Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo HELP My Axiom M80's have no Bass

Had sometime today to finally sit back and do a little listening test with my Axioms, I turned my SVS sub off and listend to some CD's in 7 channel stereo. The Bass from the M80s were no existent, I was planning songs that have real heavy bass and it was barely noticble, had to take the grills off to see if they were even working!! the sound was something I would hear from my 5 by 7 in my car. I have the fronts on the receiver set to small and 60 hz, I tried setting to large and there was a little improvement but I really dont want to set them at large since my receiver will also send LFE signals to them (Harmon Kardon 7200)and bass cancellation issues with the sub but like I said the imporvement was minimal. Now if I turn the tone on im my amp (which activates bass, treble, balance knobs) and turn the bass knob up to nearly max then the m80's start to come alive but I did alot of research before on how to setup the settings on the receiver and most say to disable the tone since it may cause over emphasation of things Like bass and treble. But that the delima there is no Bass at all if I do not turn the tone on and crank the bass knob up a few notches. Anybody have any helpful advice??

Trace, what you describe isn't at all like the normal bass response of the M80s. Although you said that you looked, I'll suggest that you double check to make sure that the woofers are actually connected. About two years ago a poster reported no highs at all on his M60s. I suggested that he make sure that the straps connecting the terminals were tight. Missing highs found. More complex advice later, if needed.

Also make sure that the metal strips connecting the 2 pairs of binding posts are securely connected...the M80's are biwirable, and if your speaker wire is connected to the upper set of posts, and the metal strips are not securely connected, then the signal may not be getting to your woofers.

Mark

Double check your speaker wires to ensure you dont have them wired backwards. If speaker wires are reversed, the speakers will play out of phase, thereby adversely affecting bass reproduction.

Check your positive (+) and negative (-) connetions to ensure they are wired correctly. That is the first thing I would check.

phase will not affect bass like that. if they are wired out of phase relative to eachother then you have a problem but you would have noticed that as soon as you played them. But if they are wired out of phase, but both wired the same way it will not affect the sound that much, infact you probbly wouldnt even be able to tell.

Dont believe me? listen for yourself. i have.

No there wired the correct way and are biwired, so the metal strpis are not used, there playing but just barely if I turn the Bass knob up all the way then the bass out of the speakers sound good, I just dont want toover emphazize the bass by having to use the bass control knob on the receiver

Okay, biwire, so the straps on the terminals aren't used. Assume you also checked Mike's point about the wiring polarity, so more unlikely possibilities: are you sure both M80s are affected, because if not, remotely possible that one M80 woofer wired wrong internally or one of your speaker cables to a woofer is bad(check that by replacing the straps so that at least one cable would be feeding the woofer). Next, did you actually turn off the SVS by setting no sub in the 7200 rather than just turning the sub volume all the way down? If just the volume, the SVS would still get the bass at the "small" setting, but it wouldn't be heard. To be continued.

Well, no further checking tonight, apparently, so if the unlikely bad speaker cable or bad M80 internal woofer wiring doesn't fit, then next comes the 7200 settings. As was said, if you set the M80s "small", then none of the lowest bass goes to them even if you turn down the volume on the sub. If, on the other hand, you set the M80s "large" then all the bass should go to them, but you said it was just a little better that way?

IMHO leave the tone and bass nobs on default.

the bass WILL seem nonexistent when you turn an SVS sub off. those subs are going to reach much further than 6.5" woofers.

actually, this is simple. i think you just prefer listening w/ a sub.
you mentioned your car stereo. i'm going to guess that you have a sub in your car?

Back in the day I use to have a subwoofer in the car but can of outgrew that stage, the large setting does help but I think the small setting is the appropriate one for calibration. Now for DVD Audio the bass is not to bad and the DVD player controls the settings so the bass knob is disabled, for stero thou I may crank the bass knob up a bit, atlest to my ears it sounds alot better that way, I dont know maybe it has something to do with the receiver signals in stero mode. AS far as wiring the positve and negatives are correct, I use ZU Cable fro the price it better not be the wire

MetalAaron has it right... Even with huge Klipschorns, the SVS subwoofers are so powerful and deep, the K-horns sounded thin when the subs were turned off... once you get used to 16 Hz bass... it is hard to go back !

One simple thing I'd highly recommend trying is to try 'normal' wiring to the speakers (not biwiring). If it sounds better, you know where the problem is- if not, not much effort wasted.