Bi-amp me

[Thesegoto11]

Hey Guys, I recently found the site and it seems to have alot of great info. I hope you can help me with my situation. Around 2 years ago I purchased a set of Cerwin Vega CLS215 Mains. They are rated at 500w ea. My HT unit puts out 130w per channel. After tweaking the EQ on the HT unit as much as possible I would still like some more bottom end. The speakers are Bi-ampable 3 ways. My HT unit does not have a preamp out or line level out. So....I am assuming I need at least another amp and a crossover. Also would be nice to pull down the high end a little more, the horns are a little overkill for my room. An EQ maybe?? Thanx for any help.

[Thesegoto11]

Nice.......no responses from ANYONE!!!!!

[bmontuelle]

Keep It cool ! Good responses take little time to come.

My guess id your HT amp is not powerful enough to drive those speakers. À lot of amps are labelled 100 or more WPC but the fact is they lack a Good power supply to give them really, especially for low frequency. My Sony HT amp suffer the same issue with my 200w rated speakers, when pushing too hard the amp just sound distorded and suddently lack of bass.

What amplifier is It ? Are you using It in 5.1 (or more) channels or just stéréo ?

[PeteMcK]

BiAmp (Bi-Amplification - Not Quite Magic, But Close) - Part 1

[mdocod]

Cerwin Vega speakers, especially those monstrous floor standing units, tend to be very efficient. While they may be rated to deal with a lot of power, they shouldn't actually need very much to play very loud and clean. -though perhaps not remarkably flat. Keep in mind that power handling is generally rated as a thermal issue and does not take into account low frequency mechanical limits of the drivers (it's not uncommon to reach the linear excursion of a woofer at low frequency at 1/2 to 1/4 or less the rated "power handling"). Furthermore, CV speakers are usually made from woofers that are more akin to pro-sound drivers than traditional hifi woofers. They are optimized for playing loud in the upper bass frequencies, at the sacrifice of low bass response. All the EQ in the world will not get a vented alignment that is operating below it's loaded frequency to play those frequencies very loud.

Just looking at the claimed specs of another similar CV speaker with dual 15s, they are "down 10dB" at 36hz, which suggests to me that they are really optimized for playing bass frequency in the 50hz+ range. If you are interested in picking up the bottom octave (20-40hz), then there are a few options... 1. A separate subwoofer system to fill out the bottom end. Keeping up with the CVs for the bottom octave would probably require another set of even larger boxes, and a pro-sound amplifier. Or 2. (the cheap way)... You might try plugging off the ports in the enclosures, so that they operate like a traditional sealed enclosure. This will sacrifice upper bass efficiency but might give you enough useful driver loading in the bottom octave to allow you to EQ it up to your desired listening level.

Eric