risingjay

Not a dust cap problem?

I just picked the other day a pair of Forte II's, 1 KV-3 and a pair of polk audio surrounds for $400! I listened to the Fortes before I bought and they sounded fine. When I got them plugged them into my system and did some more tests, I noticed a buzz at the lower frequencies coming out of one of the 12" woofers. To diagnose the problem, I swapaed the woofers and the problem followed. I hits the lows but just has that buzz. When I push on the woofer evenly, there is no scrap on the voice coil. I'm feeling that the dust cover on the woofer might have become unglued in an area and is causing it to buzz when low frequencies are hit. The buzz is more pronounced at 30 hz and a little at 60 hz. Any suggestions. Thanks, Jay

Chris, I want to try one more thing before I let go of the xtreme. I'll let you know but it won't be until late next week. I highly doubt the Peach will last that long. I have been Eyeballing your other post. Thanks, Jay

No. It sounds good, but I still don't have as much of the slam as I did with the Acurus. That is why I am thinking about the peach instead of the xtreme. Do you have any used peach's around? Don't get me wrong, I love the extreme mated to my dynaco's, But I think in the long run the versitility of the Peach will best suit my needs.

So I plugged in the Direct box to the system. It seemed to do a very good job of balancing the impedances. But something is still off. I have to crank the levels on the pre-amp to get the sound levels I used to get. I feel weird doing this. I'm thinking a Peach, Sunfire Tube pre, Outlaw audio processer or a Sunfire theater grand might be better for my needs over the Xtreme. I'm perplexed. Oh well.

Arky, Did you by chance ever own an academy and sell it to someone? I picked up my academy from a guy ARK. Just wondering. Very nice guy.

Arky, Thanks for the info. You are going to have to let me know how that combo works with the Outlaw. I have been eyeballing that for a while now. I called them yesterday to find out what the input impedence is on the pre-pro. They told me it was 47k holms which seems like the QSC wouldn't be a good match. But when I mentioned to the that I have the QSC he said that a lot of people use that amp with the processer. So I guess you will be the guinepig. LET ME KNOW!!!! You understand the bottom end I am looking for, right? I just picked up a Radial ProD2 Direct Box today at guitar center. According to Duke this should match my inpedence levels and I think it will work according to the spec on this thing. It converts unbalanced to balanced and will take a High impedence level and bring it down to 600 Ohms which is what these amps need. The only part that gets me is that when you use the balanced connections on the QSC, the input impedence jumps up to 12K Ohms which means you would need an impedence level of 1200 Ohms going into the amp. This is double but is a far cry from the mismatch I was at. Things should really tighten up. I'm going to try and set this up in the moring but my Father just went into the hospital to get his toe removed due to diabites. I'll keep up posted. If you are dissapointed with the way things turn out, just wait for my trial. My cousin has the $699 version of the Outlaw and it sounds great! He also uses the pre-pro for 2-channel and it does the job very nicely. I just wonder how it would do useing my gear. Good luck and keep me posted. Jay

Duke, What will happen if you match up a Low impedence pre-amp say 600 ohms to high imedence input Tube amp like my Dynaco Mark III's? What will be missing, anything?

yes ... any of those, ART, Rolls, etc. will do it .. Duke, So if I use this ART box with my current Pre-amp (Xtreme), it will solve my problem? Or do you think I should sell the Xtreme and get a Peach from what Mark is saying?

Forgot to add that the Acurus output sensitivity is rated at 8V rms.

I just got off the phone with QSC and they said that the input impedance cannot be raised. So I am screwed. The Sunfire is running at 24k ohms which verifies why It sounded a little better when mated to the Xtreme not much. This sucks. Well this is a new and further journey into the audio world for me. Learned something new. Now what?

the key to Slam is Damping Factor.......... you don't have any........... Rising JAY; Can you describe the difference in more detail when switching to the preamp that had more supply juice? Chris Sure. The Acurus had the pound in the chest I was looking for. Now even when I had the Sunfire and the Acurus hooked up in my room it wasn't as great as my brother-in-laws, but it was there and you felt it like it should bee felt. Something that was definetly lacking in the Xtreme. The difference was immediate. I attribute some of the punch missing from this set up compared to my bro in laws to the room. I have an opening right behind me on the back wall that will have a door there soon, he does not. I also only have one corner that a Chorus II can sit in, just like my brother-in-law. When I have the QSC hooked up to the Xtreme, it seems like the upper frequency range is less up front. Like the singer got farther away or muted. Also the airyness went away. The Sunfire brought some of that back but very little. When I mated the QSC with the Acurus, the tight punchy bass was there like the Sunfire / Acurus set up. There was also more airyness unlike the QSC / Xtreme set up which didn't have any and the Singer was there in front again. I wasn't looking for deep bass or bass that extends lower than what the speakers are designed for. The bass I was looking for was quick, tight and you can feel it literally in your chest. But keep in mind I do not want to sacrafice my upper range. I love how my Dynaco's sound. And I have a lot of upgradeing options with them. I thinking of letting the Dynaco Tubes take care of anything from 40hz to 80hz on up and letting the QSC do the rest on the low end. I hope this help. I'm trying to describe the best I can. Jason

