anyone use an EQ with their Ascends?

[Abhi]

Eddie,
Looking at the diagram, I think if you swap the front-speakers/sub and the couch, you'll be rewarded with a better bass and less front wall reflections. Your sub will find a new location near one of the wall corners. Try it. Later you can deal with the side wall reflections. What kind of ceiling do you have? Is it straight or sloping?

[Lee Bailey]

Yes, the floor is carpeted. The coffee table is metal and glass so you're right, it is a reflection point too though I have the mains elevated 31" off the ground on stands so there's a direct line to my ears in the listening position.

There may be a direct line to your ears, but the high frequencies don't just shoot straight ahead. (which is why we're talking about this).

Another thing you may consider would be an IB (infinite baffle) subwoofer. If this is your house, these are generally installed in the attic, and would require some cutting in your ceiling, which then gets concealed with a color matched grille. The people that have built these just rave about their performance.

There are also several manufacturers of in-wall subs that you may want to look at.

Of course, the cheapest route with the current sub will be to get it into a corner. Raising it off the floor won't help with the bass, that's for sure.

[Eddie]

Eddie,
Looking at the diagram, I think if you swap the front-speakers/sub and the couch, you'll be rewarded with a better bass and less front wall reflections. Your sub will find a new location near one of the wall corners. Try it. Later you can deal with the side wall reflections. What kind of ceiling do you have? Is it straight or sloping?

I'm afraid that swapping or flipping locations is a WAF impossibility...I can understand better bass due to the sub going in the corner, but how/why would there be any "less front wall reflections?"

The ceiling is sloped downwards from both sides of the dashed red line you see running across the room in the diagram.

[Eddie]

Another thing you may consider would be an IB (infinite baffle) subwoofer. If this is your house, these are generally installed in the attic, and would require some cutting in your ceiling, which then gets concealed with a color matched grille. The people that have built these just rave about their performance.

Of course, the cheapest route with the current sub will be to get it into a corner. Raising it off the floor won't help with the bass, that's for sure.

Yep unfortunately there is no attic because the ceiling goes all the way up to the roof...thermal nightmare! IB or in-wall sub is out since it's a rental property (have considered buying it though).

Do you have any tips as to how to run cable underneath the carpet? I was thinking of using some sort of flat metal tube maybe. The actual breach is only about 5 feet since I'd go from the corner where the plant is alongside the right (from perspective of couch) hand wall. Tried to push a coax cable across but it kept getting stuck in the carpet nails/staples.

Otherwise if I keep the sub in its present location I may have to go with the biggest sub I can afford, Dr. Hsu recommended the STF-3.

[Lee Bailey]

Yep unfortunately there is no attic because the ceiling goes all the way up to the roof...thermal nightmare! IB or in-wall sub is out since it's a rental property (have considered buying it though).

Do you have any tips as to how to run cable underneath the carpet? I was thinking of using some sort of flat metal tube maybe. The actual breach is only about 5 feet since I'd go from the corner where the plant is alongside the right (from perspective of couch) hand wall. Tried to push a coax cable across but it kept getting stuck in the carpet nails/staples.

Otherwise if I keep the sub in its present location I may have to go with the biggest sub I can afford, Dr. Hsu recommended the STF-3.

If you can get one, use a wire fishing reel(don't know its real name), the type that has a loop on the end, and usually rolls up into a hand crank unit. You should be able to find one at a Lowes or Home Depot. Run it under the carpet, and attach the cable to it, and drag the cable. Just use electrical tape to secure the cable to the loop. As long as you stay along the edge of the carpet by the tack strips, it shouldn't get much foot traffic damage. Be sure that it is a shielded cable though. How many feet is it from the EC to the corner?

As for the STF-3, get one of those anyways!

[Abhi]

I'm afraid that swapping or flipping locations is a WAF impossibility...I can understand better bass due to the sub going in the corner, but how/why would there be any "less front wall reflections?"

