Question about amps

[Goliath]

thanks for all the relpies. i kind of had a feeling an amp would not help me out.

What you could be experiencing is the equal loudness contours at work. If you listen to music or movies at different volume levels you will hear different things. If your Anthem was set at a different output relative to your XPA-5 then you will hear different things - the XPA5 may sound punchier, more dynamic, explosive etc.

The other issue that has been discussed is your physical location in the room. Moving your seat even half a meter can drastically change how the bass sounds within the room. You may be seated in a null. Buying a subwoofer will certainly improve the dynamic capabilities of your system, if that is what you find lacking, but if you don't ensure optimal placement of speakers, subwoofer and seated location then this whole exercise is a wasted effort.

 

[Ampdog]

Good relevant and often overlooked matters mentioned by Goliath.

Going with a somewhat larger scope, any possibility of something else wrong - loudspeakers at low amplitude (something physical in the air gap), or the particular amplifier doing something there? For a complete analysis I would include those.

As a general remark, yes, one would expect amplifiers to be blameless at low volumes. But though the exception, they are still occasionally not! Separate parameters determine amplifier performance there. For completeness sake I would check performance at low level of both loudspeaker and amplifier, just to rule that out.

 

[Hostility]

i did someone of a small test last night, and i bosted the bass only up on the avr and turned the sub off. i had to turn it up to +8 for it to start to have more depth coming out of them rather then just acting as a small speaker. So i may be onto something as far as that goes. i would like to test at louder volumes also, but for low volume i was happier.

 

[Hostility]

also when i was/am using the sub i get really bad boom in the corners. would adding these help? i could put 1 4fter in 3 corners.
ACOUSTIC PANELS / CORNER BASS TRAPS / ROOM TREATMENT - Markham / York Region Musical Instruments For Sale - Kijiji Markham / York Region Canada.

the corner bass trap. but only use 1 as free standing so it would over up to 4ft of the corner from the floor.