rf-82 not seeming balanced....ideas?

[jake703]

I have been running my new setup for about a week consisting of rf-82 towers and an rc-62 center. While the 62 seems to have a nice full sound, the 82 speakers just do not seem to have that same punch. I have tried Large/Small, different crossovers...none of it seems to really bring out any mid bass at all.

In the store most of my listening was with rf-62's....and i remember them sounding a little more balanced with bass and the horn. A more "full" sound I would call it. I assumed the 82's would only be better. I am feeding it 50 wpc through an HK 247 receiver in a pretty small 13x20 room.

Would I gain anything by trying to purchase an amp and giving more power (maybe move the woofers a little more), or perhaps see if the store will let me switch these out for the 62's? Does anyone else care to weigh in on the differences between the two? These just seem much lighter and "airy" than the ones I demo'd...and I really expected the opposite. Would break in maybe change the dynamics any?

[wuzzzer]

How are the speakers positioned? I see that the RF-82s are rear ported. Do you have the speakers close to a wall behind them? Do you have a huge area of space behind them?

The speaker's physical location in a room plays a huge impact on how it will sound.

Do you have your speakers wired correctly as far as negative to negative, positive to positive?

[Guest srobak]

Jake,

Make sure they are positioned about 12 to 15 inches from the wall behind them. Double-check your wiring and make sure they are in-phase (+ to +, - to -). I have RF-35's and was originally thinking to get a 247... folks here convinced me to go better for one of the exact reason you are describing - so I got the 645 instead, and sure am glad that I did. Also - while some here might disagree... I had to run about 50 hours of music program through the speakers as moderate volume before the tone was fully realized... that is when the speakers really began to shine. This was also prior to having set any equalization.

[jake703]

Thanks for the feedback! I have been experimenting between 3 and 8 inches from the wall. They are in corners between a wall and an entertainment wall with about 5 inches on each side (between the sides of the speakers and the wall/entertainment center). Which would provide more mid-range...pulling them out further or pushing them closer? I suppose I could let my ears tell me but I also dont know if I am just getting a bigger lower boom and that is making the middle of the speaker range fall off even more.

I imagine I have about 20 hours on these so maybe they will "warm up" a bit as well on their own. I have an old pioneer receiver that pumps out 100 watts so maybe i can disconnect that and see if that changes their sound. I had just always heard that 50 watts on an HK is equal to 75 or so on other receivers.

[jake703]

Oh, and in regards to WPC...am I off my rocker assuming that more watts would equal more woofer movement and a fuller sound or does it just equally elevate the high range just as much. In other words, does it just get louder or does it slightly change the sound characteristics?

[jimmy4300]

I have the RF-82/RC-62 combo and they sound great. For me the soundstage is seamless. As was suggested above, pull them out from the wall more.

Lou

[zuzu]

You can also check the phase by placing the 2 RF 82 facing each other close together. If they are out of phase they will cancel out each others base. If the bass does cancel out then change the +/- connections on one speaker at the amp "OR", at one speaker.