Static

Not too long ago I got careless with my system and plugged in a cable without shutting everything off first. The result was an ear piercing blast of static through all of my speakers (RB-5s, RC-3, RS-Somethings, 2 subs). Currently, I'm not happy with the way my home theater system sounds, particularly with voices. To my ears they are often flat, boxy, or rough edged. I don't know if this directly corresponds with my static "modification" or if I'm just linking the two together in my mind, because I've also added a new receiver and made a few other changes to the room itself. My questions: 1. Could the blast of static have damaged my speakers? I shut it off when I heard it, so it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. 2. If it did damage my speakers, how would I be able to determine this? I tried gently pushing on the woofers to see if there was too much resistance or they made a scraping sound, which is what I read you were supposed to do to check for woofer damage, but they seemed normal to me. Are there other tests I could make? If I took my speakers apart, could there be any physical damage I could see? Thanks for any help or input!

Have you compared it to the KV-3? Does anyone else want to weigh in? There is a KV-3 on craigslist for $100 and I need to know if it would be an upgrade from my RC-3 ... Same with KG-4s ... which I could trade my RB-5s for ...

Thanks for responding! Can you tell me why you prefer the KG over the RB? What was it about the sound? And are you talking modded or unmodded? It is possible that I damaged my RC-3--I was careless and hooked up a cable without first turning off the power to my system and got a blast of static through all my speakers ... Not sure if that was when I started noticing the boxy, harsh quality to voices or not ...

I have the RB-5s and RC-3, but there is a boxy/raspy/sibilant tone to voices that is bothering me. It was a problem before but with my new receiver it seems much more prominent ... I'm thinking of swapping the RB-5s for the KG-4s and picking up a KV-3 to use as a center ... or using the KV-3 with my existing RB-5s even though I know they won't be a perfect timber match ... I would eventually do the Bob Crites upgrades for the K series, if that makes a difference ... Which pairing do you think would sound better for home theater and why? All responses appreciated!

I'd be willing to take a crack at it myself. I have a soldering iron. I'm not exactly a wiz at it, but if the parts are that cheap I suppose I could afford to screw it up a couple of times. Sorry to hear about your computer! EDIT: I went back to your original solution using F L and R pre outs to sub -- and figured out a way to get the Xfi card to filter bass from the rears to the fronts. Now it sounds like I'm getting bass from all four speakers. I was just about to buy a center channel today too. I'm still interested in seeing your design, but I think your prior solution might just work out for the best. You have my gratitude!

I took one of my rear speakers and put it beneath my monitor to get a feel for what it would sound like ... I'm not so sure I like it. Because the center speaker must go beneath the monitor, there's a distinctive change in the sound when panning across the front ... I'd like to know how much you would charge, DrWho, to provide me with the device you outlined ...

Is that what I'd be doing if I connected the line in to the center/sub out--minus the threat of destroying my equipment via feedback? I might be interested in a converter, depending on the price. No idea what the range might be? Might be more worth your time if you had more than buyer. If you do a search for "4.1" on the Creative forum you'll find a bunch of threads from people looking for a solution: http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=63114&query.id=26434#M63114 (this one gets particularly heated) http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=31906&query.id=26434#M31906 http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=33605&query.id=26434#M33605 http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=71624&query.id=26434#M71624 http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=33605&query.id=26434#M33605 http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=34616&query.id=26452#M34616 EDIT: Not sure why the links I posted are disabled ... I don't know how old some of those threads are, and some posts are from the same handful of people, of course. I revived several of them yesterday (posting as SsnapCracklePop) and they all sank like a stone, so I'm not sure if there is still a lot of interest in finding a solution ... My guess is a lot of people just gave up. You could consider posting a thread describing your proposed solution, or emailing some of the people who posted previously to see if they're still trying to solve the .1 problem. I've been considering the simplest solution--actually buying a center channel. There is a Paradigm CC-170 center speaker on craigslist right now I might go look at. It's not a perfect timber match for my Mini Monitors--it was designed to match with the smaller Atoms. Besides that, there are two main problems--one: fitting it under my LCD monitor, and two: trying to explain to my wife why I have added yet another speaker to our house when I promised I wouldn't buy anymore ... Your solution, Doctor, might be a lot more elegant--not to mention less visible.

