No Bass! Help! :-)

[mdavix]

Hi,

I have recently purchased a nice new amp and speakers. Yay! Here are the specs etc...

Yamaha AX861SE Amplifier
Yamaha CDX-496 CD Player
Tannoy F4 Custom

My problem is I don't seem to be able to get any authoritative bass from this setup. I've tried moving the speakers around but no difference? I've even been out and bought some extra speaker cable so that I can bi-amp the speakers and I'm still not getting anything near good bass response. Surely I should be able to get bass with ~100watts to bass and treble???

I've thought that the amp might be faulty, or the speakers, but thought I'd check to see if anyone has any advice before I start trying to take things back and get them tested etc.

It sounds like there is a button you can press and suddenly the sound will become much richer! Lol. Even that there may be a high pass filter engaged or something like that? It's like the bass is distant somehow. There is audible bass, but it's just not “there”. It's not really as loud as I'd like. Even if I turn the bass up on tone control it never really gets there.

It's punchy in the mid-bass range but in the bass and sub-bass range it just doesn't bite. I had some mission 702's before this and they gave more bass. I can't understand it as my Tannoy's have double the cone area.

Anyway, enough rambling from me!

Any ideas people?

 

[Stoatman]

Check all the silly things first , for instance the +ve on the amp going to +ve on the speaker connection.

Also is the amp an AV receiver playing in stereo ? Stereo performance is never an av amps best attribute.

If it is an av amp you havent got the speakers set to small have you , this way lower bass notes (<80ish hz ) will get set to the subwoofer. If you have no sub then these will not be heard.

 

[mdavix]

Thanks for your quick response!

I've just re-checked the +ve and -ve poles on amp and speakers and all is well. I've also done the YPAO setup thing which checks phase etc and it passed.

The front speakers are on Large. Everything else is on None.

Maybe I'm just expecting too much?!? :-(

Any other ideas?

 

[William YZF-R1]

I too have Tannoy F4's X 4 on my AV system. My impression is that they match the bass output of my TEAC Reference 300 Stereo speakers (Rebadged Missions?). When I put the CD player through the receiver, however, I do prefer to supplement the bass using the Tannoy sub (LFE gain set to music rather than theatre).

 

[Jay_uk_]

Im no expert, but my reciever will not output bass to the subwoofer if the speakers are set to large.

So try setting them to small, see if that helps

 

[k13 wjd]

another user with 4 x F4 custom floorstanders...sony STR DG 820.


first things first......have you run them in....some folks will tell you that these dont need run in......Sweet ********.....i ran mine in for around a week, 5 hours a day - after which they were VERY different speakers..
They'll shake my fire rated doors in their frames !!!!!

i have heard of a few people mentioning problems with the internal wiring.....i may be a mile off......top and bottom drivers wired wrongly........it would cause the problem you describe.


Your not wrong to expect "too" much.....seriously, my friend has a set of mission 782's with E32 rears......and my 4 tannoys kick their arse, same amp, very nearly the same room.

 

[Knyght_byte]

Try another amp first if you can to rule that out of the equation, preferably a basic stereo amp. If the speakers still sound like there is no bass, then the speakers are at fault. Even my old Mission 700's can spank out the bass and they are small bookshelfs. If the speakers become bassy and proud, then there is a fault or wrong setting with the amp. Try not using any automatic calibration methods and just put everything in to pure direct type mode (ie bypass all digital circuitry). If still cack, double double check your wiring, if the speakers are biwireable but you only have them single wired, make sure there are metal bridges between the high and low terminals.