best subwoofer for my setup?

KingSoz

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Hi there

My system is almost complete, just lacking the subwoofer which I thought I might not need with the current kit I have, but to be honest the sound is terrible in the bass department, so I will have to splash out on one.
I have the following:

AV Receiver : Denon 2311
Floorstanders: KEF iQ 90's
Centre: KEF iQ 60C
Surrounds: KEF iQ10's

There is literally no bass that I can hear coming out the front speakers, even after running the audissey setup. So unless it's something I've missed in the setup (my floorstanders are bi-wired using the spare surround channels on the amp).

So...which subwoofer would be a suitable candidate to this setup?

thanks in advance
 
Very surprised you're getting no bass, but assume you mean low bass?

Whatever, at their price point any of the BK range take some beating, as many on here will attest;

Sub Woofers
 
i actually mean NO bass! If I put my ear/hand near the bass cones of the iQ90's they are doing litterally nothing at all! The surrounds are pumping out more bass than the floorstanders, so when I turn my amp to stereo, the audio is horrible. Not what I expected from such expensive kit!
 
What has audessey set the speakers etc. too?
Before getting a sub I would check the settings in the amp to ensure it has not done something strange. The fact you are getting no bass suggests something is wrong with the set up. Have you set the biamping function up correctly (maybe just have a single wire going to it first to see how that sounds).
 
i actually mean NO bass! If I put my ear/hand near the bass cones of the iQ90's they are doing litterally nothing at all! The surrounds are pumping out more bass than the floorstanders, so when I turn my amp to stereo, the audio is horrible. Not what I expected from such expensive kit!

My immediate thought was that the front speakers are set to small, but that doesn't make sense if you're getting it from the rears :confused:
 
Audessey has set the speakers to
Front : Large
Centre : Small
Rear: Small

and as a test if i put a bit of tissue in front of the bass cones/air pockets it produces no air! this has to be wrong yes? I would have expected some kind of punch.
 
You use the phrase "Bi Wire" but it appears that you have Bi Amped the front speakers.

Basic question (without condescension intended) Have you told the AVR that your front speakers are bi amped? And you've removed the jumper bars?

On my Onk,there is a setting specifically for this.

When this is sorted,I'll move the thread to the Sub woofer forum.

K.
 
i've got the AVR set to bi-amp, and using the spare channels to pipe to use seperate HF and LF connections for the KEF's. I've removed the jumper bars also. What I will try tonight is remove the HF connection and see what I hear. If I hear nothing whatsoever, this would assume the AVR is not processing/outputting the LF or my KEF's are damaged (which I very much doubt).

Any tests/procedures I could do to locate the problem?
 
Have you had the Kefs playing "Normally" ie single amped,jumper bar in place?

If so,revert to that to ensure that the speakers arn't at fault.

K.

Another thought,if the speakers are acting in the same fashion,"Single amped" dont immediately write them off.Remove everything,speaker cables etc and start again.it only takes a wire whisker to upset the apple cart.
 
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You could try putting the jumper bar back and just powering the fronts from the front channel on the amp. This would let you know if there is an issue with the biamp setup. You should also check all the cables and connections on the amp and speaker to make sure one of them is not loose or something. This really does sound like there is an issue with your set up somewhere. That said a sub would still add to your overall movie experience as it will give more 'kick' that your floorstanders will even when you do get this problem sorted. As already said the BK Electronics range will be hard to beat for value for money.
 
ok, i spent some time playing around with this setup. i went back to 'normal' setup with the jumper bar in place, and still no nice bass coming from the speaker. if i put my finger on the bass cone, there is the smallest, most feable vibration, u can no see it move at all. I then went back to bi-amp setup, and unplugged the HF connections and just left the LF to hear what is left. Literally nothing. I had to put it up to max volume (-10dB) to start feeling bass, but this with the HF plugged in would deafen you, so the base is just way way too low. I am thinking the Denon does not output base to front speakers and assumes you will eventually buy a subwoofer. I have cycled through all the EQ modes...direct, stereo, 5ch multi stereo, PURE, with and without Audissey on, and none of them produce any nice bass.
Just a note, I am testing this mainly with music CD's via my sony blu ray player.
 
If the front speakers are set to large then the Denon will direct bass towards the speakers so it does appear there is a fault somewhere. Try connecting your rear speakers to the fronts instead to see if they produce much bass. That should then tell you if it is the front speakers that are causing the problem or the reciever. It maybe there is a problem with the internal crossover of the speakers.
 
i have tried this already, and they don't sound like they are outputting enough bass. when i set the amp to 5ch multi stereo the surrounds sound so much nicer than the front floorstanders!...strange no?

I have noticed that audissey has set the rears to -5dB and the fronts to -10dB, don't know if this if what you'd expect as the rears are much close to my ears so why are they set louder?
 
If you have tried the rears on the front inputs in a direct mode and it still does not sound right then it would suggest the reciever is doing something funny. So you either have a wrong setting within the reciever or the reciever is faulty.
 
Is there a "factory reset" for your receiver?

If there is then try resetting it?

How is the sony player connected to the receiver?

My brother's sony player is terrible out of the phono connections and sounded muffled.

DrH
 
The Sony blu ray player is connected via HDMI, but as an alternative i've got an Apple AirPort streaming music from my laptop as apple lossless audio, and it all still sounds the same. I'm just worried that the amp or the speakers are faulty! :(
 

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