The ceiling is sloped downwards from both sides of the dashed red line you see running across the room in the diagram.

There are 4 strong reasons why swapping would give you better results:
1. Freqs upto 400Hz are radiated in all the directions (spherically) and above 400Hz would mostly radiate in the front direction. If you swap the positions, the higher frequencies passing through the open area on both sides of the listeing position would not be reflected. This open area is like a perfect absorber!

2. Due to the sloping ceiling, you would reduce tremendous amount of ceiling reflections if you could keep the front speakers near the wall with shorter height. I did it in my room and the results were great! With the current setup, you must be listening to your "ceiling" a lot, may be more than your speakers (depending on the height of the shorter wall)! With swapping the locations, most of the ceiling reflections would be directed to the rear wall instead of the listener's head!

3. Subwoofer would get a good boost.

4. The tri-wall corner (which is evil!) at the listening poisition would not exist due to the open areas on both sides.

With just this change, you may not even need to treat the side wall reflections, 'cause the problems with your current speaker location outweigh the problems with the side wall reflections.

As far as WAF is concerned, you can start with like, "We'll be able to watch the TV while cooking and eating!" ;-)

[s2pdname]

If you can get one, use a wire fishing reel(don't know its real name), the type that has a loop on the end, and usually rolls up into a hand crank unit.

"Fish Tape" I had to use one of these when running speaker wire through my walls. They are available at Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, or online through Parts Express.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=360-420

[mattepntr]

Speaking of running speaker wire through the walls....
who's done it, and how hard is it? I was learning to live
with the notion of cable runways to hide everything, as I
don't have an attic, basement, or inwall wiring in the house.
My initial thought was that running wire through the wall would
be a remodeling nightmare beyond comprehension, but now
I'm not so sure.

Anecdotes? For or against?

Thanks,
Rick

[jerryg]

I was thinking of getting either an AudioSource EQ200 ($113 shipped, Amazon.com) or some used EQ off eBay (Technics SH-GE70, ADC, BSR) and using it *only* for bad recordings since my 340s are so mercilessly revealing.

Mainly I want to use it to reduce the treble on some of my old classic rock CDs which sound thin and shrill on the 340s. And to cut down on those horrible brushed cymbals in the background of Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" which make the song basically unlistenable at high volumes.

The rest of the time I plan on having the EQ flat or with defeat on.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any particular brands/models of EQs that you might recommend?

I would recommend AudioControl EQ's over any of the brands above. EQ's are their specialty; made in USA.

I'm particularly fond of the Octave model which is no longer made, but can often be picked up used for a song on eBay. I own four Octaves and one TenPlus.

As others have mentioned, EQ cannot correct really major problems. But, I've rarely (actually never) encountered a system that couldn't be tweaked for the better with EQ, but that's just my opinion.

[Eddie]

OK so here's the sad update: went to Home Depot and bought some Fish Tape, ran a coax under my carpet and along the left wall so I could finally put the sub in the corner next to the bookcase. What a huge pain in the butt, took me half an hour just to get the damn wire through the carpet...and left a big hump in the middle of the walkway, probably the Fish Tape and/or cable pushed up some carpet pad!

And I'll be damned but whaddaya know, I finally connect the sub in the new location...and got whacked with MASSIVE ground loop interference! The hum reduced the output on my mains to maybe 10%---for a few terrifying moments I was thinking I had somehow shorted out the amp or it had died on me mysteriously at some point during the day when I was out or maybe my wife had sabotaged the amp in revenge...lol! Finally disconnected the subwoofer cable from the pre-amp and voila it was back to normal.

I may have to take this as a firm message from the gods that the damn sub ain't goin' nowhere! And have no idea how to get rid of that blasted hump in the carpet...ARRRGH!!!

Looks like I'll just have to get some massive sub like the STF-3 then, sigh.

Or plot on how to convince my wife to let me flip the furniture.

In any case I have sworn never to run wiring under the carpet again, so help me bejesus.