• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Cerwin Vega AT-15 Low bass?

V

VintageCerwi

New Member
Hi guys,

I’m pretty new to vintage audio, but I’m willing to learn so bear with me.

I recently picked up a pair of Cerwin Vega AT-15s after hearing that they’re loud and have great bass. (My parents had the 250SEs when I was younger and they bumped.) I found a Carver TFM-35 to pair with them. not sure if that was a good choice but the watts per channel looked pretty good (400WPC).

I plugged everything in and it all sounded good... but there was hardly any bass. :(

After doing some research, I bought a preamp. the Fosi Audio P4 from Amazon. I know it’s probably not the best, but I just wanted to test it out. It improved the bass a bit, but nothing like what I’ve read in forums where people say the AT-15s will shake the house.

When I turn the system up, I’ve been blowing fuses especially when the bass is turned up (though I still find it lacking).

I’ve never heard AT-15s in another setup, so maybe the bass I’m getting is normal. But based on everything I’ve read, it feels like something isn’t right.

I have an Alpine Type R 12” sub in my car and it bumps. I was expecting the AT-15s with two of them to sound even better, especially with the power from the Carver.

I also checked the polarity using a AA battery and everything seems correct.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Register to hide this ad
VintageCerwi said:
I’m pretty new to vintage audio,

I recently picked up a pair of Cerwin Vega AT-15s I found a Carver TFM-35 to pair with them...I plugged everything in and it all sounded good... but there was hardly any bass. ..After doing some research, I bought a preamp.

When I turn the system up, I’ve been blowing fuses especially when the bass is turned up (though I still find it lacking).
Click to expand...
What were you using prior to buying a preamp? how were you getting sound out of the Power amp?

What is the condition of the Carver you picked up? are you sure it's running as it was meant to be?

I'll let others chime in as to what is causing you to blow fuses
 
@Dswankey I was using the Carvier as a standalone amp. Without the preamp. Then when I got the pre amp I connected it to the Carvier if that makes sense. The Carvier looks mint condition looking through the grill cover looks to be re capped but I could certainly be wrong. I got it second hand.

* also when blowing fuses on both Chanel’s They do. I got the 2.5Amp ones in. As I said sound is awesome I love it but the bass is lacking. However * I forgot to mention they were reconed by the previous owner before I got them. I’ve heard they need to be broken in. Maybe that’s the issue?
 
No offense intended, but if your frame of reference is car stereo, your expectations may be unrealistic. The ATW-15 is a nice woofer, but it isn't a subwoofer.

Also, the correct recone kit for that woofer hasn't been available for at least ten years.

Do you know anyone with a home stereo you can compare to yours?
 
Last edited:
im afraid your expectations are not in line with what that speaker can do. ill bet the bass is damn good with a bottom spec of 28h, and 102db sensitivity?!
you’ll want a sub with those for best slam. crossed over about 45-50hz, just above roll off.
my jbls are similar in specs. they hit low without a sub. but for that visceral feel, subs.
 
Just out of curiosity have you made sure polarity is correct? If you play just one speaker does the bass get better or worse?
 
Observations:
A. Blowing fuses is not normal, sounds like your amp or the power solution in your home has a problem. Look into these first.

B. You should get some kind of bass performance from your CW's, even if it's a kind of artifical bass that doesn't dig deep or really kick with a thump you can feel.

C. Try the aforementioned things regarding phase.

D. Play a bit with speaker placement. Away from wall, closer to wall, in corner. Etc.

E. Speakers crossover faults. This can also hamper bass response.

If anything is wrong with the above it needs looking into..

Another thing to think about is amplification quality:
I've run my speakers with several PA amps comparable to your Carver. I switched to a quality (imho) HiFi amp (the TEAC A-H500i) with much less watts than the PA amps, and it provided a MUCH better sound respresentation with all speakers I have (main ones being Tannoy 615).
Point being, you don't need a lot of watts to get good performance with a decent speaker, especially when it's an efficient speaker like your CV's are, their rated sensitivity is riciulously high for home speakers actually.

