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Low decibel speakers

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NoahM

New Member
While I'm waiting to get new drivers for my EPI's, I've been using a cair of bookshelf Pinnacles. While they sound pretty decent, they are way too efficient. I can't turn my volume up more than a quarter of the way and the signal rarely even registers on my VU metres. As such, I'm wondering two things:

1. How does the EPI 100 compare in this regard?

2. What speakers would the community suggest in this case?
 
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Why not add some resistors in series with the speakers? That would make them quieter, and also use more power at the same db output, allowing your meters to bounce a little.

Unless I am mistaken, which could be the case.
 
Are you looking to get the meters bouncing for entertainment purposes? If so then switching to some really low efficiency speakers will accomplish that.
 
darkblue94 said:
Are you looking to get the meters bouncing for entertainment purposes? If so then switching to some really low efficiency speakers will accomplish that.
Click to expand...

Aren't those EPI 100s about 85-87dB?

To the OP.... which is the actual efficiency of the Pinnacles?
 
OP: do the Pinaccles not sound good at low levels? The VU meters really don't have any bearing on actual sound, and the amp just loafing along is a good thing.

The EPIs are acoustic suspension so as a genre tend to be less efficient than most other speaker types.
 
hnash53 said:
Aren't those EPI 100s about 85-87dB?

To the OP.... which is the actual efficiency of the Pinnacles?
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Sorry, just saw your response. I don't know what model the Pinnacles are, they don't have any label other than the branding and I picked them up on the roadside a few months ago because they were free. They're surprisingly good for all that, though.
 
kirk57 said:
OP: do the Pinaccles not sound good at low levels? The VU meters really don't have any bearing on actual sound, and the amp just loafing along is a good thing.

The EPIs are acoustic suspension so as a genre tend to be less efficient than most other speaker types.
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I kind of like seeing the VU's bouncing a bit. Maybe I should get a signal attenuator for between the pre- and power stages on my amp?

The EPI's sound great IMO, but the foam in the left driver is completely shot (including the spider) so I need to fix that before linking them up.
 
Why not just fix the other speakers and be done with it? You'll get your magic bouncy meters that you desire.
 
Okay then, go ahead and choke off the signal to the Pinnacle speakers and enjoy the show at he expense of the sound.
 
NoahM, sorry I don't mean to come off snarky. I do appreciate the entertainment factor of the showy meters, I have a couple of Yamaha amplifiers that have a neat little bouncing light show. I eventually ended up pushing the off button on those meters. My thoughts are that adding resistors or other signal attenuating device will negatively effect the sound from the speakers.
 
darkblue94 said:
NoahM, sorry I don't mean to come off snarky. I do appreciate the entertainment factor of the showy meters, I have a couple of Yamaha amplifiers that have a neat little bouncing light show. I eventually ended up pushing the off button on those meters. My thoughts are that adding resistors or other signal attenuating device will negatively effect the sound from the speakers.
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No problem. Snark is an important part of dialogue.
 
None of my gear (cassette decks excepted) includes any sort of "vu" display, so I bought one of these.
http://www.dak.com/reviews/3275story.cfm
Note: Although it has rack mount tabs the device itself does not correctly fit a standard 1U rack mount. It's wide enough but the vertical spacing's for mounting are not true rack mount spacing.
 
NoahM said:
I kind of like seeing the VU's bouncing a bit. Maybe I should get a signal attenuator for between the pre- and power stages on my amp?

The EPI's sound great IMO, but the foam in the left driver is completely shot (including the spider) so I need to fix that before linking them up.
Click to expand...

If the meters are metering based on output then attenuating the incoming signal isn't going.to help. Seems it would make it worse, actually. Unless, perhaps, the preamp is the metering unit. Is it?
 
whoaru99 said:
If the meters are metering based on output then attenuating the incoming signal isn't going.to help. Seems it would make it worse, actually. Unless, perhaps, the preamp is the metering unit. Is it?
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The preamp stage is what the VU metres follow. I know this from when I had the amp connected to some [awful] computer speakers through the pre-out.
 
NoahM said:
The preamp stage is what the VU metres follow. I know this from when I had the amp connected to some [awful] computer speakers through the pre-out.
Click to expand...

If they are "power" meters on an amplifier then attenuating the input signal isn't going to make them more bouncy.

But, admittedly, it's still unclear what you have aside from the speakers.
 
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