Anemic sound, acoustics?

[Madao]

I don't know if anemic is the right word to describe it. It at times sounds lifeless and yet the bass is very boomy. I've not tried the foam bungs that came with them yet and wasn't sure if it would help. I'm hoping it's the room, lack of space etc that's causing my issue as it's the easiest option for me to fix considering this was only meant to be temporary accommodation but then corona happened. I included a picture to give you an idea. (Ignore the bart simpsons and poor lighting)

Source is PC
> 3.5mm to RCA (The idea was to use the SPDIF header for a bracket to use digital out to > digital in of the Yamaha but the item from china never arrived )
> Yamaha A-S501
> Q Acoustics 3050i

 

[Koeitje]

Do you have a way to measure what kind of frequency response we are looking at?

Also, are you allergic to furniture or something .

 

[Madao]

Do you have a way to measure what kind of frequency response we are looking at?

No. I don't know much about that.

Also, are you allergic to furniture or something .

I'm trying not to buy furniture so it's less to move later, but yeah it's not ideal. Even my 'bed' is just a mattress on the floor.

 

[tomtoo]

Did you check the connection on the 3.5mm plug?
Edit says: In/out and rotate the plug a little. does it crackle when you rotate ?

 

[ZolaIII]

Get a deacent DAC or at least SPDIF cable. Lack of furniture & direct path to speakers is a good thing, tho position is bad it needs to be at least half the meter from every wall.

 

[Madao]

Get a deacent DAC or at least SPDIF cable. Lack of furniture & direct path to speakers is a good thing, tho position is bad it needs to be at least half the meter from every wall.

I wanted to use the DAC in my Yamaha amp but it's not doable without a spdif bracket for my motherboard. I can only find them coming from china something that's difficult at the moment as you're no doubt aware.

This is the item I'm talking about.
This was another option. (Using the optical out on it) But seems limited to 16bit / 48khz

You think the positioning could be having a big impact on the sound then? I don't think I can fit them better until I move. Possible... but would make viewing TV difficult.

 

[pozz]

You will not be able to deal with your issue directly unless you measure your room. Positioning where you sit vs. where your speakers are has a massive impact on sound. Small rooms especially have these problems. If you are interested in figuring out positioning you can use a room mode calculator like the one here, but the easiest way to deal with your problem is to get an UMIK-1 and learn to use REW to EQ (to pull down bass peaks).

You can ignore the DAC thing for now. When you are ready to spend about 100 or 200 GBP you can get a long-term dedicated unit.

 

[ZolaIII]

@Madao you think DAC on Yamaha A-S501 is a good one? I doubt that. Analog input line is rated at 99 dB SNR. There are cheap DAC's that perform rather great and one intended for mobile use like TempoTec Sonata HD Pro would set you back 40~42$ (from China). Speakers really need space to breath and there's no EQ which will eliminate side walls bass hump, but you can always try. You can try REW or Math Audio Room EQ (which I use), of course you will need a deacent microphone for that (i hope you have one). It will help fur sure but still speakers can't be placed to close to the wall. I thrown out a lot of furniture to have direct path to my Denon speakers in the end I even bought DPL projector so I can get monitor out of the way. DAC dose make the biggest difference even I used before good old Creative sound card & not a integrated one. As long (DAC) as it can pump 2V output it doesn't really matter for what it's been primary designed for. I am certain your integrated sound card doesn't meet this criteria and that's probably the reason for what you discussed as sounding "anemic". For instance I have a Topping NX1a to resolve problems with anemic outputs from phones, BT, dongles & what ever for headphones off course but it works the same way for line inputs. At the end please reconsider DAC and try to move speakers a little more from side & back walls (for the start).
Best regards.

 

[pozz]

@Madao you think DAC on Yamaha A-S501 is a good one? I doubt that. Analog input line is rated at 99 dB SNR. There are cheap DAC's that perform rather great and one intended for mobile use like TempoTec Sonata HD Pro would set you back 40~42$ (from China). Speakers really need space to breath and there's no EQ which will eliminate side walls bass hump, but you can always try. You can try REW or Math Audio Room EQ (which I use), of course you will need a deacent microphone for that (i hope you have one). It will help fur sure but still speakers can't be placed to close to the wall. I thrown out a lot of furniture to have direct path to my Denon speakers in the end I even bought DPL projector so I can get monitor out of the way. DAC dose make the biggest difference even I used before good old Creative sound card & not a integrated one. As long (DAC) as it can pump 2V output it doesn't really matter for what it's been primary designed for. I am certain your integrated sound card doesn't meet this criteria and that's probably the reason for what you discussed as sounding "anemic". For instance I have a Topping NX1a to resolve problems with anemic outputs from phones, BT, dongles & what ever for headphones off course but it works the same way for line inputs. At the end please reconsider DAC and try to move speakers a little more from side & back walls (for the start).
Best regards.

DACs do not work the same way for line-level inputs like RCAs. The input impedance is much greater compared to headphones, so power delivery is not an issue. The main issue with using a 3.5mm out to the Yamaha will be high noise (low SNR) coming out of the computer.

There are of course other performance advantages to a good DAC but it is unlikely that this is the OP's chief cause of trouble given that the posted pic looks like floorstanders in very small room with no furniture (so a very reflective environment). Aside from generally uneven FR, having them so close to the corners will cause boundary gain.