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After listening to a CD from The 5 Blind Boys of Alabama that had some upright bass, I've decided I need to do some tweaking on my system. I've always known there are some "boomy" notes in my system, but listening to the simple upright bass seemed to accentuate it to the point that I feel something needs done about it. I am not willing, at this time, to upgrade, so am looking for ideas or validation of my thoughts for improvement.
I am running a Denon AVR-3801 with B&W DM 605 S2 as Mains in a fully carpeted 15.5'x15' room with 8' ceiling. The drivers are 20" from the front wall, 36" from the sides and 9' apart, toed in and my listening position is 11' away from the speakers and 16" from the back wall on a cloth couch 8"from the back wall. You can see pictures of my setup on the first post of the 2nd page of the B&W Picture thread.
I usually use the "direct" setting of the processor for 2 channel CD listening. I would like to flatten my in room response curve. The receiver has bass and trebble controls, but I prefer to use the direct mode, which disables the tone controls. I fear that tweaking with tone controls that have such a wide band would probably do more harm than good. My idea was to concentrate on the speakers and see what could be accomplished there.
1) My first idea/question was about the ports. The 605 has built in powered and ported subs. Some B&W speakers come with "foam plugs", the 605 did not. What type of foam are these plugs? Would a chunk of a foam swimming pool noodle (float) be the same type of foam? Would plugging the ports tame any of the boominess at certain notes or would it cut the overall bass output. Would plugging the ports have any different effect than tweaking the controls of the sub amps? (see attachment)
2) My next step would be to actually have to spend some money (yes I'm chea---- frugal). Which Rat-Shack db meter is best to use, analog or digital? There was a post about downloadable test tones awhile back. If I can find it, will those be adequate to get the response of my system?
3) (Please see attachment) Will the adjustments available on the sub amps be enough to help with flattening the response? I currently run the speakers at a level of -2db with the EQ set on F (top curve).
4) I have a two channel graphic equallizer with low end adjustments at 31.5, 63, 125, and 250 Hz. I am currently using the digital output of the CD player to a dgital in on the receiver. If I use the analog output of the CD player and run it through the equalizer to an analog input of the receiver, would the differences in the DACs (16 bit on the CD and 24 on the receiver) eliminate any advantage gained by the increased tone control?
4) Next questions are about the Berringer products. How do those connect into a system? Do you have to insert them in the pre out- main in loop or do they work at line level? How many channels do they handle? Do you need one for each channel (R,L,Sub), or will one work for all channels? I currently run all freq's to the 605's and let them handle the crossover work. If I used a Berringer, would I need to use the LFE output of the receiver?
Any suggestions or thoughts on how to test and improve the in room response of this system would be appreciated. Thanks.
I am running a Denon AVR-3801 with B&W DM 605 S2 as Mains in a fully carpeted 15.5'x15' room with 8' ceiling. The drivers are 20" from the front wall, 36" from the sides and 9' apart, toed in and my listening position is 11' away from the speakers and 16" from the back wall on a cloth couch 8"from the back wall. You can see pictures of my setup on the first post of the 2nd page of the B&W Picture thread.
I usually use the "direct" setting of the processor for 2 channel CD listening. I would like to flatten my in room response curve. The receiver has bass and trebble controls, but I prefer to use the direct mode, which disables the tone controls. I fear that tweaking with tone controls that have such a wide band would probably do more harm than good. My idea was to concentrate on the speakers and see what could be accomplished there.
1) My first idea/question was about the ports. The 605 has built in powered and ported subs. Some B&W speakers come with "foam plugs", the 605 did not. What type of foam are these plugs? Would a chunk of a foam swimming pool noodle (float) be the same type of foam? Would plugging the ports tame any of the boominess at certain notes or would it cut the overall bass output. Would plugging the ports have any different effect than tweaking the controls of the sub amps? (see attachment)
2) My next step would be to actually have to spend some money (yes I'm chea---- frugal). Which Rat-Shack db meter is best to use, analog or digital? There was a post about downloadable test tones awhile back. If I can find it, will those be adequate to get the response of my system?
3) (Please see attachment) Will the adjustments available on the sub amps be enough to help with flattening the response? I currently run the speakers at a level of -2db with the EQ set on F (top curve).
4) I have a two channel graphic equallizer with low end adjustments at 31.5, 63, 125, and 250 Hz. I am currently using the digital output of the CD player to a dgital in on the receiver. If I use the analog output of the CD player and run it through the equalizer to an analog input of the receiver, would the differences in the DACs (16 bit on the CD and 24 on the receiver) eliminate any advantage gained by the increased tone control?
4) Next questions are about the Berringer products. How do those connect into a system? Do you have to insert them in the pre out- main in loop or do they work at line level? How many channels do they handle? Do you need one for each channel (R,L,Sub), or will one work for all channels? I currently run all freq's to the 605's and let them handle the crossover work. If I used a Berringer, would I need to use the LFE output of the receiver?
Any suggestions or thoughts on how to test and improve the in room response of this system would be appreciated. Thanks.
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