Follow up on new speakers

[mloew1]

Well thanks again to all you guys and esp AVRat, I got my sons new speakers all hooked up over the weekend, and all I can say is WOW. He went with Ascend Sierra-1 for the front 3 and the CBM-170's for the rear. and a Epik sub. I am really impressed with these speakers. I am letting the amp do the crossover. I almost think he could have gotten away without a sub. The sierras range is 39Hz - 22kHz ± 3dB. I used the mic on the Pioneer amp to automatically set all the speakers, and it sets all the speakers as large, so very little goes to the sub. On any of the movies that we tried that might have deep bass I really could not hear the sub. I manually set the speakers to small and then I could hear the sub. But I think it sounds better on large. I am not sure if the sub will only play anything below 39Hz now? The Epik did not come with any owners manual so I am not quite sure what I am doing, I did turn the sub crossover toggle off. So I will continue to play around with different settings. Thanks again. Mike

 

[AVRat]

What do you have the crossover set to in the Pioneer? Try 40/60/80 Hz settings. Are you using the LFE input on the sub? Just in case, crank the crossover dial on the sub all the way up.

 

[mloew1]

What do you have the crossover set to in the Pioneer? Try 40/60/80 Hz settings. Are you using the LFE input on the sub? Just in case, crank the crossover dial on the sub all the way up.

yes I am using the LFE in. I think the amp set the crossover at 80. The sierras go down so low for a small speaker. Like I said if I manually set the speakers to small, the sub takes over and directs more to the sub. But I think it sounds better letting the sierras use their whole range ( if I am putting this the right way) but when I do set the crossover to 60 or 80 I can definitely hear the sub very pronounced. Maybe I sould have some overlap?

 

[GranteedEV]

Integrating a sub to mains... you need to get placement, phase, etc all right. Your integration is likely lacking.

The advantage of setting the sierra-1s to "small" is that you will get more total output with lower distortion. the sub will likely be more capable than the mains from around 40hz to as high as 140hz.

Multiple subs is the best way to go btw, a single sub can be lacking in terms of naturalness.

Your best bet for now is to play around with placement.

 

[ahblaza]

Well thanks again to all you guys and esp AVRat, I got my sons new speakers all hooked up over the weekend, and all I can say is WOW. He went with Ascend Sierra-1 for the front 3 and the CBM-170's for the rear. and a Epik sub. I am really impressed with these speakers. I am letting the amp do the crossover. I almost think he could have gotten away without a sub. The sierras range is 39Hz - 22kHz ± 3dB. I used the mic on the Pioneer amp to automatically set all the speakers, and it sets all the speakers as large, so very little goes to the sub. On any of the movies that we tried that might have deep bass I really could not hear the sub. I manually set the speakers to small and then I could hear the sub. But I think it sounds better on large. I am not sure if the sub will only play anything below 39Hz now? The Epik did not come with any owners manual so I am not quite sure what I am doing, I did turn the sub crossover toggle off. So I will continue to play around with different settings. Thanks again. Mike

I don't know what model Epik you have, but using the sub's LFE input automatically bypasses the sub's xover and uses the receiver's settings, I would suggest you set your receiver xover to 80Hz and see what you think, also all speakers small. If you have the Empire or Legend and are using a corner placement, I would suggest at least 18" distance of the woofer that fires into the wall assuming you are using front right or left corner wall position. I have mine in the right front corner about a foot off the front wall and right driver about 22" from right wall and left driver about 2 feet from any boundary, I am very happy with these results. I would also suggest that you get a Rat Shack SPL meter and manually adjust all speaker levels, sub included. I have all speaker levels about 77dB and sub about 5dB hotter at 83. Unless you move the sub out into the room via the left or right wall usually about a 1/3rd of room length I would leave the phase switch at 0. Hope this makes some sense and helps.
Jeff

 

[mloew1]

Thanks Guys.