Lacking bass... hmmm

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a it of a problem I'm having.

I have a Roksan Kandy amp (one of the earlier models) connected to a nice pair of Monitor Audio Studio 6 bookshelf speakers, which sit on top of a pair of Atacama Nexus 5i stands. The speakers are bi-wireable, but the amp isn't. Basically, at the minute, I have a four-strand flat speaker cable, one end of which has two strands per banana plug (if that makes sense) of the amp. At the other end, it's the same. I have the conductor thing across the correct terminals at the speakers so that both of the positive and both of the negative speaker terminals should be properly connected.

Although the higher frequencies are fantastic, there really is very little bass. You can't control the amount of bass on the Kandy amp, but I'm sure there should be more bass than there is. Should I connect the speakers differently, e.g. remove the conductor thing and have four banana plug at the speaker end; each one going to an individual speaker terminal?

I hope that makes sense!

 

[fatboyslimfast]

This is going to sound a little daft, but try disconnecting the left speaker from the amp (removing the amp-end cables is safest).

Does the bass improve?

If so, it's likely that one of the speakers is connected incorrectly (i.e. the positive from the amp is going to the negative at the speakers). This phenomenon will only occur when 1 speaker is out of phase, as the bass from one cancels the bass from the other.

If it makes no discernable difference, then it might be the speakers themselves. Have you ever heard them sound more bassy (i.e. when they were positioned close to a wall, with a different amp etc)?

I don't think it will make a huge difference by splitting the cables, but it might be worth using some thicker stranded cable - solid core cable can sometimes sound a little thin...

 

[The_Lhc]

iamthefire: I have a Roksan Kandy amp (one of the earlier models) connected to a nice pair of Monitor Audio Studio 6 bookshelf speakers, which sit on top of a pair of Atacama Nexus 5i stands. The speakers are bi-wireable, but the amp isn't. Basically, at the minute, I have a four-strand flat speaker cable, one end of which has two strands per banana plug (if that makes sense) of the amp. At the other end, it's the same. I have the conductor thing across the correct terminals at the speakers so that both of the positive and both of the negative speaker terminals should be properly connected.
Although the higher frequencies are fantastic, there really is very little bass. You can't control the amount of bass on the Kandy amp, but I'm sure there should be more bass than there is. Should I connect the speakers differently, e.g. remove the conductor thing and have four banana plug at the speaker end; each one going to an individual speaker terminal?

Yes that's how you do bi-wiring. Amps aren't "bi-wirable" you just shove both sets of cables into the same terminal, to bi-wire you just remove the jumpers on the speakers and wire to all four speaker terminals as you suggest. I wouldn't have thought they'd make much difference to the bass, but evidentally the crossover in these speakers is "minimal" and bi-wiring is recommended.

How new are these speakers? I'm guessing not very as I don't think they're made any more, but various reviews seem to suggest they require extensive running before the bottom end really comes out. Other than that how far away from the back wall are they?

 

[Anonymous]

iamthefire:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a it of a problem I'm having.

I have a Roksan Kandy amp (one of the earlier models) connected to a nice pair of Monitor Audio Studio 6 bookshelf speakers, which sit on top of a pair of Atacama Nexus 5i stands. The speakers are bi-wireable, but the amp isn't. Basically, at the minute, I have a four-strand flat speaker cable, one end of which has two strands per banana plug (if that makes sense) of the amp. At the other end, it's the same. I have the conductor thing across the correct terminals at the speakers so that both of the positive and both of the negative speaker terminals should be properly connected.

Although the higher frequencies are fantastic, there really is very little bass. You can't control the amount of bass on the Kandy amp, but I'm sure there should be more bass than there is. Should I connect the speakers differently, e.g. remove the conductor thing and have four banana plug at the speaker end; each one going to an individual speaker terminal?

I hope that makes sense!

Moving the speakers nearer the back wall might help, if not try a sub.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your answers.

I bought the speakers second-hand. I guess they're about 5 years old maybe. As I say, the higher frequencies are great, but it just feels like the bass is lacking.

They're a foot or so away from the wall, but I had some other speakers there before (Eltax Monitor III I think) and they were fine.

I'll try just having one speaker in at a time and see if that resolves it.

Has anyone tried these speakers before?

Cheers.

 

[The_Lhc]

iamthefire: They're a foot or so away from the wall, but I had some other speakers there before (Eltax Monitor III I think) and they were fine.

With all due respect, that's pretty meaningless, every speaker is different in where they want to be positioned, you have to experiment with positioning to get the best results.

 

[Anonymous]

OK. To be honest, I'm pretty new to decent hi-fis, so I didnt realise that. I'll have a play and see if I can get them in the right position.

 

[Anonymous]

Check that from each red terminal on the amp at the other end of the cable you have a banana plug going into both reds on the speaker and that from each black on the amp at the other end you have a banana plug going into each black on the speaker. Remove the metal bar between the matching pairs on each speaker.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try all of them.

I know that this is probably a ridiculously basic question, but if I were to get a sub, what would I need to connect it to on my amp? I only seem to have two pairs of outputs (one for left, one for right speakers)?

Cheers

 

[strobo]

Your setup doesn't entirely make sense to me. I presume when you say you're using four strand, you mean four core? I take it this is to each speaker? But then you describe two strands per banana plug - assuming you mean two cores per plug, then I can see that you've got a biwired setup, but with shared terminals at both ends, so the cable connections can't really be wrong, and if they were, you would only hear the effects of one speaker being out of phase.

If it were me I would be disconnecting everything and re-connecting it two wires at a time - a known +/- pair at a time (maybe even make sure each core makes a complete path, and doesn't feed any others with a circuit tester/multimeter) - and try the system at each step of the way to see if something shows up there. I believe there is a particular combination of connections that effectively puts the speakers in series, and something odd happens, exactly what presumably depends on the reaction of the amp and speakers. It could be you have it set up like this and a loss of bass is the outcome.

I personally would suspect that if it isn't wrongly installed or damaged cable then maybe the cable isn't really capable of doing the job.

What cable are you using?

About six months ago I found something similar when trying to pipe the output from my c.2007 Denon receiver to my Tannoy Mercury F1's via Atlas Basic speaker cable. Switching back to the QED Silver Anniversary brought the bass flooding back.

Conversely, the Atlas Basic makes little difference to the c.1997 Marantz PM-57 amp to Tannoy Mercury M1 combination - if anything adding a touch more detail where it didn't exist before but not making any difference to the bass.

The Atlas Basic was bought for the installation of some nice speakers in the car, but it's still with the bedrom setup now.