BK XLS200 mkii - set up advice please

smashedpumpkin

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Hi Guys, i want to set up my Sub the BK xls200 mkii, i just upgraded my front and centre speakers and receiver. My sub is positioned to the right of the rest of my gear across the room from me, due to the cable issue the sub has to stay on that side of the room. I sit about 10ft from the tv and speakers, the bass from the sub is poor where i sit, if i go and stand in the corners of my room the bass is very loud (heavier) but where i sit on the sofa its lacking, how do i improve this situation. I can increase the sub level to overcome this but i would like to tweak my settings to make my sub sound better in my listening position.

sub settings - connected to the low level input (mono), gain 12 o'clock, LFE out, phase zero.

The calibration has been run on my sony receiver.


Current set up

HTPC for movies and music, i have an Amd 6450 gfx card connected to my receiver using an hdmi lead for sound and video.

Sony STR- DA5400ES receiver (£1300 when new) Sony : Specification for STR-DA5400ES | STR-DA5400ES technical specifications

SUB - BK XLS200 Df MK2 - XLS200

Front speakers - Mordaunt Short Aviano 8 floorstanders (rrp £750) - Mordaunt-Short Aviano 8 review from the experts at whathifi.com

Centre - Mordaunt Short Aviano 5 (£200 rrp) Aviano 5 centre

Surrounds - Mordaunt Short Avant BiPolar speakers. (to be upgraded soon)
 
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try get the sub in a corner or closer to you, what sub eq do you have, what has the amp set the cross overs at.
 
try get the sub in a corner or closer to you, what sub eq do you have, what has the amp set the cross overs at.

as you can see from the pics im limited to where i can put the sub,there is a door to the left of my equipment and a door on the wall to the right, so it has to stay on that side of the room, i may not be in this house much longer so i dont want to do a lot of work routing cables etc. I dont have a sub eq. The receiver has set the speakers to 'large' and does not display the crossover frequency. I have set the speakers to small and this allows you to manually set the crossover for the fronts L&R, centre and then rears. I have set it to 80HZ now.


Move your sofa. Buy a longer cable. There's two things you can do right there!

I have a long cable, i cant move my sofa its against the wall, its the doors that are preventing me moving my sub to this side of the room.



 
Stick it in the big recess this will probably help with gain.
 
ok, looking at the pics I can see how you're pouring the bass down a hole.
Options: sub in the corner of the recess next to the wall socket.
Or next to the sofa (left hand side as you're sitting on it).


To be honest, I think your two fronts are overkill. They go down to 35Hz, while the xls200 goes down to about 28Hz. Be that as it may, experiment with positioning of the sub and see what improvements, if any, you get.
 
i have already tried moving it about the recess and it sounds much the same.

i moved the sub about the room, i could hear it best when it was beside the sofa although it sounded a bit overpowering.

mfife why did you suggest the left hand side of the sofa?

when i do the auto calibration on my receiver it says that the subwoofer is out of phase, i have tried the phase knob in various places and i still get the same result, is this something that needs fine tuned, i have never bothered with the phase before.
 
Well it says to me it's not big enough for your room or your expecting to much from the sub.

If you have it beside sofa try moving it away until it becomes less over powering. By this do you mean you can hear where the bass comes from.

What sub eq do you have.
 
Well it says to me it's not big enough for your room or your expecting to much from the sub.

If you have it beside sofa try moving it away until it becomes less over powering. By this do you mean you can hear where the bass comes from.

What sub eq do you have.


Im wondering if im just unlucky and its a result of the shape of my room. The sub sounds better if i stand in the far side of the room but its just not that loud when im sitting on the sofa. Ill try sitting it slightly away from my sofa, when its next to my sofa i had to turn the level way down, all i could hear was bass, when it was at a around a decent level, i could feel it more than i could hear it, i dont think it blendded in with my music very well.

Do i need a sub eq to sort out the phase ? Is the phase likely to give me poor results similar to what im getting?
 
Im wondering if im just unlucky and its a result of the shape of my room. The sub sounds better if i stand in the far side of the room but its just not that loud when im sitting on the sofa. Ill try sitting it slightly away from my sofa, when its next to my sofa i had to turn the level way down, all i could hear was bass, when it was at a around a decent level, i could feel it more than i could hear it, i dont think it blendded in with my music very well.

Do i need a sub eq to sort out the phase ? Is the phase likely to give me poor results similar to what im getting?
I'm not sure why it would be to much as it should be at the listening position 75db regardless.
It might not blend as well. IQ will just boost the frequencies that are needed and may help your phase issue but a bigger sub will help.
 
I'm not sure why it would be to much as it should be at the listening position 75db regardless.
It might not blend as well. IQ will just boost the frequencies that are needed and may help your phase issue but a bigger sub will help.

thanks for the reply, i have made some progress. :D

i had noticed there was not a lot of bass coming from the main speakers, with sub off and running in stereo mode, the amp bass up at 10 and it was still poor. I found a setting that was causing this, when i do the auto calibration it then asks me to select an eq mode, there are 4, full flat, engineer, front reference and off. I had been selecting full flat, i tried choosing off and immediantely the bass was much more noticable coming through my main speakers. :thumbsup:

it seems as though when the calibration sets the speakers to large it is not setting the crossover correctly, it does not display the crossover frequency, i had to manually set the speakers to small and this then lets you adjust the crossover frequency, i then set it to 80hz, the sub sounded so much better, i think the crossover has been set to 120hz and has been sounding bad due to the higher frequencies.

i now have the sub positioned to my right whilst sitting on the sofa and it sounds much better after the above changes.

am i right in thinking 80hz is the best crossover setting?

not knowing what is causing my sub to be out of phase ill do some research and see if its possible to make adjustments with what i have. If not ill need to consider a sub eq.

feckin av receivers - more bother than they are worth ha ha :devil:
 
That's good news, start at 80hz and experiment with higher.
 
That's good news, start at 80hz and experiment with higher.

thanks, set it to 70hz and finding it sounds better next to my sifa and only playing the lower stuff. :smashin:
 

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