Hi i wondered whether anyone had suggestions for me. I have Wharfedale 8.2 speakers which sound wonderful but only with the bass turned down to minimum. Even then they can be a bit too bassy, i'm using qed silver biwire cable which apparently aren't good for bass so i guess it musty be the amp or cd player? I have pretty basic cambridge audio stuff, a cd36 and the a1 version 3 amp... if anybody could suggest alternatives i'd be grateful!

Hello Owen,

Try these for starters;

1) If there's a port at the back, try rolling up a pair of old socks and blocking the port. Foam rubber is better.

2) Bring the speakers away from the wall. If they are too close, your bass may be overpowering and lumpy.

3) The QED Silver was a good idea. What are you using for interconnects?

4) You could experiment by removing the spikes and using blu tak instead (if you have hard floors). Additionally you could also put a slab of concrete or stone underneath.

What's your room like?

Hi, thanks for the reply, i already have blutack underneath them doesn't that just cushion against any possible reverb tho? i'm not using banana plugs or anything a mate said there's no point unless you get the proper airlocked one's and my budget wouldn't stretch that far! I don't suppose it's possible that biwiring would have exaggerated the bass is it? Cheers

The blu tak should decouple the speaker from the room.

Biwiring shouldn't make any difference to your bass response. You should try putting the pins back in between the terminals of your speakers as an experiment to check whether the tweeters are connected correctly. If I were you, I'd do this as my first check.

Banana plugs also won't make that much difference. They're a convenience as much as anything and some people prefer going without (for instance 47 Labs and Mapleshade suggest not using plugs with their speaker wire). I've tried a number of different types and in my experience, it's only really the Eichmanns and a few of the very esoteric ones that made an audible difference for me. I didn't have so much success with the QED airlocked ones. In general, bare wire cleaned regularly with Brasso is good enough.

Try the other solutions on that list I gave you - Bringing them away from the wall and stuffing the ports and see where it gets you.

I'm assuming you're using speaker stands is this correct? Using them on the floor or on a shelf may cause you some problems of this nature.

8.2 aren't that bassy.