However, it could be that nothing IS wrong and you want eyeblurring low bass and thumping kicks (that visceral feel like izeek said). That's the way I like it for sure.
In that case:
Add subwoofers.

My scenario: I'm running a pre-amp (dj mixer actually) > active crossover > amp 1 to my speakers, amp 2 to my 2 x 10" subs.
If I wouldn't already have had a HT sub with a blown plate amp (and multiple amps), I'd have gotten myself a powered PA sub, (only) had to add the additional crossover now to feed the right frequencies to the right amp. And got and an extra one of those (blown amp) subs. Because Bass.

One last observation; My Tannoy 615's play more tightly and seem to actually have sensitivity versus several large monitor style (similar to your CV's) speakers that I have around. My unscientific assumptions to the reasons behind this are: lighter moving mass of the cones (fast response), more advanced cabinet design and higher quality crossover.
 
Last edited:
stereofanboy said:
No offense intended, but if your frame of reference is car stereo, your expectations may be unrealistic. The ATW-15 is a nice woofer, but it isn't a subwoofer.

Also, the correct recone kit for that woofer hasn't been available for at least ten years.

Do you know anyone with a home stereo you can compare to yours?
Click to expand...
Good to know I had no clue about the recone kits. The only thing I can compare it to. My buddy has a new Sonos home stereo with a Sonos sub. I doubt that’s a good representation for the AT-15s
 
Apreggiator said:
Observations:
A. Blowing fuses is not normal, sounds like your amp or the power solution in your home has a problem. Look into these first.

B. You should get some kind of bass performance from your CW's, even if it's a kind of artifical bass that doesn't dig deep or really kick with a thump you can feel.

C. Try the aforementioned things regarding phase.

D. Play a bit with speaker placement. Away from wall, closer to wall, in corner. Etc.

E. Speakers crossover faults. This can also hamper bass response.

If anything is wrong with the above it needs looking into..

Another thing to think about is amplification quality:
I've run my speakers with several PA amps comparable to your Carver. I switched to a quality (imho) HiFi amp (the TEAC A-H500i) with much less watts than the PA amps, and it provided a MUCH better sound respresentation with all speakers I have (main ones being Tannoy 615).
Point being, you don't need a lot of watts to get good performance with a decent speaker, especially when it's an efficient speaker like your CV's are, their rated sensitivity is riciulously high for home speakers actually.

However, it could be that nothing IS wrong and you want eyeblurring low bass and thumping kicks (that visceral feel like izeek said). That's the way I like it for sure.
In that case:
Add subwoofers.

My scenario: I'm running a pre-amp (dj mixer actually) > active crossover > amp 1 to my speakers, amp 2 to my 2 x 10" subs.
If I wouldn't already have had a HT sub with a blown plate amp (and multiple amps), I'd have gotten myself a powered PA sub, (only) had to add the additional crossover now to feed the right frequencies to the right amp. And got and an extra one of those (blown amp) subs. Because Bass.

One last observation; My Tannoy 615's play more tightly and seem to actually have sensitivity versus several large monitor style (similar to your CV's) speakers that I have around. My unscientific assumptions to the reasons behind this are: lighter moving mass of the cones (fast response), more advanced cabinet design and higher quality crossover.
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for the response. Big possibility everything is fine. There’s bass no doubt but not bass where you feel it in your body haha. Maybe subs is what I need. On a side note do you know an easy way to Test Speaker crossover faults?
 
VintageCerwi said:
I checked the polarity with a AA battery both cones move outward. I can try one and see if there’s more bass.
Click to expand...

That they are of same polarity is good to confirm, but then have you also triple checked the both amp channels (+) & (-) are correctly connected to both speakers (+) & (-)?

I recall a past thread, very long, where a respected member was having lack of bass and insisted polarity was correct, so all sorts of other theories were floated.

After pages and pages of back-and-forth posts, can you guess what the problem ended up being?
 
