Vibrating B&W Kevlar - a tad too much!!!

[admin_exported]

Hello!

My B&W 600 Home Cinema Package (684s at the front, HTM62 centre and 686s at the rear) are connected to an Onkyo SR TX876. Instead of the smaller subwoofer recommended in the B&W 600 series brochure, I have gone for the bigger sub ASW610XP.

Audyssey was used to set up the system.

In Mr & Mrs Smith, where Brad and Angelina are dancing in the rain (early on in the movie) you can hear thunder in the backdrop.

My 686s “crackle” when the thunder effect gets really pronounced. When I say crackle – I mean the yellow Kevlar on the speakers vibrate REALLY vigorously, to the extent where the thunder no longer sounds realistic. I have noticed the crackling in Vantage Point too (seconds after the explosion).

Is this due to the amp overpowering the small-ish rear speakers? Can this be rectified?

Another thing I have noticed is during busy scenes, the dialogue gets lost amidst all the noise and becomes difficult to follow.

Most grateful for any help as these issues are driving me mad!!!

Regards

Ken

 

[Anonymous]

When you ran Audyssey, did it designate the 686s as full range speakers or as small? What frequency crossover is set for them? I don't have the B&W package, but I suspect the rear channels should be set as small, with a crossover of say 80Hz. Others on the forum will have better knowledge of these particular speakers. I recently heard the same speakers, but with an Arcam AVR 300 and Q Acoustics Sub, and the sound was fantastic. So much so that it confirmed my suspicions that my own new receiver now far outstrips the ability of my speakers - oops, more upgrades needed.

On my previous Onkyo 606, I had to increase the level of the centre channel to get the dialogue where I wanted it, you may find that helps.

Good luck, once you have these bad boys properly set up they should sound awesome.

Shuggie

 

[Anonymous]

As above. Just had the same issue when i swapped my 806 for and 876

For some reason it see the hmt61 and 686's as full band. get them set to 80hz crossover.

When at loud volumes they can't take the lowest frequencies and you'll find they move like mad or even bottom out when the rubber diaphram is too extended.

Let the sub deal with the lows. no need to have really much bass from the rears.

If you set it to 80hz crossover your only cutting off say 50hz off the bottom end of the freq range.

 

[Anonymous]

Shuggie and Michael,

You guys are life-savers, the system sounds SO MUCH better now!!!

Michael - your set-up sounds quite similar to mine... does your centre speaker have the low volume phenomenon? I tested the system with a HTM61 but the problem persisted.

One last question - would you advise adjusting the LFE on the onkyo to 120hz?

Once again - thank you very much.

 

[Anonymous]

not sure what you about with the low volume phenomenon?

mine set to what the audessy mic is set it to.

on thing i've heard as advice and think this was trevor79 (apologies if I got the i.d wrong) who suggested it. but to turn all the speaker levels up from what the mic set up at. to between +5, +8 ish. this apperently gets the DAC's in to their sweet spot and sounding their best