BOOMY bass on RT551 speakers

suzukizone
suzukizone Posts: 1
in Speakers
The bas coming from my RT551 speakers has been "BOOMY", MUDDY", THUDDY" for awhile, no matter if playin a CD, LP or FM Tuner. Barely able to crisp it up even with BASS turned to ZERO. I have managed over the years to lose the brass colored plate that joins the top & bottom main speakers so hooked them together with 12 ga speaker wire but not sure why I took the plates off initially. Possibly to do something I read about.

Anyway I could use advice as to how to eliminate the muddy bass sound. Mid range & hi freq sound is super.
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Comments

  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 19,004


    Welcome to Club Polk.

    Can you please post a photo of the speaker binders, jumpers and wiring area?

    Also, can you (very gently with no power applied to the woofers) push the cones in about a half an inch with no obstructions? Do they slide back normally and freely without hitting anything?

    Tom

    ~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~
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  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 19,004
    It might help to post a photo of the woofers as well, so we know what we are dealing with...

    Tom
    ~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~
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  • Kex
    Kex Posts: 5,175
    edited June 2023
    RT55i should not be boomy, muddy or thuddy. They are some of the best mid-range speakers I’ve ever tried, in fact, and those are the very last words I would ever use to describe what I heard.

    Losing the plates isn’t important. Many replace them with speaker wire anyway, and they tend to fall off if the binding post screw becomes loose. Happens all the time.

    What are they hooked up to in terms of receiver/amplification?

    Can you gently move both of the main drivers, on each speaker, with your hand, and do they return to the normal position when released?

    If you take a kitchen roll tube (or other tube-shaped item) and place it over the tweeter, to isolate the sound after positioning your ear on the other end of the tube, does the tweeter seem to be emitting sound normally? Try both of them to compare. The sound will be faint, but it should be clear.

    Lastly, what is the complete system involved? 2.0? 2.1 (with a subwoofer)? 5.1 (also with a subwoofer)? Have you tried to play the sound in stereo only, with no subwoofer yet, and what were the results?
    Alea jacta est!
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  • Kex
    Kex Posts: 5,175
    Sorry, cross posting with @treitz3, but basically asking the same thing. 😊
    Alea jacta est!
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,494
    suzukizone wrote: »
    The bas coming from my RT551 speakers has been "BOOMY", MUDDY", THUDDY" for awhile, no matter if playin a CD, LP or FM Tuner. Barely able to crisp it up even with BASS turned to ZERO. I have managed over the years to lose the brass colored plate that joins the top & bottom main speakers so hooked them together with 12 ga speaker wire but not sure why I took the plates off initially. Possibly to do something I read about.

    Anyway I could use advice as to how to eliminate the muddy bass sound. Mid range & hi freq sound is super.

    What are you powering them with?
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • skipshot12
    skipshot12 Posts: 1,157
    What are your room dimensions and where are your speakers placed?
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  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,578
    They are probably sitting on his bedroom dresser.
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)

    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
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  • ChrisD06
    ChrisD06 Posts: 929
    As other people have already asked, what are you driving them with? Like, is it an amp, receiver, and who makes it?

    Also, make sure they're wired in phase.
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