Apogee Full Range and bass

[dazzdax]

Dear friends,

Through my Apogee Full Range I hear a bass that is not very "real" sounding. The bass goes not very deep (35Hz is pretty much the limit) and it is not room filling. It has a dry character to it without real "weight" like with cone bases speakers (I have KEF 300 monitor speakers and they have more room filling bass).
My bass amps are Ncore NC1200 based monoblocs from Apollon Audio.
What is the culprit here for the bass characteristics?

Chris

[Zardoz]

My first guess would be the amps, but it could be cables, amp power cord, or a combination, but you should definitely get more than 35hz with those.

[Zardoz]

Sorry, but in my response I made an assumption, which we should never do. Do you have your Full Ranges in their optimum location? If you don't have them located properly out from the walls, back and sides, you could have them sitting in a null spot. This would cause the problem you are describing.
Good listening,
Z

[dazzdax]

Well, I didn't change speaker location.
I'm using an electronic (tube) crossover that recently received an upgrade (new Venhaus ODAM capacitors in the "low" output section).
I perceived the change in bass characteristics after this upgrade.
Is it possible that the ODAM capacitors need more break in or is the bass change something that is not related to this crossover upgrade?

Chris

[Zardoz]

Well, you know the old saying, "if something has changed, then something has changed." If they sounded good before the upgrade, then that's pretty much what's going on. How many hours do you have on the Xover so far? The caps could certainly need more time. There is also the possibility that the caps are not the best match for your system, but I would guess the upgrade was done by someone who has made this change before, which would make this a low chance of being the issue.
Also, some times cleaner, tighter bass can sound like you are not getting as much bass. If the previous bass was full of distortion, it would have been coloring the sound and sound fuller, but not accurate. You should "adjust" to that change over time though as the caps burn in.
Good listening,
Z

[Vansloneker]

Additional to the good reply from Zardoz I can say, every change being amp, speaker, wire or playback device, brings a different sound with different accents and likes.

[Graz]

Hello Chris

This is all part of the fun and games of xover design for the mfr's too You can change something in another frequency region, and relative balance is suddenly lost when the maths say it should be right, but after a cap run-in period or panel break in period all is as planned!

Graz

[dazzdax]

Could this bass issue also coming from inverted phase of the bass amplifier?
What kind of sound do you hear if one of the inputs (either the treble or the bass) has inverted phase?

Chris

[Zardoz]

I'm not sure exactly how to describe it to you, but if you think that's the issue, you can swap the bass panel speaker contacts to see if it corrects the lack of bass. Just swap the + to -, and the - to +, leads to the bass panel from the xover. If it is a phase issue, this will invert the phase. Maybe it got swapped when you had the xover redone.