Have your say & ask the experts

A few weeks ago I posted a question about replacing the Mezzo 6's with something with a bit more bass delivery.  I reconfigured my Twin Cyrus 8-powers to a twin mono bi-amp / bi-wire setup and it helped some, but I'm still not 100% satisfied. 

Maybe on some CDs it is simply that the bass isn't in the recording to begin with.  I certainly think that's the case with many of the newer CD recordings out there.  I swear they mix them for iPods (which I can't abide) and forget about we crusty old folks with our out-moded hifi.  I mean, been to Comet lately?  You can't buy ANY hifi there any more, just surround sound in a box setups (yuk!!).

Okay hifi snob rant over.  Now the question.

My system is set up around my TV, with the hifi doubling up as the surround system.  The TV is in a bay window and the speakers sit on the edge of the bay with a good 18 inches or so between their backs and the angled sides of the bay.

Is it possible that this position is the cause of the weaker than desired bass?  Moving the room around is possible but a PITA to do, especially if it doesn't improve things and I end up moving everything back around.

I have a very similar set up, with a Marantz bi-amp into mezzo 6's and they are also in a U shaped wall feature 14-16" from the wall although their is no window. After a good 3-4 months and a bit of playing with their positioning I have realised that they do create deep bass but perhaps not as dramatically as other speakers I have heard or owned. Curiously enough though I have found that further away in my kitchen which is attached to my living area, the bass sounds and feels deeper than on my couch directly in front of the speakers. I have become familiar with the way they reproduce bass and now enjoy their presentation, I did feel a little uninspired at their bass initially, especially knowing the RS6 and B&W 684 where much more forceful in this aspect but I don't feel disappointed any longer, as now I feel that the RS6 are perhaps a little too bass heavy.

 Positioning is pretty important, closer to the back wall (or window) will deepen them a bit, although if they are relatively new I think you need to get used to them. I think they are a great speaker but it takes time to appreciate their delivery, very clear in the mid range and treble, bass is articulate and deep but isn't as punchy as many other floorstanders . Don't put them on the bay yet, give them time... 

Darren Heal:

Maybe on some CDs it is simply that the bass isn't in the recording to begin with.  I certainly think that's the case with many of the newer CD recordings out there.  I swear they mix them for iPods (which I can't abide) and forget about we crusty old folks with our out-moded hifi.

Very true.  I listen exclusively to recent music, say the last 10 years or so, but the other day I put on Fleetwood Mac's first CD just to see how it would sound and I was blown away by how fat the bass was.  There's no doubt that most modern CDs do not have that type of bass content.  Also, the volume was way low compared to modern CDs.  I almost never listen past 9 o'clock on my amp and that Fleetwood Mac CD required 10:30 to 11 before it was loud.  I think this contributed to the fat bass sound.  Treble was also more rolled off than I'm use to with modern music.

I have listed to a pair of Mezzo 8's and found the bass to be lacking (that's compared to my system ... but could have been due to the listening room or cambridge audio amps/cd attached?)

as far as cd's, I dont think bass has 'been adjusted' for ipods etc ... I find (on my system), that some of the newer cd's such as Black eyed peas, amy winehouse, white stripes etc etc have deep bass ... and the same applies to older cd's ... but then again, I am listening through a pair of B&W DM2 speakers (transmission speakers)

I was talking to the guys in the local hifi shoppe about this a few months back.  One of them has an old reel-to-reel tape deck with VU meter on it (remember them?).  He remarked that an awful lot of "modern" stuff he records has the VU meters almost motionless, indicating the combined output (high, middle, low and everyting in between) is pretty much constant, mixed for the iPod and those God-awful in-ear "headphones".  Put something older through and the needles start bouncing like they're meant to.  I guess the mixes these days are perhaps not bass-heavy or bass-light, but with a more or less constant output, the dynamics of many rythmic bass lines is being lost in the overall mix?

 Still theink the Mezzo 6's could do with moree oomph-factor and don't perhaps suit my Cyrus system.