# Frustrated with slim tower / sub setups -bass level



## airpiratehkg (May 27, 2008)

Ok I was raised on a Marantz receiver and 4 JBL L100's crica 1973 vintage. In addition I have had a pair of Klipsch KG4's which were excellent speakers aside from the driver baffles that would crack and leak (many replacements). Then it was on to Klipsch RF3 towers / sub combo and most recently DefTech Mythos Ones and a Supercube I. I am not happy. With the old L100's and KG4's it was hook them up adjust bass, mid, treb.. done deal. Play the Beatles, Stones, to new age stuff like Daft Punk and while the bass level (volume) differed from recording to recording - track to track it was overall decent. With this slim tower / sub setup it's the polar opposite. Adjust bass output on the sub to a pleasing level for Sheryl Crow's "Home" then bass for the the Beatles / Stones is non existant and vice versa. I don't get it what am I missing here? Mind you I am not referring to audiophile level tweak (shouldn't need spl meters etc). I've moved the sub around plenty as well- no change. Maybe the answer is throw this out and go on the hunt for true 3 way full range goodness which by the way seems to be slim picken's these days.. Or save my money and just accept things the way they are? My friend says stuff the A/V receiver and go for a simpler high end 2 channel amp setup. I dunno maybe I am wrong but while amplification is important it's overall importance is low compared with speaker setup quality?

So ya read my novel.. Any thoughts?


Yamaha RX-V2600 (tried YPAO whoopty do not impressed) YPAO set to only EQ and level the front L/R and sub.
Mains: Mythos 1 x2 set to small
Sub: DefTech Supercube I crossed at 80Hz


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Two things you should know. One the lower octaves on the frequency range in older music tends to roll off at around 40-35Hz and depending on the newer music this is still fairly common. 
The other issue is your phase could be off on your sub basically canceling out the lower frequencies, does the sub have a phase control and have you tried adjusting it?
How large is your room you have this system set up in?


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Have you adjusted your crossover frequency? I see that you have it set to 80hz, which is a good starting point. Also, the sub's placement in the room will have dramatic effect on perceived frequency response. Try a corner if you have one free - that will give you several db extra output, but likely will excite room modes more.

Since you indicate that sometimes you have enough, sometimes you don't, room acoustics may be the culprit more so than the sub itself. I assume you have used a SPL meter to set channel levels?


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## airpiratehkg (May 27, 2008)

Ok changed over from a straight LFE setup speakers set to small etc etc (done correctly- various cross over settings). Chucked the LFE and am running via high pass connections (bass mgmnt front speakers set to large). Sub connected to receiver and speakers connected to sub (all via high pass connections). Huge difference! Still not there though. So what's the diff? I guess I had assumed the RX-V2600's LFE would have simply replaced this high pass connection? By the way using roughly the same cross over freq 95Hz vs 80~120 tried via LFE. The again maybe LFE is really designed for movies with 2 channel as an afterthought? I am the other way around 2 channel first HT comes last.

So maybe now I have a happy solution and am down to tweaking the crossover.


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