Observation: when not playing Beolab 3s loud their low end is notably thin. Turned up it fills in right nicely but it's some kind of non-linear effect with loudness. In a small room for background listening, that kind of loud just isn't appropriate (or hearing-safe.)
Solution: I turned on the graphic equalizer on my computer (no, it's not going off a headphone jack, it's going off a USB D/A - don't yell at me!) and just dragged the bass up to filthy levels. Immediately the illusion that I'm listening to two washing machine sized speakers is restored. Without having to turn them up much.
Pragmatics: I'm listening to 80s metal (work music!) which was never intended to be listened to through high fidelity systems and is remarkably intolerant of clear reproduction.
However, if you have Beolab 3s (and this may be true for other B&O gear) do try the experiment - I was very surprised how much was hiding in the low end. I think the same trick would also probably work pretty well for watching movies etch where a bit of good bass rumble does you a bit of good.
$0.02, MR.
