Improve nearfield sound

lee1101

lee1101

lee1101

Soldato
Joined
18 Nov 2011
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Kent
I have a pair of Q Acoustic 3020's with a SMSL amp for music and general PC use. The speakers are both on my desk and sit about 75 cm away from me. They are fairly close to the wall, maybe 10cm away.

I find the sound quality to be really average, especially the base levels. If I sit back further, maybe 1-1.5m then the sound quality improves massively. I don't really have any of moving the speakers any further away from where they sit at the moment.

Is there anything I can do to improve the sound quality? Or would I be better off going for some studio monitors or even a 2.1 setup?

Thanks :)
 
should either try moving the speakers wider apart, or turn the speakers in more, or a combination of both of these.

It would also help to have the speakers on desk stands and raised to ear level.
 
Doesn't help with them being so close to the wall and rear ported. Are they toed in at all? If not, that would probably explain why it sounds better when you move away, as you enter the sweet spot.

Pushing them farther apart will widen the sound stage, but imaging will suffer. Up to you what you'd prefer. Generally you'd want them as far apart from each other as you sit away from them.

And yeah, put them on stands so the tweeters are closer to ear level.
 
Thanks for the replies, I have tried the above and it helped a bit but not as much as I would have hoped. Everything sounds great apart from the bass which is lacking.

Would it be simple enough to add something like the Wharfdale SW-150 sub to my setup? I know this has high level in and out but not too sure if my little amp (SMSL SA-50) would be sufficient.
 
Can't see any reason why it shouldn't work. You'd run two sets of cables from the amplifier; one set to the speakers, one set to the subwoofer. The SA50 won't power the sub at all, as that has it's own built in amplifier. Subwoofer high level connection to a stereo amplifier is only used to listen to the audio signal.
 
I found an old sub in the loft that was part of a 2.1 system I used to use. I’ve plugged that in to the sub out on the sound card and that seems to have worked! It’s not the best but adds that little bit of extra bass that was lacking.
 
Sound should only be sent to the sub output on the sound card, if speaker output is set to 4.1, 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1. With 2.1, all frequencies are sent to the main stereo output, as 2.1 speakers use just the one jack to connect to the sound card. Crossover inside 2.1 speakers sorts out the bass from the higher frequencies.

With stereo, you should be setting the sound card output to 2.0 or 2.1 (they both do the same thing), regardless of whether you use stereo speakers, 2.1 speakers or headphones. If you've set the output to 4.1 or above, so the subwoofer receives bass, then certain sounds won't be sent to the connected speakers.

Best way is to use a splitter cable so you can connect both cable from amplifier and cable from the subwoofer to the save main stereo output on the sound card.
 
Thanks for the help, I had a splitter lying around as well so have gone down the route you said above. Actually quite happy with how it sounds now! :)
 
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