I might have said lacking in the bottom end, with a roll-off at 60 Hz or, thereabout, possibly a little higher.

Warm regards,

Mitch in Oz.

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Since I started on my hi-fi path, over 50 years ago, there have been plenty of British speakers that have been perfectly capable of full output down to 40, 30 even 20 Hz. Of course speakers with less bass extension for the same general quality inherently can be cheaper, and smaller. A bottom end rolling iff heavily below 60 or 80 Hz, maybe higher, applied to the smallest, cheapest designs. And then in the 80s there came the fashion for standmounts, some very good quality for what they did – but again inherently limited in the bass department. I have no idea if that fashion was purely British or wider - if it started in Britain perhaps that could explain what you read.

It’s likely just the nature of your setup. You’ll need a PS on the NDX2 to get it to sound decent.

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