New Room, No Bass

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Karabo C

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After more than 4 years of my audio equipment packed up in storage, I've finally finished building my dedicated room. The room isn't 100% done, with only a few minor finishes to sort out and getting some carpets, couches and a proper stand for the electronics.

It looks like this:
261kvwl.jpg


66kimh.jpg


So I eagerly hooked up the speakers, AV receiver and source just to get an idea of how it all sounds. What a disappointment. Virtually zero bass. The speakers are Paradigm Studio 100 v5, so I was expecting decent bass. The listening position (on a futon, for now) is dead center in the middle of the room.

I tried the following:
* Checking the obvious stuff (proper cable connection contact at the speaker terminals, checking that connections are in phase, setting the speaker to "large" on the receiver, etc)
* Moving the speakers to different locations around the front of the room
* Experimenting with different listening positions
* Walking all over room to hear if bass is better at any other locations
* Using other speakers that I know not to be bass shy

I even went as far as to use a separate DAC and pre/power amp setup

None of these things yielded any noticeable bass improvement.

A few things to clarify about the room:
* The room is pretty bare for now, with no furniture apart from the TV stand and a futon
* The front stage cannot be altered to a different position (wiring is already place for side, back & overhead speakers, as well as cabling for a projector)
* All windows have quite thick curtains.
* For reasons I'd rather not get into, the back of the room (the part with the slab), had to be built that way.
* The entire roof cavity is extensively insulated with glasswool and ceiling tiles are made of rigid fiberglass panels, like so:

2096kg9.jpg


2mo9ok2.jpg


I am aware that the best thing to do is to measure the room. Unfortunately my measuring mic is packed away somewhere far.

There are a few things I'll try over the weekend if time allows to see what effects these may bring such as placing loose fiberglass along the walls, introducing two subwoofers.

My understanding is that bass traps are usually used for taming/absorbing uneven bass, which is not the problem I have. So I'm guessing bass traps aren't a solution for me, or are they?

Or is the roof/ceiling configuration contributing/causing the bass problem?

Is the peculiar shape of the back of the room not ideal, acoustically?

What should I do?
 
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