jdmccall
Super Member
So the other night I determined that I would take my trusty old Radio Shack SPL meter and my Stereophile "Test CD 2" discs and do a thorough going over of my subs and speakers in three systems located in two rooms. Two systems are listed in my sig. The other is my humble A/V rig which is currently comprised, among other things, of six Optimus Pro 7 speakers (no center speaker: I've found that sometimes the best center is no center.) and a single Dayton Titanic III 10" sub. Mostly, my goal was to just make sure the subs were integrated into the systems as well as possible. With the Bose rig, there is no sub, so I just wanted to make sure the EQ was set properly to provide the smoothest sound.
I will spare you all the gory details and instead, cut right to the most interesting takeaways from playing with the three rigs.
First, the family room.
Next up, my humble (yet lovable) a/v rig. I was unable to get a satisfactorily smooth response with it until I reversed phase on the sub. Again, as in the family room, the sub actually smoothed out (and extended, of course) the response of the system. The little Dayton kit sub struggles to reach 30 Hz, but is quite good from 40 up to 100 Hz or so. It sits in the left rear corner of the room so care has to be taken with crossover and volume to avoid localization issues. I ended up with a x/o of 100 Hz here, too, but for totally different reasons than with the Klipsch / Velodyne system. I would have preferred a higher x/o to keep bass out of the little 7's, but bless their little hearts, they actually measure strongly down into the 63 Hz band on "Test CD 2". They sit against the wall on 42" tall CD cabinets. Pretty amazing to hear the bass guitar tracks sound so full played over these little jewels. I do have a single Optimus Pro SW-12 that is not being used. I'm toying with the idea of buying another one and running the front L & R Pro 7's through them. They supposedly cross (depending on what you read) at 250 or 350 Hz. I would think 250 would be more likely. But I digress.
Now to the Bose 901's. Surprising results here. I have a frustrating love affair going on with these speakers. They sound like no other and they do amazing things in light of their small size and price. I bought mine new in '09. I tend, at any given time to either be wanting a second pair, or wanting to sell the pair I have and go back to something more conventional.
My main problem with them is related to the room they are in, which has always been the opposite of our family room. It is easy but this room is a difficult one, sound-wise and has vanquished many speakers I've tried in it, including my beloved and lamented klipschorns. When I first got the 901's and hung them up on a short wall of this 16'x18'6"x8'8" sonic fun house, I thought I'd slain the dragon. I now have them on a long wall, again hanging from the ceiling. They can still sound great with some recordings but there is a persistent problem with high-frequency beaming. Small head movements can produce big changes in sound. I've tried raising and lowering the speakers, and moving the listening position forward and back. The main thing to help so far has been simply not setting the high-frequency slider on the EQ too high. It needs to be Goldilocks-right. Not too much cut or too much boost. But adjusting it by meter proved difficult. First of all, the meter seems to have developed a tendency to wander up and down with warble tones, even when held perfectly still. It has been dropped a few times over the years, so maybe that's a factor. Then too, even the smallest movements of the meter can cause significant reading changes. I should have used my tripod but it seems to have wandered off. So I muddled through as best I could.
OK I'll get on with it. I love 901's sound, but they don't measure well. At least not in this room. Many times though, the Test CD 2 would change from one 1/3-octave band to the next and the meter would register substantial change but the volume seemed to scarcely change, if at all, to my ears. The test CD only stays on a tone for 15 seconds, so when you're having to switch through (three!) different meter ranges because of the large deviations from flat, it's tough to keep up! I never could tame a big peak in the 63Hz band, but other wise extension was good, going down solidly into the 31.5 Hz band.
I ended up using the alternate bass setting, which puts a 6 dB cut of undisclosed Q in at 35 Hz. The mid-bass slider liked to be close to it's maximum cut position, while the mid-treble control was a little higher, just a bit to the minus side of it's center position. Response was much smoother higher up in the spectrum, especially in the mid-band, but still not as smooth as my little Optimus/Dayton system was after tweaking it.
But then again, it ain't all about smoothness and measurements. I haven't done enough listening to determine if the beaming problem is still there or not, but after listening to the music tracks on Test CD 2, I'm encouraged. The measurements make me think a pair of good subs might really help this system, too. And again, it would appear that a 100 Hz x/o might be in order.
