Did the bK xls200 live up to expectations

[MuFu]

Just a quick note re the LFE settings - you must have bass management enabled (this most commonly involves setting your speakers to "small") and the sub channel active on your processor/receiver, otherwise the sub will reproduce the entire frequency spectrum and sound awful. Also, it's a discrete setting so if you "pull it back" a bit - to quote John's informative post - it'll go *click* and give you a crossover frequency of approximately 120Hz.

You might also want to try setting the crossover to the same frequency as the bass management cutoff frequency on your receiver (commonly 75-100Hz), as this has given good results with this particular sub in the past.

MuFu.

[snaxo]

EvilJohn, MufU

Thanks very much indeed for your comments - will have a further play tonight. I suspect also that it's on a wooden floor with no spikes at present is not helping either - will be buying some little round things to put spikes into today..

FYI my system is as follows:

Yamaha DSP-E800 Processor / Amp powering Monitor Audio Radius Rears, with output to Naim Audio 102/180 amplification powering EPOS ES22 floorstanders up front. No Centre.

On the Yamaha, I currently have the bass setting to 'both' which means I believe that bass frequency is sent to both Front speakers and the Sub. Would it be better to use the 'Sub' only setting? The front speakers are set to Large, and the Rear are set to small. Obviously centre is set to none.


Cheers!

Damian

[scooter]

well, finally taken the plunge. After some help here ref. photos I've decided to go for the silver finish & ordered today. Already had an email response & expect delivery Fri Guess what I'll be doing this weekend

[Docta teef]

What will tend to produce the better results if your using a mix of large speakers and satalites? Ive got large mordaunt-shorts at the front with ms satalites rear (but will be 7.1 in the end) I cannot shake the feeling that settling the large speakers to small will waste them somewhat but as its my first sub not sure.

[eviljohn2]

Definitely set the rear's to small, try both settings for the front and see which you prefer. The difference will probably only be minor anyway

[Boozyuzi]

I've got this sub and at the moment it kinda sounds a bit hollow with my mark 2 eggs and Denon 2803. The only way I can get a fuller sound is to tell the amp that my front 3 eggs are large and I know that is not correct.
The sub's crossover is set to halfway (80 Hz) with the phase set to 0 and the gain at about 10 o'clock.. The amp's crossover is also set to 80Hz.

Maybe I should try turning the crossover frequency on the sub up a bit and then turning the gain down ?

Any tips ??

[Boozyuzi]

Another question -

When watching a music DVD like Roger Waters "In The Flesh" should the bass notes from the bass guitar be coming from the sub or should it only be the famous Pink Floyd sound effect's like explosions, doors slamming etc' that come from the sub ?

thanks.

[snaxo]

Ok I'm making distinct progress with the XLS 200 now.

It seems the majority of the problem of the bass being locatable at anything above the first gain setting was due to the Sub being directly on my wood fllor (no spikes) - which was only because I didn't have little protective discs for my spikes to go in.

Now I have the Sub on spikes - I can turn the gain up to about a 1/3rd. First impression is that I'm going to make an enemy of my neighbour !!!!

Although I have very capable floorstanders at the front driven by Naim amplification - the Sub is definitely providing lower bass and the sound is filling out.

I'm not having much joy with the Phase control - I can't really notice much of an audible difference whatever position it's in. Is that odd?

The Crossover is set at about 11 o'clock which to my ears is sounding the best.

Further tweaking may be done but I'm definitely getting there!
Thanks for all your help !

Damian

[eviljohn2]

Boozyuzi
I'd certainly increase the crossover frequency a bit as the Eggs can't really reach down to 80Hz. You probably won't have to alter the gain much.
Depending on how the DVD is encoded and the settings on your amp, you should find that ANY low frequencies (such as the bass guitar and explosions) will come from the sub. Particularly as you only have small satellites as they simply can't reach these frequencies.

snaxo
Glad it's going well. I wouldn't get too hung up on the phase control - if you can't hear much of a difference then it really doesn't matter!

As with all this stuff and especially with subwoofers, everyone's room and setup is different so don't be afraid to tweak the settings to your taste.

If it's your first sub I can only recommend turning up the gain as far as you feel necessary

Ive set my front speakers to small and turned on the LFE and it does sound be better however in the long term would i get best results from not using the LFE at all?

[eviljohn2]

What setting do you mean by LFE?

[nickwall]

Ordered mine last week, should receive it tomorrow. Just found this thread, very useful and should help me getting mine setup with my Marantz SR5200.

Snaxo - same Snaxo as from Z4um I presume?! What d'ya know, we also got the same sub within a few days of each other. If you turn your's up I should be able to hear from my house!

Nick

[snaxo]

LOL ! Hey Nick - yup it's me ! How funny is that?

You're right about hearing it if I turn it up ! Anything above 1/4 volume and the house starts shaking. I'm constantly looking to see if my neighbour is out or not when I whack a film on !!

Damian

[nickwall]

Sounds just what I'm after. My neighbours are gonna love me....!

[binbag]

I thought I'd give this thread a major bump to illustrate the depth of love that this forum has for this sub which overcame my reservations about buying this sub unheard - something that I would never advise doing.

My first sub was a Celestion S8 as part of a sub/sat package. I knew it could be bettered but it wasn't until I had a MJ Acoustics Pro50 for a couple of weeks that I realised how easily it could be beaten for depth and clarity. As I upgraded the other speakers the S8 had less to add to mix until it sort of just hummed along like it didn't know the words.

I became aware of the XLS200 on here a while ago and it was when I realised that I would happily have bought a secondhand MJ100 for £260 that I seriously looked at the BK offering. To cut a long story short it arrived last week.

It feels like it looks and sounds twice as good.

I have my Light Oak DF sat behind the sofa in my 16'x16' room. The floor is a wooden floorboards mostly about an inch above a tiled surface however the sub sits on the floor above an 18" deep trench. I used to have a 2" marble slab under the S8 in an attempt to tighten its response. The output of the BK drove through this and let me know I had some work to do.

It ended up with it on a 1/2" marble chopping board, turned upside down, spiked into halved squash balls which were first silicon filled and placed over the chopping board feet. The result is a really smooth room response down to 20hz (Avia LFE sweep) and non directional bass. I've lost some gain; but theres tons to spare and the benefits far outweigh the loss.

My amp is a Marantz SR4200. It wasn't noted as having great bass management and when I clicked over to LFE and set my speakers to small a big hole appeared in the bass response. I tried leaving the fronts on large but was more pleased with leaving the mains (Q35.2's) on small and setting the crossover on the sub to 80hz. I make running adjustments to gain depending on the audio processing but thats as hard as dropping my arm behind the sofa.

A lot of previous owners have commented on the power of this sub. Once I'd sorted the setup I was more impressed by it's grip. Tiny things like doors closing have a reality that definately wasn't there before. You can feel the kick-bass drum. Of course when it 'kicks off' it brings a huge grin. Before it was fully isolated the missus complained that she could see the kitchen door vibrating in its jamb. That's about 15' away from the sub. Having it behind the sofa means that I don't need a buttkicker either.

Did it live up expectations? Hell Yes!!!