Something really wrong about the setup, then. It's a mystery why dealers don't check this. My BL5s literally move the downstairs neighbour's porcelain during some movies. Haven't broken anything yet.

I highly recommend trying them at various dealers before parting with that amount of money. The dealer should be doing everything he/she can to convince you that the BL5's are worth every penny. Product knowledge is a must in the A/V field.

I've had my BL5's for 4 years now and they amaze me everytime I sit in front of them.

@topic-starter:  what was missing with the 9's in the first place? What was the reason to desire an upgrade?

Never have I had a complaint about the BL5 lacking bass. Never. I would check the setup and configuration with the dealer. Also ask the dealer to calibrate them while in the shop, it takes but a few minutes.  

I have had my BL5 for four months now. I too experience a lack of bass. When listening to music they sound really thin and not very involving.

On the other hand when I put on a blu-ray I am assured that they have a huge bass potential. They indeed can make anything in the building rattle.

In pursuit of more bass when listening to music I have rearranged my entire living room. Not playing across the room generally had a positive effect but did not help on bass.

I bought some Fat Dots from Herbie Audio Lab to decouple the speakers from the wooden floor. That didn't help at all. I tried resetting the speakers to factory preset  to get an arbitrary setting on the Adaptive Bass Ccalibration. This is done by pressing and holding the calibration area on top until the speakers shuts down. It was not substantially different from the calibration done in my room.

Moving the speakers around and moving yourself around in relation to the speakers have an effect.

I bought a Behringer ECM8000 measurement microphone to get an indication on the room reasponse using the free REW software. I struggle a bit to make it all work and have no results so far.

Next step for me is to try and install some carpets and heavy molton fabric instead of my thin curtains. I hope that will release the full potential of the speakers by dampening the room.

Looking back I have already spent countless hours on my BL5s, sadly too few actually listening to music. So in my experince they can be really demanding if you want to release their full potential.

Razlaw wrote:

I was thinking of upgrading my 9s to 5s. I went the dealer with my favorite cds/bluray prepared to be amazed at the sound and buy a pair. I was not amazed. I was actually disappointed. I don't get it.

I was also disappointed with my BL5s (I owned BL9s, too). But there was a reason...

I bought my BL5s second hand. At first, they sounded fantastic. Clearly calibrated in a large room with a solid floor. Bass powerful. However, for a reason I still can't explain (curiosity?), I decided to re-calibrate and that's where things went wrong. Room too small, wooden flooring etc. The bass never sounded the same again. There was a distinct change.

The BL9s don't need to be calibrated and they remain "as is" whatever the environment. For me, in my environment, the BL9s always performed better than the BL5s.

Perhaps this is the reason why the BL5s sounded so poor when you're used to the more rounded BL9s?

kimchr - something doesn't sound right - though it does depend upon how much bass you want, of course.

What are you using as a source? Are you certain the speakers are getting the low frequency signal? 

soundproof wrote:

kimchr - something doesn't sound right - though it does depend upon how much bass you want, of course.

As I said above, it depends on the room/furniture/calibration.

IMHO they should come caibrated for a huge room and concrete floor and they'd be very much setup like the BL9s :)