Rookie w/questions

[Burnz]

Room dimensions are 12' x 20 'x 9' tall

 

[Burnz]

When you listen to music, do you get a decent amount of bass from the subwoofer?

Not much bass out of the subwoofer when I listen to music, usually only movies.

 

[monkish54]

Not much bass out of the subwoofer when I listen to music, usually only movies.

Hmmmm. Try turning off the sub and playing a track while the towers are running full-range.

What do you hear? Does the bass sound better? Does it sound worse?

 

[Burnz]

My subwoofer has a built in crossover, 80/95/120Hz. Not sure if it makes a difference but it has to be hooked up with XLR's. I took a ten foot rca cable and and cut one end off. Then soldered an XLR connector to that end. Hooked the center pin of the rca to pin 2 of the XLR and the ground to pin one. Basically just an unbalanced XLR, but it seems to work fine. Possibly because its a short run. Sounds great with movies.

I have the crossover set at 120 on the sub.

 

[Burnz]

Hmmmm. Try turning off the sub and playing a track while the towers are running full-range.

What do you hear? Does the bass sound better? Does it sound worse?

I'll give it a try here in a minute

 

[Grador]

With Yamaha bass management, unless you set Bass to "Both" [main/sub] it doesn't really cross over stuff from the mains to the sub.

Give this setting a try, and play around with setting the mains from large to small. Set large they will play the bass in addition to the subwoofer, set small they will not.

 

[Burnz]

Hmmmm. Try turning off the sub and playing a track while the towers are running full-range.

What do you hear? Does the bass sound better? Does it sound worse?

It sounds about the same. I mean is -25 dB normally loud? I listen to a lot of rock music and work in the trades. Maybe my ears need a crossover built in.
Just seems lacking to me on music. I never hooked up the YPAO mic that comes with these Yamaha recievers. Is it a setting in the reciever I'm missing?

 

[Burnz]

With Yamaha bass management, unless you set Bass to "Both" [main/sub] it doesn't really cross over stuff from the mains to the sub.

Give this setting a try, and play around with setting the mains from large to small. Set large they will play the bass in addition to the subwoofer, set small they will not.

I've always had them set to large.

 

[monkish54]

It sounds about the same. I mean is -25 dB normally loud?

When you play it loud enough that the bass sounds satisfying, are the mids/highs much louder than the bass?

 

[Burnz]

With Yamaha bass management, unless you set Bass to "Both" [main/sub] it doesn't really cross over stuff from the mains to the sub.

Give this setting a try, and play around with setting the mains from large to small. Set large they will play the bass in addition to the subwoofer, set small they will not.

Do you know what the volume trim is? Theres a setting in there for input and subwoofer trim.

 

[Burnz]

When you play it loud enough that the bass sounds satisfying, are the mids/highs much louder than the bass?

Yes, it seems that way on most cd's.

 

[macddmac]

Sounds like a receiver setup issue. Try doing a full Ypao setup and see what you get for multi- channel and 2.1 stereo settings. There will also be a direct setting on the receiver that cuts the subwoofer signal allowing your main speakers only to play.
The subwoofer manual doesn't address setup using the reciever as your crossover.
You may need to make some adjustment there as well.
I did notice the +4 -10 switch in your manual. What setting are you using there?
Cheers, Mac
PS try setting all speakers to small

 

[Grador]

I've always had them set to large.

For you I'm thinking it's not that the speakers aren't doing well enough, it's that the subwoofer is being disregarded for music. With movies the receiver routs the LFE track [the track intended for the sub] to the woofer, but if you have bass set to "subwoofer" bass from the track for the mains isn't.

This scenario gives you sufficient bass on movies but not for music.

 

[monkish54]

Yes, it seems that way on most cd's.

92.876348% sure it's a setting in your receiver.

If the bass sounds disproportional when listening to both the sub & to the full-range towers, it's most likely a receiver setting.

99.999% you don't need an amp. Don't waste your money.

Try this:

Set the receiver to pure direct mode, and then tell us what you hear.

 

[Burnz]

Sounds like a receiver setup issue. Try doing a full Ypao setup and see what you get for multi- channel and 2.1 stereo settings. There will also be a direct setting on the receiver that cuts the subwoofer signal allowing your main speakers only to play.
The subwoofer manual doesn't address setup using the reciever as your crossover.
You may need to make some adjustment there as well.
I did notice the +4 -10 switch in your manual. What setting are you using there?
Cheers, Mac
PS try setting all speakers to small

I'm not sure of this switch youre talking about. I really dislike the fact that the manual is on cd. Paperback would have been nice.

 

[Burnz]

92.876348% sure it's a setting in your receiver.

If the bass sounds disproportional when listening to both the sub & to the full-range towers, it's most likely a receiver setting.

99.999% you don't need an amp. Don't waste your money.

Try this:

Set the receiver to pure direct mode, and then tell us what you hear.

Sounds pretty good in pure direct mode. Found some bass and treble settings too. Helped out quite a bit. I'm not used to these type of recievers. Lots of bells and whistles I have no clue about.

 

[monkish54]

Sounds pretty good in pure direct mode. Found some bass and treble settings too. Helped out quite a bit. I'm not used to these type of recievers. Lots of bells and whistles I have no clue about.

Just as I thought.

That was actually my next suggestion. Make sure the bass and treble are both set to 0db. If they were at different db level, that was your problem. If not, try this:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/922343-post33.html

 

[Burnz]

Just as I thought.

That was actually my next suggestion. Make sure the bass and treble are both set to 0db. If they were at different db level, that was your problem. If not, try this:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/922343-post33.html

Yes, it is sounding much more to my liking now. Theres so many settings that I really have no clue about. I could sit and ask questions all day long. Thank you everyone for your help. You havnt heard the last of me though. More questions to come I'm sure

 

[Burnz]

Yes, much more to my liking now. Theres so many settings on this thing that I could sit and ask questions all night. Thank you everyone for the help and great advice. You havnt heard the last of me though. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to ask.

 

[monkish54]

Yes, much more to my liking now. Theres so many settings on this thing that I could sit and ask questions all night. Thank you everyone for the help and great advice. You havnt heard the last of me though. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to ask.

Glad it's fixed!!