Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater bass from M80's not sufficient

hey, I am back once again (been quite a long time), and I got a question.

So far I am happy with my setup (the long thread about my subwoofer not giving out much output has been solved, took awhile for it to break it, output is now good), but I have one complaint.

The pair of M80's I have, are they suppose to give out any bass or little of it? It seems like all my bass is being redirected to my sub, and I only hear mainly the tweeters coming from the M80's and very little output noise from the bottom of the speakers.

I have my crossover at 80 hz with LFE+Main. I set my front speakers to small also.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

try 40 or 60 hz and see if the woofers make more noise.

I'd set the fronts to large. From what I understand, LFE+Main means both the sub and speakers will play the lower frequencies.

And again, double check that all 6 of the drivers are working and that the binding straps are securely in place. My 80s put out a fair amount of bass.

LFE + main and a small speaker setting makes the sub setting inconsequential. The small speaker setting overrides any sub settings and sends everything below the crossover to the sub.

I run my M80s at 60hz and sometimes 40hz, they can produce a good amount of bass but nowhere near what the sub does. Just to check out how much the M80s are capable of turn the sub setting to off in the receiver, which will default the mains to large and run the system without a sub. They should give you reasonable amounts of bass, just not anywhere near as powerfull as the sub will do.

Paul, good to hear from you again. What isn't clear from your description is how you actually have the bass management set up. The first point is to be sure that the connecting strips on the M80 terminals are tight so that the woofers are actually operating. Then, setting the M80s "small" with an 80Hz crossover generally works well. Although you say that you're using LFE+Main, that setting is only applicable when the M80s are set "large" and are running full-range. If that's what you meant by "also" using the "small" setting, then you're saying that you've tried it both ways, so it's understood. When using the "+" setting, if anything the tendency is for the combined bass from the M80s and sub to be excessive(assuming that the M80 woofers are working properly), so it's hard to see why the bass output wouldn't be adequate.

The internal xover for the lower drivers is 160hz. Regardless of the receiver's xover settings for the lowest frequencies, these drivers should always be outputting quite a bit of bass.
As mentionned a few times already, binding straps are the first candidates to check and then possibly the speaker itself.

The 80's put out killer bass, as do the 60's. During many auditions I hear "are you sure you turned off your sub?".

Paul, something is wrong with your setup if you are not getting bass from your 80's. Either it is related to your positioning in the room of the 80's, or the way you have your bass management setup.

I've always run my 80's on Small with an 80hz crossover, sometimes 60hz. What is confusing is you say LFE+Main, this should not be an option with the 80's set to small. That option opens up when they are set to large.

I found the 80s to be pretty anemic in the bass area. Lots of good bass in the 90s.

Were they building pipe organs differently in the 80s?