Disappointed with bass from 5.1 system

TnA200

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2011
52
0
18,540
Visit site
I guess this cover all levels of AV Receiver and 5.1/stereo speaker usage.

Since finally setting up my home AV system (specs below), speakers, AV receiver, AirTunes Music and new TV/BluRay player, using Inakustik Premium HDMI and Inakustik Subwoofer Y cables (http://www.in-akustik.com/en/KuZ/produkte/default.asp) from the receievers Subwoofer output I have tried many things but still get the feeling that there is not ample bass. Also with stero music playback I had hoped to put the Subwoofer to use in providing more bass to dance music or provide a deeper sounf to classic.

Am I expecting too much or something that is not there?

I know that the bass as it is is pretty good, but when ever a bassy section of a movie soundtrack (Inception) comes on I rush over to see if the bass is active and don't get the feeling it is doing too much. A low rumble here and there perhaps. The floorstanders seem to be doing more work. I did use Audessey to calibrate the room/speaker settings and the sound seems acceptabley 5.1.

I know there are a few other Onkyo 875 owners on this forum, perhaps they can weigh in with their settings and receiver setups to get the best from it and the attached speakers.

Appreciate any and all help.

Regards, TnA
 

Paul.

Well-known member
Hi, I have an 805 which is pretty similar. I found the Audisey setup quite effective for the surrounds and fronts, but it got quite confused with the sub. I would recommend manually measuring the distance with a tape measure for the sub, and then changing volume. It set my sub to -15db as standard, could barely hear it. There is also a setting in the menu to enable double bass, this will send bass to any speaker set to large as well as the sub. Is this enabled? This would give the impression the Floor standers were doing most of the work (as they would be!)
 

sta99y

New member
May 10, 2010
137
0
0
Visit site
If it was me, I would set all speakers to small and xover amp at 80htz and go from there. Measure distance etc... And trim all speaker levels. Or allow amp to set speaker levels automatically but skip all distance and sizes as you would of done this manually yourself before hand. Sub turn gain to 12o'clock and frequency clockwise so it's at full. Try if this post helps!!!
 

audioaffair

New member
Feb 21, 2009
100
0
0
Visit site
Hi Tna200, I have had the same problem myself with my SR609 and I was begining to think the audessy calibration system didnt like my rooms layout, I always found that going into the onscreen menu once the calibratrion had been done and turning the auddesy calibration off(this allowed the distances to be kept but the EQ to be changed)worked better for me. this should then allow you to do your levels manually. it worked for me and made my system sound loads better, I know it can be long and daunting process sometimes but its well worth spending the time to do. Hope you manage to solve your problem
 

fayeanddavid

New member
May 27, 2009
191
0
0
Visit site
sta99y said:
If it was me, I would set all speakers to small and xover amp at 80htz and go from there. Measure distance etc... And trim all speaker levels. Or allow amp to set speaker levels automatically but skip all distance and sizes as you would of done this manually yourself before hand. Sub turn gain to 12o'clock and frequency clockwise so it's at full. Try if this post helps!!!

Good advice, I always do this with any receiver I have owned.

Als som good pointers from Audio Affair as well

Take your time over this, it is well worth the fiddle and tweaks to get it absolutely right, basically there are no short cuts only attention to detail
 

TnA200

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2011
52
0
18,540
Visit site
Thank you all for the comments.

Just an update...

I manually measured the distances and made minor changes, esp as I know that the main sitting position is directly in the middle equidistant to the front speakers . I looked at the calibrated measurements and for some reason the center was set very high, this I toned down a fraction. I then set the bass to -12.5 (as per Paul Hobbs), -15 felt too much. The rears I know are set a bit inequally due to the wall mounts not being the same distant from the listener (the walls are set differently on either side of the fireplace), so I left these settings as they were. I did manually measure them to confirm that they were basically correct.

I must say that making the fronts have the same setings seems to have made the biggest difference.

As the speakers are set to FULL on the fronts and center, and at 80hz (THX) for the bass crossover, I am also eager to try the setting with them on SMALL (as suggested above), but have been hesitant as they are full size floorstanders and it just seems to go against my nature to set them to Small. But will check this idea out too. I don't think my speakers are THX rated, so was also wary of the THX settings for the sub.

As suggsted this is a work in progress and I will continue to tweak away until the best solution can be found and my wife doesn't throw me out of the living room! I will try all solutions to see which one works best.

Any other suggenstions? I am all ears (and eyes). Cheers guys.

TnA
 

fayeanddavid

New member
May 27, 2009
191
0
0
Visit site
TnA200 said:
Thank you all for the comments.

Just an update...

I manually measured the distances and made minor changes, esp as I know that the main sitting position is directly in the middle equidistant to the front speakers . I looked at the calibrated measurements and for some reason the center was set very high, this I toned down a fraction. I then set the bass to -12.5 (as per Paul Hobbs), -15 felt too much. The rears I know are set a bit inequally due to the wall mounts not being the same distant from the listener (the walls are set differently on either side of the fireplace), so I left these settings as they were. I did manually measure them to confirm that they were basically correct.

I must say that making the fronts have the same setings seems to have made the biggest difference.

As the speakers are set to FULL on the fronts and center, and at 80hz (THX) for the bass crossover, I am also eager to try the setting with them on SMALL (as suggested above), but have been hesitant as they are full size floorstanders and it just seems to go against my nature to set them to Small. But will check this idea out too. I don't think my speakers are THX rated, so was also wary of the THX settings for the sub.

As suggsted this is a work in progress and I will continue to tweak away until the best solution can be found and my wife doesn't throw me out of the living room! I will try all solutions to see which one works best.

Any other suggenstions? I am all ears (and eyes). Cheers guys.

TnA

Set your fronts to Small, and crossover to 80Hz to LFE, make sure that that your set up is not sending bass to both skrs and sub (shouldn't with speakers set to small)

Let your avr send everything below 80Hz to the sub, and let the sub handle those frequencies allowing your floor standers to deal with the upper bass, mid and highs.

Do it, it really works and somehow complements all your speakers.

I have my crossover set to 90Hz on mine, suits my set up perfectly and the integration is spot on, let your ears tell you and try not to question your mind and intellect too much, as your ears know best!!
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts