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Low frequency distortion what 's the remedy?

jameswei

jameswei

Super Member
When I play tracks from Eva Cassidy "What a wonderful world" on my system (Bryston 4B, Nakamichi 410 and Kappa 8.1i, the lows get distorted. I take the same CD and play on my other system (Yahama B-2, Luxman- C1010 and REN 90) it Was fine so what's going on here, can anyone chime in?
 
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Hard to say without hearing it. You need to narrow it down to what's causing it. Most likely the amp or the speakers. Download a tone generator app and run a sine wave sweep of the low frequencies. See if you can narrow down what frequency is causing the distortion. Then see if it's happening in one speaker or both. If only one, swap the amp channels between the speakers and see if it moves to the other side. If both, temporarily swap the amp from the good system to the other one. If that doesn't resolve it, it may be that both speakers have problems with the woofers (check the woofer foam - these are at the age where foam will start deteriorating). The 8.1s are not a difficult load and the Bryston is known to be a stout amp, so this is not something normal; I'm pretty sure something is not working properly.
 
Have you tried swapping speakers or amps between the two systems? That would probably isolate the problem to either the Kappas or Bryston.
 
When I stream using Itunes and play on the same volume and setting everything is fine but when I switch to CD than this happens, so I have to turn down the volume and lessen the contour and it will play with in it's limits.
 
OK, then the next test is obvious: take the CD player from the problematic system and connect it to the good system and see what happens. If that's inconclusive, take the CD player from the good system and move to the other. Since you have lots of extra components, troubleshooting this is easy.
 
jameswei said:
When I play tracks from Eva Cassidy "What a wonderful world" on my system (Bryston 4B, Nakamichi 410 and Kappa 8.1i, the lows get distorted. I take the same CD and play on my other system (Yahama B-2, Luxman- C1010 and REN 90) it Was fine so what's going on here, can anyone chime in?
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What happens when you use a different CD, do you hear the same difference between the two systems?

Are both systems in the same room?
When we first moved into the new house, there was a very pronounced bass resonance that only became apparent during certain songs. If your systems are in different rooms, you may be experiencing the same thing I was .
 
Start looking at the other components in the system, how old is each, Bryston 4B can go back to 70's, have older components been recently serviced? I can tell you that after I replaced the ferrofluid in my 43 yr old speaker's tweeters, and then replaced a 35 yr old NAD 317 integrated amp with a new Marantz Model 50 the SQ has been outstanding, with an especially big improvement at lower sound levels due to the design of the Model 50.
 
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You need to upgrade your speakers and then the electronics will follow being replaced, too. Neither can handle what the contour is doing to the sound. Live with out if for 30 days and then re-evaluate what it does. Maybe you really don't need it after 30 days.
 
The Infinity Kappa 8.1i is quite a competent speaker and should handle a lot of bass fairly well. I think there's something else going on here.
 
jameswei said:
When I play tracks from Eva Cassidy "What a wonderful world" on my system (Bryston 4B, Nakamichi 410 and Kappa 8.1i, the lows get distorted. I take the same CD and play on my other system (Yahama B-2, Luxman- C1010 and REN 90) it Was fine so what's going on here, can anyone chime in?
Click to expand...
Is there a way you could upload a sound sample of this distortion? To post on Audiokarma, you need to link your files to a host site — like YouTube or SoundCloud.
 
I know what happened, when I play iTunes on the system with volume way up to three o'clock position and contour at one o'clock position, the system can handle it and sounded quite good, but playing CDs is another story. The highs and lows are too much for the system to handle and I need to turn down both knobs.
 
There are a couple things going on here.

1. Not every source is of equal volume. Not every piece of media is of equal volume. CD players tend to be hotter than 70s phono amps or tape decks. Some CDs are hotter than others.

2. Considering your improper use of contour and the speaker and amp config, I think, like others said, you blew the surrounds. Contour is an enhanced loudness, and is meant for low volume listening that you can talk over and still sound good. The tone board should be enough for anyone's needs, and a proper system sounds good played flat.

I would swap speakers on amps and isolate the issue to amp or speakers.
 
jameswei said:
When I play tracks from Eva Cassidy "What a wonderful world" on my system (Bryston 4B, Nakamichi 410 and Kappa 8.1i, the lows get distorted. I take the same CD and play on my other system (Yahama B-2, Luxman- C1010 and REN 90) it Was fine so what's going on here, can anyone chime in?
Click to expand...
I think your Amp doesn't have enough power to handle the low ohm load of the Kappa 8.1 in the low frequencies. Old Infinity speakers need really powerful amps capable of handling low ohm loads to sound their best.
 
The Kappa 8.1 (assuming everything is working properly) does not have a low ohm load. You're confusing it with the original Kappa 8.
 
Those Bryston 4Bs are getting long in the tooth. If they haven't been serviced within the last 10-15 years you might want to check into recapping them. Among the most apparent problems caused by bad filter caps is distorted output especially on loud, low frequency signals. That's when the power supply filter caps are working hardest. It may be that there are some electrolytics used as coupling caps that have failed, too, which could also cause poor low frequency output, causing you to turn up the loudness/bass control to compensate.
 
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