Front firing rear speakers (Q Acoustics 1010i) rear placement

[Oldboy]

Hello,

Those 1020i's sure are deep compared to the 1010i's eh, and taller of course but they do look the part.....very,very nice! And at that price it was a no brainer (now annoyed i got the bluray player lol), fit nice and snug on the brackets too.

As for my settings i'm almost there i'm just getting a little too much bass when playing music BUT that could well be that i'm simply not used to the extra bass on offer as everyone else seems to think it sounds sweet with crossover at 80hz for all speakers and sub at 150hz, not tried the AV setting on the sub yet as had a busy weekend and start to the week (had my birthday on monday) but if i get a chance later today i intend to give it a go to see if it's any better.

My amp has pure audio mode also but for me it's bit of a mixed bag due to the 1010i's being the weak link when it comes to bass, anything that dosen't rely on a strong bass line is ALOT better in this mode but anything with a strong bass line you might aswell forget it as the bass is lost.....hence my hankering for new fronts!

Hopefully i will get the chance today to finally get those settings finalised and will post back with the results.

 

[Anonymous]

Well happy birthday belatedly,

I have ordered some of this for me rears;

http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/dynamic/eshop_products.set/ref/312/ixos-xhs233-adhesive-backed-flat-speaker-cable/display.html

Gonna bang that on the walls and then paint it, not looking forward to getting it under the carpet though, its always a bit of a pain.

Let me know how you get on today, if you can muster up the cash then the 1020i would be a good speaker for your fronts, they are certainly bassier than the 1010i, however for real bass I suppose you would have to go up to the 1030i or 1050i.

It certainly does takes ages to get the sub just right for sure

 

[Oldboy]

Hello stu,

I'm sorry it's taken a few days to get round to writing this, i've just been trying to get my setup just right over the weekend and finally i think it's just about right! At last!! I've left the sub on 150hz as i thought it sounded better than the AV setting and just played with the levels and bass on the sub untill i felt it had hit that sweet spot and i'm very happy, the sub gets a thorough workout now and the whole sound field is more convincing so many thanks with the crossover setting

I had a look at that Ixos speaker cable and it seems a good idea and even better not too expensive either, my only concern would be the quality of the cable itself as i upgraded from Ixos flat cable towards the end of last year to the QED Silver Anniversary XT cable and the difference in sound was amazing. True if you have a 5.1 or 7.1 the cost of the cable is a bit steep but i would NEVER go back to cheap speaker cable again after hearing the difference for myself. However the convenience of the Ixos cable makes it quite appealing and saves adding conduit etc to cover the cables.....if you get some let me know how it sounds!

I'm not going to go with 1020i fronts it has to be 1030i or 1050i for that real bass sound but i'm not sure i will be able to get any yet, just a case of finances still but i really want to add them at the end of the month if i can.....fingers crossed! I've managed to find a pair of 1050i's in black for £195 incl next day delivery or 1030i's in black for £139 and my current thinking is that for an exra £60 i will get the 1050i finances permitting

 

[Pistol Pete1]

stu_d......

Just read some of this thread, and noticed you sand filled your front QA 1050i's.....

I was going to do this ages ago on my QA 1030i's, but never got round to it....

Did it make an improvement in sound on your speakers, and if so what was the improvement???

Thanks.....

 

[Oldboy]

Pete,

I know you asked for stu_d to answer this but as i sand filled my 1030i's when i got them i thought i would share my thoughts, sorry in advance for hijacking!

Initially after sand filling i didn't notice any difference but after a month or so the benefits became obvious and the major improvement is in bass delivery. The overall level of bass has increased by some way compared to them being unfilled and it's such a difference that the 'pure' modes on my amp are a joy to listen to music through where before it lacked bass when compared to having a stereo signal with sub. I have also noticed alot more bass detail perhaps because of the extra oomph in bass introduced by sand filling but it's very welcome as i thought the 1030i's lacked a little scale and authority out of the box.

It really is worth sand filling the speakers imo for that extra bass performance and lets face it, as upgrades go, this must rank as one of the very cheapest out there £2-£3 for the sand and 2 bin liners (with no holes) 50p = bargain!!

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Thanks oldboy...don't mind you 'hijacking' this with an answer that is even more suited to my set up.....

I assume that you sandfilled them straight away? If so, do you think the improved sound might have come from the speakers 'burning in' period, rather than the sand?

I find my QA 1030i quite bassy already, without sand.....I find they lack some treble 'sparkle' to be honest.

Anyway, I'll try the sand filling and see what happens...maybe it will tighten up the bass a little....how much sand did you use? And would these be a better option, and cleaner....?

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1824

I'm also looking into cheap super tweeters at the moment to help with the HF side of things....

Thanks...

