To upgrade the bass, one should simply get a pair of subwoofers. Isn’t it straightforward?
I got more and better bass with Fezz Sculptor power block. It shifted the balance in very nice way towards more weight.
@HappyListener and @Simon-in-Suffolk i have always had issues with my room lay out and what I assume are first reflection coming from he side walls to my listening position. It’s hard for me to change my listening position. I would say I’ve gone from being 90% happy to 99% happy with the sound, by moving my speaker closer together and further into the room.
I was just hoping/thinking that some Naimers might have heard ‘bass’ changes to their systems with various cables etc.
I read somewhere on this forum that a 2nd hicap gave more weight to the bass? If a few people tell me this, then it’s a direction to look at. @garcon mentions the Chord M6 is good for lower end, I could look at this if it gets a few mentions?
As most of us have experienced. We can’t really complain at being 99% with the sound. We are never 100% otherwise we would never tweak and upg
In my experience having Naim Powerlines across the full system is very beneficial for bass, much more so than on one or two boxes.
Are those speaker spikes sitting straight on slate ?
Thanks. Like I’ve mention now below, I’ve played a little with the room lay out and had a lot of success. I even removed a built in cabinet so the room was more symmetrical . I even swapped my speakers and rack around so the speakers are further from the side walls and closer together. The most obvious thing now is just to move my listening position forward, but the better half is against it
You may have to scratch your inch… yes power supplies can give shifts in tonal presentation as well as help components resolve and amplify more apparent detail…
However if you are unhappy with the overall balance of your system, it’s unlikely such changes will affect that… they may subtly tweak it.
You should also bear in mind when members describe the effects of new components to their system… if the affect is positive hyperbole and EEE (enhance, exaggerate, embellish) is sometimes used, sometimes to help justify their purchase. Not being critical, and is probably natural, but do be cautious in deriving cause and effect from such things.
The other thing you should bear in mind is that productions vary in balance, so some masters will have more low end energy than others, and others will have more high end… this is a fact of life with commercially available music.
So I suggest you focus on the mids… where voices are… does your system sound natural and balanced across a range of recording types and voice groups, male and female voices as well as pianos and strings…
If you get this right then you can focus on the other ends… but a word of caution from my experience, a system setup to provide great bass slam and drive can get quickly tiring on certain tracks… as the tracks have not been mastered to be replayed with such systems in mind… or even the mastering setup was not set up that way… so I would suggest for maximum enjoyment across a range of music/audio, focus on those mids, and then adapt to a slightly curtailed extreme bass and high end. If tge mids are good, your brain fills in a lot of the rest… if the mids are wrong it can become irritating and distracting.
Not now. I removed the slate and it made a massive improvement. The slate was just sitting on the carpet, so in a way they weren’t grounded. Great midrange, but not quite right. I then spiked the speakers into the floorboards and the whole system became more balanced and enjoyable (apart from the 1% I’m still working on!)
Thanks and all noted & understandable, although if the opportunity ever presents, I think exploring the room more would yield far bigger benefits than changing kit. It’s not just about managing first reflections with bass, as bass romps around a room, and can contaminate the highs & mids.
And much of this depends on what music you like to listen to, as jazz (as an example) has bass but it isn’t at the levels of pop & rock. There again, albums by Natalie Merchant and Alison Krauss can have it in spades, and very low down.
You could add another HiCap to the 282 or switch to a S’Cap (funds allowing), both of these acting to add more detail and presence – but this removes the forward nature of the 282, which not all favour. My suspicion is the bass performance won’t change materially from what you’ve already got.
Would it be possible to try having the speakers opposite the sofa? They would then sound more immediate and less like at the end of a tube. That would avoid them being either side of the door, which would be more practical.
I once added a second Hicap, albeit with an 82, and it made pretty much no difference. A Supercap was much better.
One other thought - a 552. It is just brilliant in terms of getting you close to the music. I had mine with a 300 and the drive and bass control were extraordinary. But try the speakers opposite the sofa first.
To be honest, I think my first description of what I’m after was perhaps a bit heavy handed.
I’m very happy (99% anyway) with the sound. The 606 as so revealing in the midrange and sound great on most tracks and styles of music.
I’m only after a tweak. For example, swapping my powerline to the NAP300 was a great start to what I want to achieve (and yes, I should really have powerline on everything )
Well if you are after a tweak, then powerlines, powersupplies, interconnects, supports, burndy flexing etc are where it’s at…
BTW revealing mid range I don’t put in the same bucket as natural mid range.
When you hear a recorded flat voice (ie with no reverb) does it sound like it’s real and in the room? That’s what I call natural. Revealing can also be associated with frequency peaks and highlighting…
I use voices as a test, as your brain is programmed to recognize them.
Thanks @HungryHalibut. This is side wall. It come with a nice hole in it, plus a Xmas tree at the moment . A 552 is an option in a few years as they are becoming more “affordable”. This is one reason I’ve been putting off a supercap etc.
My two main weak links are the non DR hicap and the cheap power block. My standard cables are also my many weak links. I just don’t know which on to start with…
That picture looks a lot better. I think the original you posted must be an extreme wide angle shot, making the room look long and thin. What are the dimensions of the room?
You mentioned that moving the power line to the 300 improved things so maybe start by adding more.
If you stream, try a free trial of Roon, it has a parametric eq included that will let you play with tone control.
If you got four powerlines and a MusicWorks you’d be looking at £3,000 plus. It’s very good and that’s what I had and would probably get in your shoes. The advantage is that it would work with everything in the future.
A cheaper but excellent alternative is a Hydra. There is a four header on eBay at the moment. Why not try it before spending big money.
I’d hang on with adding more bits and spend a bit of time on the speaker positioning with perhaps a bit more of a move towards the rear wall - you can start with 20cm from the back wall and move out from there. The 606s are great speakers and you have a nice system up front, so get the speaker positioning sorted and then look at what to upgrade next.
Hi, I also think you have room to put your speakers closer to the end of the room. it’s for free and might improve your sound : )
if you want to try harder consider friends of mine had good experience adding not 1 but 2 subs, to keep stereo image
last but not least try with other spekers cables, they impact the sound : )
Thank. It might be a little too much at this stage, but I would love to demo a rel sub. Those that have them seam to swear by them.
After trying with speaker position then my gut feeling from your pictures is that you should try bigger speakers, I listened to the T606’s and T707’s in a similar room size to yours and the main difference was how easily the T707’s can fill the room and with that you would feel more bass. Another vote for a Supercap, I thought this was really good upgrade over a Hicap on a 282.
You don’t have to spend a penny just move the speakers back even a couple of inches or so will be enough to find the sweet spot.
Remember all albums are mixed differently it’s all a compromise.
Trying to get single number percentages for everything will drive you nuts.
Just listen don’t analyse.