Awesome. I thought I knew a little about audio but I'm a total ignoramus compared to you. I think I'll order that part, though I'll have a hell of a time explaining what it does to my wife ("I thought you weren't going to spend any more money on speaker stuff!") One other slight problem with the current solution--bass is only matched with the front speakers, not the rear. There is an audible drop in bass from the rear speakers in gun battles and such. But it's still a huge improvement over no bass at all. Did a search on the Creative forums and found out there are a lot of 4.1 people in my same situation, unhappy that the only way they can get their xfi to activate the sub channel is by selecting 5.1, with the resulting problem of the missing center channel ... One person posted a possible (but dangerous?) solution: "You could actually redirect the centre channel through the line-in if you are careful not to enable CMSS. With multi-channel sources, the centre channel will be redirected only to the front left and right, but with CMSS upmixing, part of the redirected signal will also be sent back to the centre channel creating a feedback loop. There could be a small delay in the redirected centre channel due to the loopback through the line-in. It would also mean you're limited to using only the front speakers with stereo sources." I think the idea is to tell the card you have a 5.1 setup, then split the center/sub out from the card and curve the center back to the card's line in(!) which then gets mixed with the fronts while the sub line out can be directed to the sub ... but if you get a feedback loop you could potentially destroy your speakers. What do you think, Doctor? Would this potentially create more problems than it could solve?

I can't believe it. I've been posting on several different forums all day without getting any where, but I think you've actually solved my problem. I hooked it up just as you said and it worked! The Promedia control pod controls the bass, and the receiver does everything else! How does this work, exactly? The Promedia is getting the left and right front signals, filtering out the mids and highs to the (nonexistent) satellites, and only playing the bass ... and the receiver is also sending the left and right front signals to the bookshelves? I thought pre outs sent the entire signal to an external amp? However it works, I'm happy! The bass is a little boomy but I'm still tweaking it. I wonder if it's running through two crossovers, the receivers and the Promedias? Unfortunately I can't access either one--the manual for my ancient Denon doesn't even mention a crossover or any sub setting whatsover, and the Promedia crossover is fixed for the sats that came with it ... Thanks, DrWho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haven't seen the show in years. I watched the old black and white episodes, and some of the color ones with the various actors playing Who, and some of the old movies (Dr. Who and the Daleks!). I'll have to check out the new show--is out on DVD? Thanks again, Doctor! You solved this problem when no one else could.

Yes--they are terrible. But ever since Aureal went under, Creative has effectively had no more competition when it comes to surround sound for PC gaming. And that's the main thing I use my PC sound system for, although I sometimes listen to music and archived radio as well. It's a Denon AVR-1400. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. It's ancient. Before Dolby Prologic II even. But it does have L, R, C and Sub pre outs (already tried the sub pre out). Just now I hooked up the front inputs from the Promedia to the receiver like you suggested----and it worked! I get bass for the front speakers! But ... isn't this the same as if I just ran the front speakers through the Promedia and eliminated the Denon receiver entirely? The receiver is taking the signals for the fronts from the xfi soundcard, and passing them directly to the amp in the Promedia. Isn't that the same as taking the Denon entirely out of the loop? And wouldn't I still run the risk of clipping with the Promedia? Please let me know your thoughts on this. Ah, I wish the AVR-1400 had digital input. In my sheer stupidity I figured I didn't need it, since I wasn't planning on running digital anyway (I should know to always preserve as many options as possible). For games, the digital would only pass a stereo channel, but then I could have used my receiver to convert that into Prologic ... if I had a digital input. Hadn't thought of that. There is an option on the receiver to set the center as a phantom channel, but for some odd reason that option is ONLY available when running in Prologic mode ... I think the five channel stereo option takes a single stereo source and converts it into the five channels--but I would be running a quad source from the xfi, not stereo. I think the only way to hook up all four channels into the receiver is through the 6 CH EX IN ... which won't let me run in Prologic or set the center as a phantom ... Which would probably be the best option ... If I hadn't already backed myself into a corner. I just bought the two Paradigm Mini Monitors off ebay to use as my fronts ... There is no way a third would fit under my monitor--they're just too big. If I had stuck with the little Atoms it would have worked out great (sigh). I hadn't thought there was much advantage, game-wise, in going from a 4.1 to a 5.1 setup--but then I didn't know I was losing out on a dedicated sub channel on the xfi with 4.1 (Creative should just call it "4" since there is no .1) Thanks again for all your help, DrWho! (Loved the original BBC TV show, by the way. I actually watched it as a kid back in the black and white days!)

