When hearing these speakers on a well calibrated receiver I was more than pleased on bass/mid/heights, so i know what they deliver.. My issue is not satellite speakers (They are crisp in heights), but the bass needs tweaking. The setup is tiny, but a 8" woofer is plenty for my small room. I am confident Energy, the manufacturer knows what they are doing, afterall that is all that they do.
Let me clerify again why I am here:
1. I have a amazing receiver with tons of features, ability to fine tune to my situation, utulize tools in the receiver to close in the gap that the speakers lack
2. Auto Calibration does a good job, but now I need to open the hood and find ways I can fine tune the sound
3. One tool that I know of is eq settings, it is there to help you achieve sound you are looking for. Again, what other settings can I dig into to improve this? More volume into the sub? use eq?
Cannot believe that there arent any solutions. Betcha if I hired a audio professional to calibrate what I got, use ELITE tools it would sound million times better, and go beyond my expectations. Crossover might not cover full range, but I am sure there are ways to fill in the gap. There are many variables that can help me achieve what I am looking for
I appriciate your advice, but still looking for constructive criticism of what I got and make it the best it can be. Again I heard these speakers in action with the right calibration, here and now I am not getting this from my speakers. Droppin 1 octave, and missing a small range wont matter if I apply the right amount of tweaks
Unfortunately you have had a learning experience.
In fairness to Energy, they do state that these speakers have to be crossed over between 120 and 180 Hz.
The specs of the sub say that it has a response as high as 180 Hz, which is unusual for a sub. Optimal crossover is in the 60 to 80 Hz area. Generally you should choose a crossover point somewhat above the F3 of the satellites/main speakers. I would say optimal for your system would be a crossover of 180 Hz. I'm not aware of a receiver that has a crossover that high any longer. So there is a real problem, in that that speaker system can not function optimally with most, if any, receivers on the market.
Most receivers are not designed to work with this situation, and I doubt yours is.
The next issue is the bedroom, as if that sub is to work correctly, it needs to be placed between the speakers, as at the range it will operate you will localize it. It will also have to be placed way away from deadening materials such as a bed.
May be when you heard it, the speakers were placed to get some room gain on the lower end and the receiver had a crossover setting higher than usual. I don't know.
Some people seem to be happy with set ups like this, with the sub turned up high, enveloping the whole scene in acoustic goo. These set ups are far too common. Unfortunately for you, you have a more accurate and critical sense of how things should sound.
As far as Eq is concerned, that will not work, as the boost required would burn out the small satellites as well as result in high distortion. So that is not a realistic option. It takes a really beefy expensive woofer in a sealed box to tolerate low end Eq.
The final issue is that you must understand speakers are totally dominant in the sound of your system, including their room interaction.
Generally you should spend 2:1 on speakers over everything else.
From your post I doubt you are ever going to be happy with this speaker system, or any speaker system at the bottom end of the market.
So I would look at bookshelf speaker systems and a sub in the +/- 2K range for all speakers. That is no guarantee of good results, so you will have to shop and audition carefully.
