boomy bass

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
I have Cerwin-vega XLS-12 and power them with Onkyo TX-NR509. The overall sound image is accurate, but the bass is lacking authority. It's pretty quiet, and when I adjust bass-boost, it will turn just boomy. To be honest, I get better bass from my computer speakers. CW is known for sick bass, so something is wrong. The largest cones seems to stay idle all time.

I have calibrated speakers with microphone for optical settings. Stereomode is activated. Receiver gives 130W/ch.

Here are some weak points of my system:

Listening room is at upstairs, speakers on bare floor, which's structure is not particularly sturdy.

The wires are all messed up, and speakers are connected with bare wire method.

Receiver stands on floor between the speakers.

Room is full of stuff, and have air conditioner right next to speakers.

I'm not sure if that's relevant or not.
 

Paul.

Well-known member
Listen in Direct mode, or if you have it, Pure Audio. Your amp is firing all the bass to the subwoofer, and trying to give you a flat tone curve for your speakers. In Direct mode, the audio should go through the processor unmolested.

My 805 sounds weak as hell in stereo mode, but great in pure audio.
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
Pure audio doesnt affect bass, but make everything sound flat. And the statement, that cones isn't moving was a mistake. They do move a bit.
 

Paul.

Well-known member
Thats odd, on my Onkyo Pure Audio makes the whole thing sound warmer and bassier, whereas stereo mode sounds very clinical and, well, like an Onkyo...

Although PA is designed to give a flat responce, It is designed to be used without a sub, wheras stereo mode still relies on the sub output.
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
BTW, I'm playing mp3 music from iPod (usb source). I haven't even tested other music sources.

And setup information detects, that I haven't subwoofer.

I'm not sure if my connections are good. I inserted 1cm of bare wire in terminal's hole, and tightened tight as hell.
 
T

the record spot

Guest
You can put some good money down that with the other siting issues of your speakers in your room, your speaker cable won't be the problem if the polarity isn't wrongly set up. Room issues and positioning more likely I think.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Test another source, or make sure that you haven't accidentally put an EQ on the iPod? Just to be sure :).
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
Unfortunately, I haven't any high quality audio sources, but I tried youtube bass-test with my PS3, and bass didn't response at all.

I have noticed, that speakers buzzes at high (50%) volume. Is this normal?

And my speaker wire is 5mm bold, so it doesn't twist well in speaker terminal: All the bare wire (2cm) doesn't fit in. It's the cheapest copper wire I found. It's desinged for speakers and solar panels.

I have seen many videos, where cerwin's 12" drivers kick like hell with disco music. When I listen to trance with volume that hurts ears, I can't hear or see woofer kicking at all.
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
I just checked the jumpers, and changed wires to tweeter's terminals, but nothing changed. I notice, that also games sounds strange: There are too much dynamics in sound: footsteps are very loud, and speak is silent, and so on... On home menu's info it says:

Input HDMI 4 Multich PCM 7.1 ch 48kHz

Output Stereo 2.0 ch

Seems like it's feeding speakers with 7.1 signal, even I'm in stereo/PA mode.

Speakers make buzz-sound when I put volume over 40 without Dynamic EQ on PS3 menu (game mode). With Dynamic EQ they buzz at 20

One thing I noticed is that Level Cal is set -12dB for both speakers

EDIT: I changed level cal to 0dB, and turned music optimizer and dynamic EQ on. The bass dropped in, but still, it sounds like my computer subwoofer: bit boomy and not natural. But it's far better than before tweaking... I'm sure these can do better!
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
With some tweaking - by changing Level Cal to 0dB and by turning Dynamic EQ and Music Optimizer on - I got loud, yet boomy bass. So the problem isn't clearly the lack of power. The problem is, that bass sounds very artificial, synthetic, not like any instrument. Even my Logitech subwoofer produces more natural bass. I can't really feel the bass, it just hurts eardrums.

Could it be the settings?
 

BenLaw

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2010
475
7
18,895
Visit site
Have you listened through headphones to check that the tracks you're playing have the clean bassy sound you're expecting from the speakers?

If it's present on the track, then it sounds like you've got some sort of EQ (or frequency cut off) on either the amp or the source. It's possible that you're losing some information with low quality files, but I wouldn't expect it to be so extreme.

Boomy bass is likely to be a positioning issue. Try moving the speaker away from rear and side walls and see what happens.
 

Andrew Everard

New member
May 30, 2007
1,878
2
0
Visit site
Sounds like the receiver is failing to detect that it's receiving a two-channel signal from the iPod, and is trying to decode it as multichannel. At a guess, you may have to go into the audio detection set-up menu and force it into PCM rather than 'off', where it autodetects the audio format.
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
It says PCM on-screen when I play from iPod.

I just thought, how crossover frequency is adjusted for 3-way speaker? Should I count it from 6" or 12" driver? Right now I use crossover of 40Hz.
I just thought, how crossover frequency is adjusted for 3-way speaker? Should I count it from 6" or 12" driver? Right now I use crossover of 40Hz.
 

Andrew Everard

New member
May 30, 2007
1,878
2
0
Visit site
ntune said:
It says PCM on-screen when I play from iPod.

I see: could've sworn you said the display says

ntune said:
Input HDMI 4 Multich PCM 7.1 ch 48kHz

Output Stereo 2.0 ch

I just thought, how crossover frequency is adjusted for 3-way speaker? Should I count it from 6" or 12" driver? Right now I use crossover of 40Hz.
ntune said:
I just thought, how crossover frequency is adjusted for 3-way speaker? Should I count it from 6" or 12" driver? Right now I use crossover of 40Hz.

If you're using the system without a subwoofer, there shouldn't be any need for a crossover setting at all.
 

Dougal1331

Well-known member
Dec 30, 2007
69
22
18,545
Visit site
Had a similar problem with my Soundblaster X-Fi- the default after re-installing or updating drivers is to output in 5.1.

Go into your soundcard control panel and set it for 2.0 stereo output.

Also bear in mind that 12-inch drivers don't have to move as much- their large surface area does the work, whereas a small driver has to move further to generate the same bass!

There is definitely some setup issue here- Cerwin Vegas should not lack bass!
 

tim92gts

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2010
0
0
18,500
Visit site
Worth checking the resistance of that wire, should be below 0.1 Ohms between amp and speaker.

I'm not a believer in rampant cable swapping but i did once have a roll of Tandy Speaker Wire that was totally inadequate. That eliminated most of my bass.

5mm bold doesn't mean much to me, if it's solid and has been flexed you could have a break.
 

ntune

New member
Jun 11, 2011
22
0
0
Visit site
tim92gts said:
Worth checking the resistance of that wire, should be below 0.1 Ohms between amp and speaker.

I'm not a believer in rampant cable swapping but i did once have a roll of Tandy Speaker Wire that was totally inadequate. That eliminated most of my bass.

5mm bold doesn't mean much to me, if it's solid and has been flexed you could have a break.

I noticed, that the wires have darkened (just like they have burned) just in 2 weeks
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts