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What are the symptoms of a not properly fonctioning sub?


Jennifer1

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Hi

as you know, I'm new to Klipsch, HT, ect...and to subwoofers..!;)

after reading posts and asking a lot of questions, I went to buy my RW-12 sub..without audionning it..eheh I was sure of my choice and money was a factor so, I brought it home..maybe I should have listenened to it, to compare at the store and at home.

but...how would I know if I have a wrong sub.? I can have it replaced, no problem but it seems the bass is not clear and distinct? What could be the problem?

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Do you have it in a corner? If so pull it out some it will smooth out. Also do you have it loud? Sometimes you will crank the sub at first to hear it all the time, and that's not how it's sussposed to work. Usually you won't really notice it untill something slamming happens with a properlly setup sub. I barely notice mine. I don't like to put any amp above the half way mark. Another thing is where do you have it crossed over? If it's to high of a crossover it will be really boomy with a one note sound. Try to lower it, but not so low that you won't ever use it. That is if your mains can handle it. 80hz is fine at first if your mains will do it.

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----------------

On 1/29/2005 10:08:58 PM Jennifer1 wrote:

Hi

as you know, I'm new to Klipsch, HT, ect...and to subwoofers..!
;)

after reading posts and asking a lot of questions, I went to buy my RW-12 sub..without audionning it..eheh I was sure of my choice and money was a factor so, I brought it home..maybe I should have listenened to it, to compare at the store and at home.

but...how would I know if I have a wrong sub.? I can have it replaced, no problem but it seems the bass is not clear and distinct? What could be the problem?

----------------

Hi Jennifer:

A) How do you have it hooked up?

B) What output are you using for It

C) How long have you used it

D) What frequency ad possible volumes are set

dodger

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well I've been using it for one week. It's placed in a corner, about 1 feet of the two adjacent walls. It's connected via the LFE output with a monster cable. My crossover is set at 80 hz for the mains and center. I don't set the volume too high, below the half way mark.

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from faq on web site-Where is the best place to put a subwoofer in my room?

First of all, it is generally believed that the bass you hear below approximately 100Hz is non-directional. This means you can point the loudspeaker in any direction and the sound will still reach the listener's ears. Since much of the bass that subwoofers produce is below that frequency, you can place the subwoofer almost anywhere in the room. This is the opposite of full range speakers, which have just a few placement options in a room that allow them to sound good, as they must be positioned for the best combination of imaging and tonal balance. Putting a subwoofer in a corner of the room will make the sub sound the loudest. If your subwoofer is a ported design, keep it at least twice the diameter of the port exit (probably 6-12") away from the nearest wall so that air flowing out of the port is not obstructed. If the bass seems too "boomy" you can "fine tune" the sub by moving it farther from the wall until it sounds smooth to your ears. A popular way of finding the best place for your subwoofer is to hook it up and put it right where you will be sitting in the room. Play something with good, consistent, deep bass and walk around the room. The spot you stand at where the bass sounds best to you is a spot where you might put your subwoofer.

Klipsch generally recommends corner placement of the subwoofer because this yields the loudest output (highest efficiency). This does not mean that it will always sound best in this position, and therefore, experimenting with placement is always suggested. It's also important to have the sound from the sub reach the listener in sync with the sound from the main speakers, otherwise the sound will never blend properly. You should not be able to "hear" your subwoofer as a separate entity; instead, it should seem that your main speakers go deeper with greater impact and authority. To achieve simultaneous arrival, the subwoofer should be similar in distance to the listener as the main speakers. It also helps to put the sub in the same general area as the main speakers. If you do not need to maximize sub output, try putting the subwoofer about 1/3 of the way along the front wall of the room as that may offer a smoother tonal balance than corner placement.

Can I put more than one subwoofer in my room?

There are some people that feel you can never have enough bass. This is a personal preference, of course, and as long as the subwoofers are placed right, multiple subwoofers will produce more bass. It is important to note here that unless the second subwoofer goes deeper than the first one, adding additional subwoofers will only raise the volume of bass. This will not produce deeper bass. Just like finding the best place for one subwoofer, you need to experiment with different positions to find the best places for two or more subwoofers. Some people use one subwoofer for a certain frequency range and the second for another (such as the LFE channel in 5.1 recordings). Other options used are connection of one subwoofer to the front channels and one to the rear channels or one to the center channel and the other to the remaining channels.

Sometimes, adding a second subwoofer can smooth bass response throughout the room. This is due to strong acoustic standing waves in the room which are dependent on the basic room dimensions (height, length, and width) and the placement of the sub and primary listening area. With a single sub, it is possible to obtain strong bass at one spot, with very weak bass elsewhere in the room. You can hear this by carefully listening to bass as you move a few feet in any direction. If you have strong bass/weak bass problems, using a second sub in a different location may reduce the severity of the problem. The important thing to remember is to find what sounds best to you! Each room is different, experiment until you find the placement that produces the most pleasing bass to your ears.

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I don't remember what mains you're running it with, but I generally like to set the crossover as low as the mains allow, usually to the lowest possible setting that is above the F3 point of the mains. For me, with RF-3IIs, the F3 is 37Hz, thus the best sound quality seems to result from setting the crossover to 40Hz. 60Hz worked OK, but 80Hz was entirely too high. Subwoofers are not designed to the same distortion standards as full-range speakers, because it's not their job. Therefore, I prefer to let the mains handle as much of the bass one can 'hear' and let the subwoofer supplement the punch, as well as infrasonics.

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Jennifer - I don't think meuge is telling to you to lower the crossover point. He's just suggesting that you take a look at what those RF15's will reliably go down to and use that as a basis for your crossover setting.

No offense, but I listened to a pair of RF15's one day for a good bit as a customer was auditioning them and I was just hanging out at the store. Personally, those speaks need all the bass help they can get - within reason. I mean, you can go overboard and over power your mains and I believe the RW-12 you bought is about the limit. IMHO, I think 80Hz is a good crossover point for the RF-15.

With some patience (mostly in the area of dealing with all the questions from us), I think you (we?) can get that sub to sound like you want. Good luck!1.gif

Tom

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Make sure you have the gain set in your receiver. There will be

two setting 1. Sub on or sub+mains. 2. There should be a volume

setting for the sub (-10 to +10) or something like that on your

receiver. Make sure it is not set to -10. As other have said you

really need a SPL meter and a good calibration disk that produce

low frequency signals.

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