Last edited:
There is deep bass, accurate bass, boomy bass, pounding bass, etc. Each demads the speakers system to perform amazingly well in a different part of the frequency spectrum 150 HZ down. Knee jerking bass like for disco music is centered around 43 HZ. Which CV's did very well. But if you are after pounding bass and very tight percussive bass from a big bass drum tuned to 30 HZ or lower the AT is going to fall flat on its face. Speakers back then used a +/- 10 db frquency envelope when describing their frequency respose. Not like some speakers to day that use +/- 3 or 6 db which makes quite a difference as you are finding out. So you better plan on buying some good subs woofers. And not with small 10 or 12 inch drivers either. Bass still isn't cheap or never has been cheap for great bass. You might move the speakers against a wall or closer to corners as that can help boost the bass by 6 to 10 db in the bottom octave, But once you get to 28 HZ, thats it. My HT speakers reach 23 HZ +/- 3 db and sound great. But for really deep bass I use my stereo speakers which are +/- 4 db to below 20 HZ with 10 to 15 db less distortion which cleans up the bass reproduction significantly. Giving the bass more snap when its required. Unfortunately your older woofers are more of the high distortion type as were most woofers from that period and like my HT speaker woofers are. If you decide to change speakers remember it takes 2 10" woofers to move as much air as a single 15 inch. Except for Volti, Klipsch and a few JBL most current speakers made to day are 10 db less efficient than your CV's meaning they need 10 times as much power as your CV speakers to reach the same level in sound output. Ka-ching KA-ching said the cash register.
 
Apreggiator said:
Observations:
A. Blowing fuses is not normal, sounds like your amp or the power solution in your home has a problem. Look into these first.
Click to expand...

I'll just give a small remark here based on my ownership and use of Cerwin D-9 speakers.

They have a slow blow fuse that is indeed capable of being blown without a technical problem of the amp or speaker. They'll take high peaks and fairly high power for a while but eventually you can overcome the time delay with high enough average power.

They did make mention in the manual you could use one step higher fuse, also slow blow, but STRONGLY advised to use their "bass turbocharger" if you were going to go with the higher fuse. The bass turbocharge provided a bit of a bump in the low to mid bass, but also incorporated a very steep high pass filter down around 20 or 25Hz, something like that.
 
Dswankey said:
Hopefully the OP can clarify if he's blowing fuses on the speakers or the amp
Click to expand...

That would be good, yes.

I'm presuming the speaker fuses because of the way the 2.5A comment was made "I got the 2.5A ones in.".

For my D-9, I believe 2.5A slow blow was the normal fuse, 3A slow blow was the higher one listed, with the recommendation of using the bass turbocharger.
 
VintageCerwi said:
Hi guys,

I’m pretty new to vintage audio, but I’m willing to learn so bear with me.

I recently picked up a pair of Cerwin Vega AT-15s after hearing that they’re loud and have great bass. (My parents had the 250SEs when I was younger and they bumped.) I found a Carver TFM-35 to pair with them. not sure if that was a good choice but the watts per channel looked pretty good (400WPC).

I plugged everything in and it all sounded good... but there was hardly any bass. :(

After doing some research, I bought a preamp. the Fosi Audio P4 from Amazon. I know it’s probably not the best, but I just wanted to test it out. It improved the bass a bit, but nothing like what I’ve read in forums where people say the AT-15s will shake the house.

When I turn the system up, I’ve been blowing fuses especially when the bass is turned up (though I still find it lacking).

I’ve never heard AT-15s in another setup, so maybe the bass I’m getting is normal. But based on everything I’ve read, it feels like something isn’t right.

I have an Alpine Type R 12” sub in my car and it bumps. I was expecting the AT-15s with two of them to sound even better, especially with the power from the Carver.

I also checked the polarity using a AA battery and everything seems correct.

Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Many years ago, I had a pair of it's smaller cousins, the AT-12. It produced considerable bass. Just remember, if you are comparing these speakers to a car system... there is a many times smaller volume in your car, thus the sound pressure will be higher. For high levels of bass, although the AT-15 is very efficient, you require considerable power reserves. I would look at your amplifier first. It's not about "watts per channel", but how clear the amp can deliver the output. I suspect that you are clipping the speakers. What exactly are you driving the amp with? :idea:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom