sound quality

[adam83]

as this is my first home stereo, and I dont know much about audio equipment and sound, please bear with the poor description.

I know my speakers are not very impressive, but I thought they'd be more impressive than this, especially with the receiver I got to power them. I dont know if it's the computer sound settings or the speakers themselves, or the receiver settings, but I cant seem to get good sound.

So, I have the denon 4802 and (2) cerwin vega DX9'S. I have them connected with good speaker wire 12awg cu. I have an anolog stereo line out running from my computer to receiver. My room is on 1 side of a open 1000sq ft attic and a big wall of shelves cuts off the middle of the space, so my side is about 500sq ft. No doors, and just one window behind my bed.

I cant get the bass in the speakers to punch that hard, especially when the volume is lower. In fact, you dont hear the low end bass that much at all, and If i try to turn it up it just sounds crappier, not louder. The mid range is what you hear the most (i think it's mid range sound, basically the 6.5's in the speakers) in every type of music I play on them. I cant seem to adjust the sound that well, it only sounds really clear on a few types of music. When I turn it up, it feels like the high notes and the low sounds do get louder, but the mid range get's louder exponentially. The sound just doesn't sound proportional it's really pissing me off, and even the the mid range as it get's turned up sounds a bit crackely and unclear.

the receiver is set to stereo more. I have the speakers plugged into the left fron and right front spots. In the options menu on the receiver, the channel volume is set to 0db in both the LF and the RF. Also, on the receiver, the bass is set to +8 and the treble to +4. I noticed that the computer also has sound settings. The sound card has it's little program with an equalizer and several sound effects modes. Right now, I have all the special effects turned of, the equalizer turned on, and the level at -2.1db. Then there is a separate bass and treble adjustment, which I have the treble at 70% and the bass at 50%.

I'm confused on what I should set each mentioned level at on the receiver and the computer, and if it's those thing that are making the speaker under perform or if it's just the speakers.

The speakers do sound alright at lower to low-mid level, but I want them to sound great when turned up and shake the room and they are just not doing it.

 

[MonkeysHamlet]

I see quite a few issues here. Most importantly is your source. I'm assuming you are playing Mp3's. Am I correct? Mp3's are low quality compressed music files, and it has been my experience that usually the bass suffers pretty badly on anything under 320kbps. Secondly, for the most accurate sound, altho it doesn't seem that is what you are interested in, you generally want your settings to be flat. I would turn off the EQ on the computer and set bass and treble both to zero. Other than that, I would just add a subwoofer, that will give you the bass you are looking for.

 

[markw]

Just a quick note here.

Those are some pretty big, efficient, speakers. A lot depends on ones personal expectations of what sounds good.

You say you've got the bass pumped up 8 db on the receiver and the sound isn't what you would like at higher levels.

By pumping up the bass, you increase the power demands on your receiver, in your case somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 - 8 times what's demanded at the midrange frequencies. IOW, you may be running out of power.

If you really, really want deep, loud; bass, you're gonna have to spring for the biggest amp those speakers can handle and, even then, pumping the bass control may have undesirable side-effects.

Remember, when they say a speaker can handle so many watts, that means it'll live to see another day, not that it sounds good while doing so.

 

[highfigh]

I cant get the bass in the speakers to punch that hard, especially when the volume is lower. In fact, you dont hear the low end bass that much at all, and If i try to turn it up it just sounds crappier, not louder.

Do you see the woofers moving much when you turn the volume up? If not, the speakers may have a problem that needs to be addressed. If you see them moving quite a bit and the bass is weak, turn the receiver off and disconnect one wire (positive or negative) from one speaker. If the bass is immediately stronger, make sure the speaker wires are connected correctly- the polarity should be marked with a stripe, lettering on one of the conductors or colored wire. If the speakers are close together or facing each other, reversing the polarity of one speaker will cause the bass from one to cancel the bass from the other and you'll need to crank it up to make it louder.

If this doesn't work, try another source, like an iPod with AAC, FLAC or .wav files. If you have a DVD or CD player, that will work too but use a disc that hasn't been burned on a computer.

 

[adam83]

I will definitely fool around with all of this when I get home from school today.

From everything Ive been told about these speakers, I am giving them more than what they need, 125w per channel, even though they have a 400w rating.

 

[markw]

I will definitely fool around with all of this when I get home from school today.

From everything Ive been told about these speakers, I am giving them more than what they need, 125w per channel, even though they have a 400w rating.

Well, it's certainly your call. but bass takes lots of power to sound right.

good luck.

 

[highfigh]

I will definitely fool around with all of this when I get home from school today.

From everything Ive been told about these speakers, I am giving them more than what they need, 125w per channel, even though they have a 400w rating.

CV speakers tend to be very sensitive (loud without a lot of power going to them) and if they aren't, there's a problem.

FYI- look at the speaker wires at both ends in bright light. If one strand from a positive or negative touches the other terminal or wire, it can be a very bad thing and causes all kinds of weird things to happen.

Both woofers have a red rubber edge, right? If only one does, the other may have been repaired or replaced and this could be the cause of the bad bass.