[rwerner]

I find my ht3a's bass is too boomy in my room and wonder if plugging the bass reflex ports might help.  I prefer not to move the speakers.
I'm powering them with a conrad-johnson act6 pre-amp and a cr premier 140 amplifier.

[carusoracer]

I'm sure Jim and Dennis can help out with a formal answer.

From a Fellow Salk owner please state your room dimensions,speaker placement and proximity to the rear wall. If you are set in your current placement then your placement is exciting the bass nodes in your room and you need rooms treatments and bass traps.

I would not recommend that you plug the ports. But try and put a medium sized couch pillow directly behind your port and then listen. This will be your first indication of what will be needed. There are some good Vendors willing to help in the Acoustics forum,just state your layout and a good old Radio shack meter and a test tone CD will help narrow down what part of the frequency spectrum is causing the most problem.

The TC Sounds Woofer moves a lot of air and can over pressurize a room in a hurry that has not been treated or has issues. Take your time and also try toe in for soundstage. The speakers are not Boomy, by design or execution. It is simply a matter of damping your room. Good luck!

[zybar]

I find my ht3a's bass is too boomy in my room and wonder if plugging the bass reflex ports might help.  I prefer not to move the speakers.
I'm powering them with a conrad-johnson act6 pre-amp and a cr premier 140 amplifier.

What are your room dimensions?

Where are the speakers located?

In what range does it sound boomy?

Plugging the ports will change the sound, but I am not sure it will necessarily be better.

George

[DMurphy]

I find my ht3a's bass is too boomy in my room and wonder if plugging the bass reflex ports might help.  I prefer not to move the speakers.
I'm powering them with a conrad-johnson act6 pre-amp and a cr premier 140 amplifier.

This isn't one of the new HT3's with the revised woofer, is it?

[Nuance]

I'm sure Jim and Dennis can help out with a formal answer.

From a Fellow Salk owner please state your room dimensions,speaker placement and proximity to the rear wall. If you are set in your current placement then your placement is exciting the bass nodes in your room and you need rooms treatments and bass traps.

I would not recommend that you plug the ports. But try and put a medium sized couch pillow directly behind your port and then listen. This will be your first indication of what will be needed. There are some good Vendors willing to help in the Acoustics forum,just state your layout and a good old Radio shack meter and a test tone CD will help narrow down what part of the frequency spectrum is causing the most problem.

The TC Sounds Woofer moves a lot of air and can over pressurize a room in a hurry that has not been treated or has issues. Take your time and also try toe in for soundstage. The speakers are not Boomy, by design or execution. It is simply a matter of damping your room. Good luck!

+1  Even the best speakers in the world won't sound good in a room with poor acoustics.  They also won't sound great if they are improperly set up.  I am not saying that's what you've done, just that it's possible. 

[joelmilr]

I am new on this forum although I have been following the discussion everyday for the past half year since I discovered this site accidentally. I am strongly considering getting the HT3a and have room problems as well. From my understanding of the HT3a after writing with Jim a bit I thought the DEQX which comes with the HT3a should actually be able to solve that problem of too much bass - one that I am considerably concerned about in view of my upcoming purchase. Or is there something I am missing here?
I also want to take this opportunity to wish everyone at this forum a merry Cristhmas - this site and all of you have become a place I like to spend time reading and learning and smiling as my own expectations towards build up.
Thanks - and meanwhile I will keep imagining the sound I am going to hear im my home one of these days.
Joel

[JLM]

IMO most audio money is wasted on inferior rooms and/or WAF forced set-ups.  These folks should invest in good headphones (and I'm a "speaker guy").  I've followed the Cardias website formulas for set-up and room dimensions in my man cave with great success.

I heard the HT3's at the 2008 AKFest in small (roughly 8 x 12 x 15) rooms, and like nearly all other bass endowed speakers there, thought they produced boomy bass.  Surely a function of room size/shape.  (The speakers that didn't boom where either transmission lines or open baffles.)  Frankly the HT3's are too big for small rooms, period.

Joel, why not look into one of Jim's smaller speakers with the same ribbon tweeter?  (Actually the Song Towers had a very similar sound to the HT3 in the same room and on the same system.)

[Philistine]

Doesn't Jim also offer an option to have the ports located in the front in HT3's?
If so this might be an option to deal with the room issues.

[CatchMeIfYouCan]

A friend of mine who's also a member of this forum - AliG - he has a HT3 and he has a small room 11x13x8, and he doesn't have boomy bass problem because he treated his room well.

The bottomline is:  when it comes to high-end audio, efforts is more important than $$$. Don't expect to achieve great sound simply by spending lots of cash. If you have a small room and you are not willing to treat your room, then I think you might be better off going with Bose Lifestyle 20.

