as though the entire speaker itself was playing inside a box.
That is the exact sound I'm getting! - I'm in a studio apartment, and the room is decently large (couch, bed , kitchen, dining table etc...)
I ran a frequency sweep from youtube and checked it on a frequency analyzer on my phone. Though its not calibrated for absolute levels, I could still see some big (10-20db) dips in between, and a pretty huge one (30+ dB) somewhere around 280-300. I tried 300hz in an online tone generator, and i could notice big differences as I Just shifted position in bed.
My phone mic/app doesnt seem too good in detecting frequencies below 100hz, so I'm not even sure what's going on there.
We make speakers so flat, and then put them in such sad environments, I'm surprised they manage to sound this decent at all!
Not my house, and turning up the bass is not feasible, thanks to my neighbours, so guess I'll have to live with it.
I had moved the speakers away from the walls to avoid bass coupling, but I'm having second thoughts now with the new location