help connecting bowers & Wilkins 685

taketake

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Hello everyone,

I've been trying to connect these speakers for over a week with no luck :( I tried copper wire connections (both speakers and amp) to a technics su-v 560 and banana plugs (also both ways) to a Rotel RA-931 MK2. I always get buzzing sound from the speakers, what can it be? All these items were sold to me as fully working, speakers too, and I've also tried them personally before buying.

Any hints are appreciated.

Thanks in advance :)
 
7267-tec_SU-V560b_2.JPG

Sansui rear

b-w-685-s2-product-photos06.jpg

B&W 685 rear

931back.jpg

Rotel rear.


71HTHzDnP3L._AC_SX522_.jpg

Speaker cable (typical).

To connect the speakers to either of the amps (not both at one) you needs to use a speaker cable like the one above. Make sure the speakers have the jumper bars attached As in the photo above.

On the Sansui, connect one end of the speaker cable to the Speaker A read and black binding posts (should be able to unscrew them, slide the cable through the hole in the middle it if has one and then tighten them down). I would connect the sable with the marker (colour or raised groove) to the red (+) and the other to the black (-). The other end of the wire then goes red (+) to red post on the speaker and black (-) to black on the speaker. It doesn’t really matter if you use top or bottom as they are joined with the jumper bars.

Plug a source (cd player) into one of the inputs, not phono, and you should get sound out (start with volume low, and make sure you select the correct input and speaker on the front panel).

The Rotel is basically the same except the speaker connections are side by side rather than on top of each other.

Hope this helps.

This is basically what you are aiming for.

Bi-Amp-connection.png
 
7267-tec_SU-V560b_2.JPG

Sansui rear

b-w-685-s2-product-photos06.jpg

B&W 685 rear

931back.jpg

Rotel rear.


71HTHzDnP3L._AC_SX522_.jpg

Speaker cable (typical).

To connect the speakers to either of the amps (not both at one) you needs to use a speaker cable like the one above. Make sure the speakers have the jumper bars attached As in the photo above.

On the Sansui, connect one end of the speaker cable to the Speaker A read and black binding posts (should be able to unscrew them, slide the cable through the hole in the middle it if has one and then tighten them down). I would connect the sable with the marker (colour or raised groove) to the red (+) and the other to the black (-). The other end of the wire then goes red (+) to red post on the speaker and black (-) to black on the speaker. It doesn’t really matter if you use top or bottom as they are joined with the jumper bars.

Plug a source (cd player) into one of the inputs, not phono, and you should get sound out (start with volume low, and make sure you select the correct input and speaker on the front panel).

The Rotel is basically the same except the speaker connections are side by side rather than on top of each other.

Hope this helps.

This is basically what you are aiming for.

Bi-Amp-connection.png
thanks for the explanation! I'm doing everything right so I guess it must be the phono output. How am I supposed to pair it with my turntable then? It's a technics sl-bd22d, if it matters
 
Turntable cable goes into the phono input on either amp, again red plug on the turntable cable to the red socket on the amp. If the turntable has a separate bare wire it needs connecting to the ground bolt on the back of the amp.

The turntable will be very quiet and distorted if you plug it into any other input on the amps. Make sure you have the phono input selected on the front of the amp.
 
Hello everyone,

I'm struggling with these new speakers I bought. I tried copper wire connections to a technics su-v 560 and banana plugs (also both ways) to a Rotel RA-931 MK2, either through aux or phono output and I get no bass signal at all. The only part of the speakers which pulses is the little grey at the top. It's basically laptop sound at slightly higher volume.

Is it normal? Do I have to add a subwoofer to this sound system or what?

Thanks in advance for help

105059.jpeg
 
Unless you're connecting them wrong, they're broken or the amp is. I used to have the s2 version and they were all bass and treble.
 
As in the other thread, make sure that the link bars are in and connected tightly before putting in the banana plugs in to either top or bottom connectors on the speaker.

If you can show a picture of the back of the amp and back of the speakers with the wires connected then that will help diagnose the issue.
 
this is what I've tried so far



image0.jpeg
 

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Connected as in Image2.jpg you are only powering the tweeters so and so will only hear sound ove about 1khz and so will sound very thin as you describe. The reason for this is that you do not have the speaker terminals jumper bars in place.

Not sure what you are trying to achieve by connecting both amps (image3.jpg), one to treble (top speaker terminals) and one to bass (Bottom speaker terminals). I guess this could be classed as bi amping but the amps are so different it is bound not to work well. The only way this would work is if you fed both amps with the same source signal (from cd, turntable etc) which would need a splitter cable.

The solution is to use one amp, one set of speaker cables, and put the jumper bars back onto the speakers (see my picture of the speaker rear, the gold bars that run vertically between the speaker terminals). See the diagram I also linked above.

If you don’t have the gold speaker jumper bars then you can use a short piece of speaker cable to make one up passing it through the holes in the speaker terminals And tightening down the terminals.

s-l1600.jpg


There is no reason using one amp why this should not work.
 
Just to make sure I have explained it in an understandable manner, here is a picture using the Rotel Amp -


Amp-Speaker 1 by A H, on Flickr
 
Alright got it now, the issue was simply that I didn't use the jumper cables. Everything works great , thanks for keep trying to explain me how to fix the problem :D
 
Glad you got there eventually, you can now try the two amps separately and see which you prefer. I quite like Rotel and B&W of this era and they are also,part of the same group of companies. The Sansui may provide a warmer sound though, just guessing based on one I had form the same era. Try each and let your ears decide.
 

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