[randybessinger]

I'm sure Jim and Dennis can help out with a formal answer.

From a Fellow Salk owner please state your room dimensions,speaker placement and proximity to the rear wall. If you are set in your current placement then your placement is exciting the bass nodes in your room and you need rooms treatments and bass traps.

I would not recommend that you plug the ports. But try and put a medium sized couch pillow directly behind your port and then listen. This will be your first indication of what will be needed. There are some good Vendors willing to help in the Acoustics forum,just state your layout and a good old Radio shack meter and a test tone CD will help narrow down what part of the frequency spectrum is causing the most problem.

The TC Sounds Woofer moves a lot of air and can over pressurize a room in a hurry that has not been treated or has issues. Take your time and also try toe in for soundstage. The speakers are not Boomy, by design or execution. It is simply a matter of damping your room. Good luck!

I agree and the first thing you could do is just play bass tones from a test cd and walk around the room.  Most likely, you are the victim of a mode(s) because of speaker placement and/or where you are sitting.  If you don't want to move your speakers, can you move your seating arrangement?  If so, try finding a spot in the room where the bass is not so boomy.  One of the most amazing things you can experience is firing up a sub with bass tones and walking the length and width of the room.  Some places will have very little bass, and others (like the proximity to walls) will have way too much bass.  As they say in the real estate business, location, location, location

[jsalk]

rwerner -

Getting back to your original post here are some thoughts:

There in nothing inherent in the HT3 design that would cause boomy bass response.  So I will assume it is a room mode issue.

You asked about stuffing the ports.  This would be easy to try.  You will definitely loose some bass extension, but that may not be a major issue depending on what type of music you enjoy listening to.  You can try very lightly stuffing them and see if that helps.  If not, stuff them tightly. This solution will involve some trade-offs where bass extension is concerned.  The F3 would be moved up to about 45Hz with the ports stuffed, but they may not excite room modes to the extent they appear to be at present.  It is worth a try.

Another potential solution would be to place large pillows behind the ports of the HT3's to absorb some of the port output. 

It would still be helpful to know the size of the room and the distance from the rear and side walls.

I hope this helps.

- Jim

[ctviggen]

What are your room dimensions?

Where are the speakers located?

In what range does it sound boomy?

Plugging the ports will change the sound, but I am not sure it will necessarily be better.

George

Room dimensions are about 11ft wide by 22 feet long.  Seven traps in the room, all Realtraps:  2 mondo (corners near speakers), 3 regular (2s at reflection, 1 on ceiling), 2 soffit (not made anymore, in corners away from speakers), 2 thin (put between speakers when playing).  I also have two ASC traps under my two subs. 

The speakers are about 5 feet from the front wall, about 3 feet from the side walls.

It's boomy only in the low frequencies, below midbass. 

[zybar]

What are your room dimensions?

Where are the speakers located?

In what range does it sound boomy?

Plugging the ports will change the sound, but I am not sure it will necessarily be better.

George

Room dimensions are about 11ft wide by 22 feet long.  Seven traps in the room, all Realtraps:  2 mondo (corners near speakers), 3 regular (2s at reflection, 1 on ceiling), 2 soffit (not made anymore, in corners away from speakers), 2 thin (put between speakers when playing).  I also have two ASC traps under my two subs. 

The speakers are about 5 feet from the front wall, about 3 feet from the side walls.

It's boomy only in the low frequencies, below midbass. 

Bob,

It doesn't help that your room width is half your length - that will reinforce room based nodes.

Does the boominess change as you play around with placement?

Any chance of getting some measurements (even basic Radio Shack meter) so you know where below the mid-bass the boominess is happening?

George

[Nuance]

Wait, if the room width is 11' wide and the speakers are 3 feet from the side walls each...  Please tell me you have the HT3's set up on the long wall.    If not, having them only 5 feet apart is probably part of the issue. 

I was confused for a second because you posted under two different names, but I assume you are the same person. 

[Big Red Machine]

What are your room dimensions?

Where are the speakers located?

In what range does it sound boomy?

Plugging the ports will change the sound, but I am not sure it will necessarily be better.

George

Room dimensions are about 11ft wide by 22 feet long.  Seven traps in the room, all Realtraps:  2 mondo (corners near speakers), 3 regular (2s at reflection, 1 on ceiling), 2 soffit (not made anymore, in corners away from speakers), 2 thin (put between speakers when playing).  I also have two ASC traps under my two subs. 

The speakers are about 5 feet from the front wall, about 3 feet from the side walls.

It's boomy only in the low frequencies, below midbass. 

Keep them 7 or 8 feet apart on the 11 foot wall.  Trap the crap out of the corners directly behind them.  Then absotb at the first reflections and don't forget the ceiling.  Give that a try, report back.  Triplicate, with a nice cover sheet.