All of you are great! You have to understand that I am still new to this. Goofing around for 2 1/2 yrs. now. But now I have to figure out what to do. Here are my options as I see it. 1.) Do the mod on the amp for it to perform as I like. or 2.) Sell the Xtreme and find something along the lines of the Acurus. I plan on using the amp later to drive a sub having a Outlaw audio Bass Management System (which is still in the box) split my frequencies. My concern is if I stick with the Xtreme, my sub will not get the punch as well, that is if I don't do the mod on the amp. The sub will sound sluggish and not as tight. Will doing the mod and a new pre amp screw things up since I just doubled the Input Sensitivivty? Someone said on this tread nice Equipment. Well, I could have the best equipment in the world and have a crappy system. Everything has to work together. Which I quess is why we are all here in the first place.......to find audio nivana. Like I said, you guys are great.

One more thing. Anyone looking at the QSC should give it serious thought. Which did I like better between the Sunfire and the QSC? Well, the Sunfire. But......Not by much. It seemed that the Sunfire presented vocals better and a the sound stage was wider. A litle compressed on the QSC, but not to the point where I will sell this amp for the Sunfire. For the $, if you are on a budget like me, the QSC satisfies my needs. I more than likely will rebuild my Dynaco's, use them for 40-60HZ on up, and let the Subwoofer I build take care of the rest of the bottom end spectrum mated to the QSC. We'll see.

Well, here is my personal conclusion after switching my Bro in laws equipment in place of mine. Combinations: Sunfire / Xtereme - Not a big difference Sunfire / Acurus pre - There it is! QSC / Acurus pre - Still there! I do believe once I seal up the room ( which will be done soon) will even add to the punch. But the biggest difference came from switching out the pre. Funny thing is the Acurus was just a working mans pre. I still believe the Xtreme is an awesome piece of gear. Any Comments?

Isn't that what I said ...???????????? No. You said to use put speakers 3 feet in the room, toed in 2.875 degrees and to use 30 gage solid silver speaker wire and if you cannot hear the difference your ears have not been trained. OK, maybe that's not what you said. Seriously, to answer your queston, the QSC does not have an adjustable input sensitivity. That's why there is this input mod. It sounds really simple, just change a few resistors. I just want to know which ones to change and the value to change them to. If I'm not mistakeing, the Blueberry Xtremes level controls have an output sensitivity of .05V to 2.5V. Shouldn't that mean my pre should be able to drive this amp?

Is there any way to find another location for the chorus II's? If these were front ported,sealed or bottom passive speakers i dont believe you would be having near the problems with the bass with your equipment and location. But since chorus II's bass is reinforced off the back corner or wall due to rear passive i tend to believe no matter what equipment you use your bass will be lacking. And once again i do not know if your pre is a good match for the 3402. Sometimes these things can be frustrating. You grab ideas that folks throw around and try to incorporate them into your own environment and system and find things to not be as expected. So many variables to achieving that perfect sound. Nice thing is you know what your speakers are capable of so its just fnding the right combination of gear/room to make it work for you. Do you think a pair of Chorus I's would be better since they are ported?

So what's the solution here?

No widows back there. Windows, yes. Windows can seriously be the difference?

There is a widow behind each speaker. Would this effect anything? Just throwing it out there.

He is runing a Acurus R11 pre and Rotel CD player. Hopefully we'll switch out the amp tomarrow. As for the power cord, it's detachable. plugs in just like the juicymusic plugs. I bought this amp used. It's a year old. paid $700. Don't get me wrong, the bass did improve, just not the punch in the chest. That punch is addicting and has been my quest.

Who here has got a lot of punch in the low end of thier system? I'm talking about it hits you in the chest without using a subwoofer. I just picked up a QSC PLX 3402 and yes the bass inproved, but the chest pounding just wasn't there like I expected it to be. My brother-in-law lives next door and has the Corus II's like I do mated to a Sunfire Signature series amp and it will punch you all day long! Here is what I got: Chorus II's Juicymusic Xtreme AH! 4000 cd player QSC PLX 3402 Outlaw audio interconnects Monster Cable M1 series speaker wire. My room isn't completely sealed but then niether is my brother-in-laws. What's up?

I would go with full range like the chorus, fortes or cornwalls and use a DIY cylinder Sub. Use an external Bass Management System to set your X-over points. So you would set the bass management to send music 40Hz and lower to the sub or you can send the music 60Hz and under to the sub. This is what I am in the process of. There are many sites into how to build your own Cylinder Sub. There has also been a lot of threads here about DIY subs. Good luck in whatever route you take.

I agree wholeheartedly. I normaly am a great problem solver. But I guess in this case I had a major "brain fart".

Dr. Bill, I've got Joe Curico's power supply in my MKIII's. Do you suggest useing Triode's instead. Also, are JC's power supply compatible with the new Triode electronics driver board?