Well, that's what I did last night, here in OCD-ville.
I will spare you all the gory details and instead, cut right to the most interesting takeaways from playing with the three rigs.
First, the family room.
This room is excellent for two-channel music. Everything I put in here sounds great, but there can be bass issues.
Although the Klipsch speakers go down solidly to around 40 Hz or so, they are a bit boomy in this room. The peak is in the 50 Hz band. I was unable to tame it until I raised the x/o up to 100 Hz. Boom! No more boom.Next up, my humble (yet lovable) a/v rig. I was unable to get a satisfactorily smooth response with it until I reversed phase on the sub. Again, as in the family room, the sub actually smoothed out (and extended, of course) the response of the system. The little Dayton kit sub struggles to reach 30 Hz, but is quite good from 40 up to 100 Hz or so. It sits in the left rear corner of the room so care has to be taken with crossover and volume to avoid localization issues. I ended up with a x/o of 100 Hz here, too, but for totally different reasons than with the Klipsch / Velodyne system. I would have preferred a higher x/o to keep bass out of the little 7's, but bless their little hearts, they actually measure strongly down into the 63 Hz band on "Test CD 2". They sit against the wall on 42" tall CD cabinets. Pretty amazing to hear the bass guitar tracks sound so full played over these little jewels. I do have a single Optimus Pro SW-12 that is not being used. I'm toying with the idea of buying another one and running the front L & R Pro 7's through them. They supposedly cross (depending on what you read) at 250 or 350 Hz. I would think 250 would be more likely. But I digress.
Now to the Bose 901's. Surprising results here. I have a frustrating love affair going on with these speakers. They sound like no other and they do amazing things in light of their small size and price. I bought mine new in '09. I tend, at any given time to either be wanting a second pair, or wanting to sell the pair I have and go back to something more conventional.
My main problem with them is related to the room they are in, which has always been the opposite of our family room. It is easy but this room is a difficult one, sound-wise and has vanquished many speakers I've tried in it, including my beloved and lamented klipschorns. When I first got the 901's and hung them up on a short wall of this 16'x18'6"x8'8" sonic fun house, I thought I'd slain the dragon. I now have them on a long wall, again hanging from the ceiling. They can still sound great with some recordings but there is a persistent problem with high-frequency beaming. Small head movements can produce big changes in sound. I've tried raising and lowering the speakers, and moving the listening position forward and back. The main thing to help so far has been simply not setting the high-frequency slider on the EQ too high. It needs to be Goldilocks-right. Not too much cut or too much boost. But adjusting it by meter proved difficult. First of all, the meter seems to have developed a tendency to wander up and down with warble tones, even when held perfectly still. It has been dropped a few times over the years, so maybe that's a factor. Then too, even the smallest movements of the meter can cause significant reading changes. I should have used my tripod but it seems to have wandered off. So I muddled through as best I could.
OK I'll get on with it. I love 901's sound, but they don't measure well. At least not in this room. Many times though, the Test CD 2 would change from one 1/3-octave band to the next and the meter would register substantial change but the volume seemed to scarcely change, if at all, to my ears. The test CD only stays on a tone for 15 seconds, so when you're having to switch through (three!) different meter ranges because of the large deviations from flat, it's tough to keep up! I never could tame a big peak in the 63Hz band, but other wise extension was good, going down solidly into the 31.5 Hz band.
I ended up using the alternate bass setting, which puts a 6 dB cut of undisclosed Q in at 35 Hz. The mid-bass slider liked to be close to it's maximum cut position, while the mid-treble control was a little higher, just a bit to the minus side of it's center position. Response was much smoother higher up in the spectrum, especially in the mid-band, but still not as smooth as my little Optimus/Dayton system was after tweaking it.
But then again, it ain't all about smoothness and measurements. I haven't done enough listening to determine if the beaming problem is still there or not, but after listening to the music tracks on Test CD 2, I'm encouraged. The measurements make me think a pair of good subs might really help this system, too. And again, it would appear that a 100 Hz x/o might be in order.
Well, that's what I did last night, here in OCD-ville.
At least not that I know of.