DrWho - thanks so much for responding! How do I know when I'm clipping the amplifier. Is there something I should listen for? You're exactly right, and that is what I tried to do--I bought an old Denon receiver and hooked my speakers up to it and they sounded great ... but I was hoping to use the Klipsch promedia as the sub and it just won't work. I have a Creative xfi soundcard and I'm running a 4.1 setup. The xfi won't give me a separate bass channel unless I set it to 5.1, which leaves a big hole in the sound field. I thought I could connect the sub to the receiver and get bass that way, but I have my soundcard hooked up to the 6 CH EXT IN connection on the receiver and since I don't have a separate bass channel connected, I don't get much bass. I thought it would automatically send the bass from the front and rear channels to the sub out, but no--it won't. I thought maybe this was just a cheap receiver, but when I tried to do the same thing on my dedicated HT receiver (Denon 3802) the same thing happened--no bass in to the 6 CH EXT IN means no bass out, even with the speakers set to small ... So if I want any bass at all, right now I have to run my speakers through the old Promedia sub instead of the receiver I just bought. Eventually I might get a sub with line levels in, meaning I could run my speakers from the receiver to the sub which would then filter out the bass from the bookshelves and output it ... (hopefully). Thanks again for responding, DrWho! Sorry if I'm babbling but this problem has been driving me crazy ...

I'm upgrading my PC's sound system. I have been using an old Klipsch Promedia 4.1 computer setup--four sats wired to the sub, which has its own amp for all the speakers. Specs here: http://www.klipsch.com/products/det...omedia-4-1.aspx I've since replaced the front sats with pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors (v.1) and the rear sats with a pair of Paradigm Atoms (v.1) Is it safe to do this? I've read about clipping and am worried I could damage my speakers or the Klipsch amp if they are a mismatch ... I don't crank the volume that loud but if I'm listening to the radio over my PC I sometimes turn up the rear speakers so I can hear them in other parts of the house. Any advice would be most appreciated!

Thanks for responding, speakerfritz! Though I've since tweaked my setup and it is sounding better, I still might investigate the ebay option.

I recently swapped the main sats with a pair of Insignias. They are 8 ohm speakers as compared to the 4 ohm Klipsch sats and a helpful poster on here warned me to beware of drawing too much power from the amp. I kept the volume down low and never had any problems - they sounded great! Two days ago I spilled some soda over my tower and got a blue screen. I unplugged everything and set about cleaning up the spill with denatured alcohol. Let everything dry overnight and when I booted up again everything worked fine. No problems with any components that I can see. But now I notice that the bass from the Klipsch sub sounds very weak. If I turn it up higher, I get more bass, but its very boomy compared to the way it sounded before. None of the soda got on the Klipsch sub/amp so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. It could just be a coincidence. Right before the spill I also hooked up the Promedias to my laptop to listen to something on there and I noticed the sound level was quite low, although that could have just been the weak sound coming from the laptop One more possible clue: when I opened up my tower to clean it up I decided to disconnect the break-out box to my X-fi Platinum sound card. It is a front panel that offers seperate volume controls, headphone jacks, and digital toslink in and out options. I disconnected it because I don't really use it and I figured it was just taking up space. Could that have anything to do with the diminished bass I now hear? I thought it had nothing to do with the sound produced by the card. How can I test my sub to narrow down what might be wrong with it? Any and all responses greatly appreciated!!!

I've noticed on several threads that posters mention photos that aren't actually in their posts. I'm not talking about dead links, I'm talking about photos that were IN the posts and are now just gone. What happened to them?