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Bass in Audioengine A5+

P

Pegi

Limp Gawd
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May 31, 2005
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I decided to go from my 5.1 system to the Audioengine 2.0, which is paired with my SoundBlaster Z soundcard. I use these almost exclusively for gaming and just wanted to downsize without giving up quality. I thought I could make up the bass by using the equalizer settings in the Creative software. I wasn't thinking...it just never occurred to me that these plug into the headphone jack and are considered headphones rather than speakers. Can't use the equalizer settings.

The speakers sound great and--for me--were pricey enough as is. A little bass would be nice, though. Is there any way to pump up the bass on these other than saving up for a sub?
 
Yeah there's really no way else of going about it if you're looking for straight up low end. Even when I had a massive Polk tower speaker set up on my PC I was still missing that extra oomph on the low end, only a sub can solve this problem.
 
Thanks for the replies. I know I was just reaching for straws and hoping for a cheaper alternative. Perhaps someone would be in the market to buy my old Creative Gigaworks set, minus the sub...which I no longer have, and I can put the proceeds towards a matching Audioengine sub.

And thanks for the link, HammerSandwich; a new site for me!
 
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Although what he's saying is sound, it is worth noting that the link posted is actual for a different model for Audio Engine, as your a5+ have the larger 5.25" drivers. Regardless, EQ'ing up the low end in software is likely to cause distortion.
 
Positioning of the speakers and your seating position can affect bass response greatly.
Soft furnishings and solid furniture near speakers will have an effect as well.

Make sure both speakers are on the same wall, the same distance from the wall. Moving them away from the wall will increase lower bass while reducing upper bass, adjust to suit.
Too far from a wall and you will move them beyond their lowest bass response and will gain no benefit from the wall.
Putting one speaker in a corner (near 2 walls) will help boost bass.

Your seating position may be devoid of decent bass.
Being nearer a wall can help.

Play music and walk round your room to see where the best bass response is found.
Try to get your seat near a better response position.
This may require you to move your PC desk.


Once you have the best 'natural' bass response and it still isnt enough, this solution may be ok for you.
Equalizer APO / Documentation Wiki / Documentation
This adds an EQ to system wide audio, so it affects everything.
(Except when you play audio with a player utilising WASAPI exclusive mode, ASIO etc, they do a direct connection to the hardware from the player, windows audio efects are ignored)
Its not the simplest EQ system but it works very well and allows very fine grained tuning. I tried it out a few years ago.
 
Thank you for the suggestion, Nenu. I think--while these speakers are really terrific in so many ways and I intend to keep them--they might not have been the best choice for primarily gaming. They need to be on my desktop; as such, there is only maybe 4 feet between them rather than the recommended 6. That might have something to do with it. I wonder, too, if it makes a difference that they're just sitting on my desktop--not on stands. Perhaps raising them to ear level might be helpful?

In any event, the sound is clear, precise, and concise. Voice in games is beautifully clear and seems to come from that magical middle space where my center speaker used to be. But some games that started off with heavy bass music don't have that now. Not a deal breaker, but it was the source of my original question. I may well just get used to it. Do appreciate all the good information and the links.
 
If you cant be asked with my suggestions or they dont do enough, as suggested above, get a sub.
No point in not having the sound you want.
Not enough bass can be a let down.

I've been playing with a 1KW seat shaker again.
Its not the best thing for music (some songs benefit but you have to tweak it for every song).
For gaming, its great but again needs tweaking a bit. At least not every 4 minutes like for music!
My sub does 16Hz and is pretty nice, the shaker adds shock to explosions :p

I wouldnt be without at least a good sub.
 
16hz? Do you have multiple 15" or 18" subs? Smaller drivers just flop around with huge distortion and compression at that frequency. You need large surfaces to move air efficiently at that frequency.

Either a horn or huge area of drivers.
 
Its the BK Monolith DF.

Beer typo.
I meant 15Hz not 16Hz :p


Think what you like, its bloody good!
 
HammerSandwich said:
Sure it can be 16Hz but not at high levels :happy:
Click to expand...
Well actually not even low levels. High quality that is. A small piston loses grip of air when frequency drops so it leads to all sorts of problems. Distortion, compression, efficiency loss etc. It's a bit like waving a paddle while standing vs waving it at 100mph speed. Former causes little to no resistance (and there by no pressure changes called sound) and latter will blow you on your back.

While you may be able to hear and feel 16hz even from a smaller sub it comes at a price of heavy distortion by laws of physics.
 
Pegi said:
I decided to go from my 5.1 system to the Audioengine 2.0, which is paired with my SoundBlaster Z soundcard. I use these almost exclusively for gaming and just wanted to downsize without giving up quality. I thought I could make up the bass by using the equalizer settings in the Creative software. I wasn't thinking...it just never occurred to me that these plug into the headphone jack and are considered headphones rather than speakers. Can't use the equalizer settings.

The speakers sound great and--for me--were pricey enough as is. A little bass would be nice, though. Is there any way to pump up the bass on these other than saving up for a sub?
Click to expand...

These are near-field monitors IIRC. NFM's don't usually kick up the base. They are more about pure, accurate sound.

You need a sub :)
 
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