Today I disconnected my M-Audio BX5's from my M-Audio SBX subwoofer and hooked up Wharfedale Diamond Pro Active 8.2's to it. Now everything I play through my Wharfedales sound really bright and trebly when they sounded perfectly fine before. What could be the problem? I have the satellite and sub crossover set at 80hz.
Monitors too bright after connecting sub
- Thread starter Whyte Ice
- Start date
Doesn't the SBX use stereo bass processing, whereas the crossover not only adjusts the bass frequency point but, also removes corresponding bass frequencies for the satellites. My guess is that it is because the crossover network was specifically designed and fine-tuned with the BX-5's in mind.
Try running a seperate pair of outputs direct to the 8.2's (Not through the SBX), and mixing the SBX in to taste (Possibily using a seperate crossover if you feel so inclined, but I bet running the systems parallel will work just fine).
Try running a seperate pair of outputs direct to the 8.2's (Not through the SBX), and mixing the SBX in to taste (Possibily using a seperate crossover if you feel so inclined, but I bet running the systems parallel will work just fine).
SonicAlbert
Super-Sonic "Herb" Albert
Whyte Ice said:
Just curious why you changed your monitors if "they sounded perfectly fine before".
You might try setting the crossover at 70 hz or lower, experiment with different settings on that.
You also may need to adjust the volume balance between the sub and speakers.
If the Wharfdale's are not working out for you, don't hesitate to go back to the BX5's with the sub, and return the Wharfdale's. You went from $299 monitors to $339 monitors and I really don't know why you did that, to be honest. Any potential improvement would be incremental at best, and you run the risk of going from a well integrated system to one that is not. The BX5's will be well matched to the sub, as they were designed and tested together by the manufacturer.
You also may wish to try the Wharfdale's without the sub and see how that works for you. With a speaker cone of 6.5 inches they are not quite big enough to go it alone, but you may find in your room that they work better without the sub.
LemonTree said:
The cross over point should be where the 3db drop is. If the cross over is a 1st order one then 40 Hz would have a 6db drop. The warfdales already have a 3db drop rated at 45 Hz. Most likely the sub is adding back what was lost (depends on the cross-over order). So I don't think it 80 hz is WAY too high.
Could also be a phase issue ? If the Warfs are out of phase, that could be why they are thin in the lower registers.
The SBX listed these controls:
Controls : Level; Phase; Subwoofer Frequency; Satellite Frequency
Switches : Auto on/off; Satellite high-pass output bypass
Use these controls to find the problem, i.e, maybe the phase for starters. I would highly recommend using the "Satellite high pass output bypass" to let the Warfdales have their full frequency and not rely on the questionable quality of the SBX crossover.
Get the Warfs sound nice using the bypass and let them have all the frequency, then gradually bring in the subs volume to fill in what is missing from the very low registers and then tweak that frequency.
Since the Warfs are 45 Hz at -3db, then you might want to start at double that frequency on down for the subs low pass frequency, i.e., 90Hz and lower. Setting your sub at 90 Hz, should mean at least -3db at that frequency with 0db at half that frequency, i.e, 45 Hz. This would compensate for the Warfs -3db at 45 hz.
The SBX is rated for 30Hz at its lowest. That should mean -3db at 30Hz and at 60 Hz you have 0db with the SBX. So in essence, this set up is allowing you to get 15Hz lower at -3db than Warfdales 45 Hz -3db limitation.
You are getting 15 Hz lower. Use the sub to add subtle low frequency "presence".
Controls : Level; Phase; Subwoofer Frequency; Satellite Frequency
Switches : Auto on/off; Satellite high-pass output bypass
Use these controls to find the problem, i.e, maybe the phase for starters. I would highly recommend using the "Satellite high pass output bypass" to let the Warfdales have their full frequency and not rely on the questionable quality of the SBX crossover.
Get the Warfs sound nice using the bypass and let them have all the frequency, then gradually bring in the subs volume to fill in what is missing from the very low registers and then tweak that frequency.
Since the Warfs are 45 Hz at -3db, then you might want to start at double that frequency on down for the subs low pass frequency, i.e., 90Hz and lower. Setting your sub at 90 Hz, should mean at least -3db at that frequency with 0db at half that frequency, i.e, 45 Hz. This would compensate for the Warfs -3db at 45 hz.
The SBX is rated for 30Hz at its lowest. That should mean -3db at 30Hz and at 60 Hz you have 0db with the SBX. So in essence, this set up is allowing you to get 15Hz lower at -3db than Warfdales 45 Hz -3db limitation.
You are getting 15 Hz lower. Use the sub to add subtle low frequency "presence".
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First, the Wharfedales may be rated to 45, but that does not mean that they do very well, even at 60hz. 80 hz is pretty standard for a sub crossover point.
Second, is it possible that with the wharfedales you are not actually getting too much high frequency content, but for the first time are actually able to hear it? Are you making your decisions based on your mixes, or based on commercial CD's? It is quite possible that if you are basing your decision on your own mixes that you have been mixing that way all along due to improper compensation because of the BX5's lack of response.
If by chance the Wharf's are out of phase (or a cable going to them) than a severe drop in all of low and mid low registers would be expected. As well as a swishy high frequency response.
Second, is it possible that with the wharfedales you are not actually getting too much high frequency content, but for the first time are actually able to hear it? Are you making your decisions based on your mixes, or based on commercial CD's? It is quite possible that if you are basing your decision on your own mixes that you have been mixing that way all along due to improper compensation because of the BX5's lack of response.
If by chance the Wharf's are out of phase (or a cable going to them) than a severe drop in all of low and mid low registers would be expected. As well as a swishy high frequency response.
After messing with the phase control for a little while, I wasn't getting any better results, in fact, I really couldn't hear much of a difference. I tried sushi-mon's suggested and turn on the Satellite high-pass output bypass switch and I set my sub's crossover between 80hz-100hz and now it sounds great! My mixes, commercial CD's, vinyl all sound good through this setup now where everything sounded really bright previously. I had no idea that the satellite high-pass output switch even existed, I guess I should've read the manual more carefully.
Thank you everyone for replying. Your comments were very helpful, especially sushi-mon's.
Thank you everyone for replying. Your comments were very helpful, especially sushi-mon's.
Very cool, glad that was helpful and you got your problem fixed !
Reggie said:
It's a major improvement in my opinion. When listening to the BX5's with the SBX, the sound was pretty good but I always felt there was something missing. I expected more for the money I dished out.
I read so many great things about the Wharfedale 8.2's from this site that I just had to try them out. I felt that it wouldn't hurt to have another pair of monitors incase something happened to the others. When I finally hooked them up and listened, I knew instantly these were my main monitors now. Ever since I got them I've been wanting to try them out with the SBX sub but really never had the time until recently to reorganize everything and experiment with this setup. When I first hooked the Wharfs up to the SBX, I was very disappointed. The sound was very bright and harsh and it really didn't make any sense to me since the Wharfs sounded so good on their own. Thankfully I didn't give up and go back to my old setup right away and started this thread.