I find my speakers lacking in bass energy but I don’t know if it is the room rather than the speaker? I think it is.
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Very likely to be the room. Are you say in a “null point” in the room?
Got to get the postioning PRECISELY right…if not, sound ‘ordinary’.
Fitting in my campervan to enjoy full scale music on camping trips. (Ditto rest of system)
No seriously. I’m strongly considering building another pair of speakers because of this. It’s annoying because some music just can sound A bit dull… There are so many positives about my speakers but they just miss a bit of sparkle compared to some others I’ve owned. I’ll definitely be keeping them. I think I’ve arrived at the answer. Build multiple pairs and swap out throughout the year when I get bored of one.
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In my case I made a non-music observation because I am unaware of anything mine aren’t good at in terms of playing music, other than if the music or recording are bad they sound bad. Of course some speakers might be able to do better, but that doesn’t mean mine don’t do well. My main genre are classical (from chamber to dramatic orchestral), prog rock, opera and heavy rock, but also some other things including solo piano. I don’t play jazz, rap, soul, big band nor the vast majority of mainstream pop.
No worries @Innocent_Bystander I can help you out if you like…
You said that your speakers don’t sound great unless they are in the right spot in the room. I’m sure this is not all Room. Maybe dispersion characteristics of the speakers partially.
Are your speakers 100% cosmetically finished? I believe you said they were a half finished DIY fabrication?? Maybe they could look better? I don’t know I’ve never seen a picture.
Your welcome. 
Right now, because they know they are on death row pending one of several alternatives, my Epos M12s can do no wrong… Hifi is intuitive, it knows when its for the chop and steps up…
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Could be. As usual the pressare is higher closer to walls and corners. Especially on the speaker wall.
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After many years and getting involved with music production I now realise that most Hi-Fi speakers are relatively large compromises, despite their marketing claims… especially when interacting with your room. They approximate to the sound perhaps focussing on certain attributes to give the impression of detail, air, rhythm or dynamics etc, after all the aim of most consumer Hi-Fi speakers is to sound pleasing, rather than act as lab tools.
So in the end I opt for speakers that err on the dull side… where in fact they are possibly the most neutral… but perhaps give me a wide sonic gamut on productions, although can be unflattering to some recordings… perhaps especially some classical recordings. It’s funny in this regard I find so many parallels with imaging…
I use ATC speakers… definitely not perfect… but I am familiar and know what to expect.
If I want to be as accurate as I can be, then it is magnetic planar headphones for me.
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The active ELAC ARF-51 we changed to recently do many things right. But with their relatively small size they do not deliver as much scale as other speakers I have owned in the past, like the Infinity Kappa 90 or Pioneer TAD S-1EX. Real scale is something I feel only large speakers can deliver.
However, I am unsure if it is in my head only, as you don’t see these large loudspeakers in front of you. Together with the sub these speakers deliver well and balanced over all frequencies with a wide and deep soundstage. Maybe it also has to do with the tweeters being higher positioned on larger speakers?
So what my speakers don’t do that well? Deliver scale.
BR,
Richard
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Interesting you say that as Peter Thomas of PMC that make studio monitors has said much the same. If you listen to the musicians there in the studio……the resultant playback is nowhere as good……a compromise indeed. Peter said all the low hanging fruit in speaker design has been taken, and it’s now a long hard slog to improve on current technology.
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I couldn’t agree more … thanks Gazza…
and let’s not forget the actual process where, to put it simplistically, the recorded mix is processed on most commercial recordings to sound its best most consistently for its target audience… this also, in my opinion, often downgrades the sonic image.
It make some smile there are even mastering production processes to make a track sound more ‘Hi-Fi’.
Thanks for your thoughts.
It is the room, rather than dispersion (though of course dispersion and room are related: We have a room just over 7m by just under 7m, with a couple of angled sections where there would be corners, and deep stub walls in the middle where the room was extended. The stub walls hopefully will be cut back some time, which I am sure will improve the room, but the main reason for the multi positioning is a large picture window, with a 12ft wide blind-come-screen for movie use, so the speakers in “non critical” position sit too wide apart for best music listening and with backs hard up against the wall in the 45 degree corner angles beyond the blind-screen sides. DSP tames the worst of the adverse positioning effects. Repositioning somewhat, to be in front of the window/blind and pulled forward 0.4m gives the best response I can get in the room as it is (much testing with REW), requiring less DSP to get approaching flat response
As for cosmetics, this previous post of mine I think covers:
Iv’e had that. Got there in time though.
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Cannot honestly say my speakers [PMC MB2se] do anything bad. Play a wide selection of musical taste , from celtic harp to full orchestral to folk to Hendrix , etc.
They don’t know what they are playing after all.
I do give them full opportunity to work as they should by having a fully treated dedicated listening room.
Obviously no speaker is perfect , so if i did want to improve on them the only thing i would consider would be too convert them to the MB2 XBD se version.
My speakers don’t like RAP
Just a thought: perhaps your amplification is a bit “polite”. I have only very briefly heard a 200/202, and thought it precise and “etched”.
A system is the sum of its’ parts: your speakers
look superb, in a good sized room, I assume: maybe a pair of 135’s would liven things up 
I feel the same way about mine, Vivid Audio Kaya 25s. But they are relatively small 2-way floorstanders with a bottom end that reaches just below 40 Hz in room. While their scale and authority is really impressive, they won’t deliver the effortless deep bass and slam larger speakers can.
Does that qualify as something they aren’t good at? Not really imo as it’s inevitable given their size, design and construction. That would be the same as stating a Fiat 500 is not good at pulling a horse trailer.
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No, it’s not that, it’s the difference between speaker drivers. Cone material etc. The seas drivers are most often very neutral and natural. As any Kudos Titan owner would likely attest to. I absolutely love them. Don’t get me wrong. Dull was probably not the right word to use. I just sometimes miss the scan Speak revelator drivers little extra something in the midrange. Hard to know if it should actually be there or not but it was nice.