 

[Oldboy]

Pete,

No i didn't fill them straight away, i left it about 2months before i filled them with sand just so that i could run them in thoroughly and see if i was happy with them unfilled and in the end i wasn't completely satisfied with them so i filled them. Your comment about lack of sparkle in the treble dosen't ring true in my system and i never feel i am losing any detail, if anything there is slightly too much sparkle especially when you start to push them a bit so perhaps the sand has had an effect there??

The ammount of sand you need to use is specified in the manual but fyi i used approx 2kg in each speaker, the manual says you need 5kg but i couldn't quite squeeze it all in so just filled it as much as i could, do remember that if you use sand then it MUST be kiln dried sand ie totally dried with no moisture.

As for the Atabites i have read about the benefits of them in speaker stands but not in speakers so i'm not convinced they would be worth the outlay tbh even though it's not alot of money, from my experience i would say the sand is all you need really and Qacoustics states to add sand so are the atabites really required here? I'm not sure.

Ooooh super tweeters....do tell more as i have no idea what they are but anything to improve HF i am very interested in

Thank you.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Ok, I'll try the sand over the next few days, and let you know what I think....

Supertweeters.......the 'daddy of all' is this one, it seems:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tannoy-Prestige-ST-100-SuperTweeter-Walnut-5Yr-Warranty-/230541783541?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item35ad5c71f5

More sensible option might be to try these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intimidation-Titanium-SuperBullet-300w-Tweeter-Speakers-/140469526564?pt=UK_ConElec_SpeakersPASystems_RL&hash=item20b4a2e024

They piggyback onto the front speakers to add more HF.

Not sure if I'll go down this route yet.....sand first...

 

[Oldboy]

Best of luck with the sand filling and don't judge straight away as it took a few weeks for mine to settle down a little.

I do like the idea of super tweeters but the first pair were overkill.....but if i had the money to spare perhaps that opinion would be much different, the 2nd pair at that price however may be worth a punt just to see if they do work and what they do to the sound so one to put on the xmas list perhaps lol.

Let me know how you get on with the sand filling....would like to hear your thoughts

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Oldboy,

Well I had a day off today, so went and bought some 'rubble' bin liners (paranoid about creating holes for the sand to come out of!!), and used some kiln dried sand that I used on my old QA stands.

I managed to fill each speaker with 2.5kgs of sand, and put my usual test cd's on (Maroon 5, Celine Dion, etc) and I have to say that I notice a difference to the bass straight away.

Obviously it's hard to do comparison tests with sand in and sand out, but I could defo hear more bass, which seemed deeper and definitely punchier.....

I also thought the vocals came out of the music a little more, but couldn't swear on it....

This extra punch has also made the dvd/blu ray/tv experience that little better too. Saying that, I have changed the mains cable on my new sub (Clearer Audio alpha), so the combination seems to work well to tighten up the bassline....

Well pleased.....will it really improve though? It's not like it needed a bit of 'burn in ' time like speakers, cables, etc. Maybe it just took you a while to hear the differences? If not, I can't wait to test it again in a few weeks....

Thanks....

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Forgot to ask......

The centre speaker has two rear bungs in the port holes. I have the centre speaker well away from the wall....

So, keep bungs in, or take them out??? (Can't see any info on this in the manual...)

Do these bungs change the characteristics of the sound from that speaker?

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Oldboy,

Even the wife noticed a difference when she got home tonight......must be an improvement, as she doesn't always notice....

 

[Oldboy]

Pete,

Great to hear the sand worked for you too....the sound will improve slightly as the sand finds it's level, i found some nice loud music helped but don't get me wrong it won't be as night and day as filling the speakers in the first place just more bass detail and drive.

As for those bungs in the centre speaker i have no idea what the pros and cons are tbh....now you have pointed them out i will experiment over the weekend to see if there is any difference with them in or out

Blimey, if your wife noticed then it must have had an effect....i can tell you from experience that my other half often doesn't notice entire peices of new kit, it's just another ugly black box to her untill she wants to watch a movie of course

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Did you play around with the centre bungs, Oldboy?

I've read that they are only meant to be in if close to a wall (mine isn't), but can be up to personal taste......

 

[Oldboy]

Pete,

Yes i did play around with the bungs and....it adds more bass to vocals! I got the feeling that this option is for when you have the centre away from the wall (i don't mine is wall mounted) perhaps on a stand where the bass is a little 'lost'. For me, taking the bungs out introduced far too much bass into the centre and with it being wall mounted it was far too much and tbh i noticed far better gains from the centre when i mounted it in the first place (immediate effect to the bass and clarity) and taking the bungs out just introduced bass overkill that destroyed the vocal clarity.

In your situation you may well find you get significant gains though as the extra ooomph you will get from the centre should add bass weight which i found was a bit lacking when not wall mounted, give it a go and see if you like it eh!

Let me know how you get on as you should get some results from taking those bungs out, theoretically of course.....