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Bass hurts my ears..

Old 04-27-02, 11:59 PM
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Bass hurts my ears..

Ok..I have a cheapo low budget HTIB made by Philips..
the room Im is fairly small (not sure the measurments) and I am usually about 6 feet or so away from the subwoofer and no matter how low I make it, when I play music it hurts my ears. It feels like pressure building up. This doesnt happen when I watch movies..
Any suggestions on what I can do? Im also very limited on where I can put the subwoofer .....

Thanx..
Old 04-28-02, 12:19 AM
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If your sub has a single port or just a speaker (no rear port) you could just turn it around and face it towards the wall. If the sub has a port on either side or a speaker and a rear port, you could put something infront of it to deflect the sound back. If those don't work, you're just gonna have to turn down the sub when you listen to music.
Old 04-28-02, 07:51 AM
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Thank you...

I actually moved it last night about 2 or so feet from where it was. So now its on the other side of a desk (I had underneath the desk) and up against the wall. Im hoping maybe that will help a lil bit. If not, I willturn the sucker around. Only problem...mom and dads room is on the other side of that wall...Oh well..
Old 04-28-02, 06:36 PM
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If you have a phase switch on your subwoofer try switching it to the other position. Whenever I'm near speakers that are out of phase it feels like a pressure in my ears; just like you describe. Also you might check the wiring on your front speakers and make sure they are in phase.

jr
Old 04-28-02, 11:32 PM
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An easy way to check if your speakers are out of phase is to move the speaker balance on your receiver to either the right or left side and if the bass increases in strength your speakers are out of phase. If the bass decreases in intensity when you move the speaker balance to either the left or right then you are fine. This can save time when you have speakers setup in places that are not easy to gain access to to check the actual wiring in the back.
Old 04-29-02, 05:35 PM
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Thank you for all your help.

What does it actually mean when speakers are in or out of phase??

Thanx again...
Old 04-29-02, 05:51 PM
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Ok..I had the chance to do what ya said Frank..I didnt notice the bass increase at all..
I even checked the wiring in th back of the speakers and receiver..all looks good. Although, the wires are crossed as the are going out of the back of the entertaiment center. Would that make them out of phase? Is there any other way to test this?
Im listening to music right now and I feel like Im underwater..lol..

Thanx
Old 04-29-02, 06:56 PM
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Does it sound that way even without the sub being on? If so switch the wires around (plus and minus) on ONE of your front speakers and see if that is any better.

Jr
Old 04-29-02, 07:02 PM
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Originally posted by KevinSmithIsGod
Ok..I had the chance to do what ya said Frank..I didnt notice the bass increase at all..
I even checked the wiring in th back of the speakers and receiver..all looks good. Although, the wires are crossed as the are going out of the back of the entertaiment center. Would that make them out of phase? Is there any other way to test this?
Im listening to music right now and I feel like Im underwater..lol..

Thanx
Speaker wire almost always has some type of indicator on it so you can differenciate one wire from the other so if there is say a red line that runs down one of the two wires then hook it up to the Positive or Negative (your choice) and do the same with all other speakers as well as the connections to your reciever. If you do so you will be in Phase and OK. Now with subs they can have a setting that lets you purposely set the sub out of phase to deal with Bass cancellation issues. You still connect wires as described above unless you have the sub hooked to the LFE/sub output of your receiver.
Old 04-29-02, 08:49 PM
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I think I may have actually figured out the problem..
There is an option on my receiver called "LOUDNESS" when the "loudness" is on it makes it well, louder. I think with the music it was just hurting my ears regardless of the volume setting. Once I turned the loudness off it was actually considerably better.

Like I said before..all my wires are hooked up perfectly..so hopefully thats all it was.
Old 04-29-02, 09:22 PM
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Originally posted by KevinSmithIsGod
I think I may have actually figured out the problem..
There is an option on my receiver called "LOUDNESS" when the "loudness" is on it makes it well, louder. I think with the music it was just hurting my ears regardless of the volume setting. Once I turned the loudness off it was actually considerably better.

Like I said before..all my wires are hooked up perfectly..so hopefully thats all it was.
And how exactly is loudness different from volume?
Old 04-29-02, 10:51 PM
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Originally posted by criptik28


And how exactly is loudness different from volume?
I guess the best way to describe it is that when the loudness is on, the sound jumps out at ya more..
The bass is louder..its almost like everything is amplified more.
just like there is also a night option which lowers the bass but the soft stuff is raised.
Old 04-29-02, 11:08 PM
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Originally posted by criptik28

And how exactly is loudness different from volume?
Loudness emphasizes the highs and lows. So the volume increase is disproportionately high for those frequencies. It was developed for low volume listening but can get quite irritating at louder volumes.
Old 04-29-02, 11:35 PM
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I have always thought the Loudness feature increases the bass not the mid and high range frequencies so at low listening levels it can produce bass (which needs more power to produce) to match the high and mid range frequencies.
Old 04-29-02, 11:42 PM
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Originally posted by Frank S
I have always thought the Loudness feature increases the bass not the mid and high range frequencies so at low listening levels it can produce bass (which needs more power to produce) to match the high and mid range frequencies.
I always understood it to be low and high range.

Maybe it varies by manufacturer, maybe it varies by decade (century?). I'll look at my mid 70's Marantz 4400's loudness on a spectrum analyzer to see what it does. But I know it's more than just bass.
Old 04-30-02, 12:30 AM
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All the loudness buttons that I've seen have just boosted the bass at low volumes. As you increase the volume the boost is reduced. I've repaired stereos for a living for the last 25 years so I've seen a lot of stereos.

jr
Old 04-30-02, 11:28 AM
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These references say that the loudness control boosts highs as well as lows:

http://www.electronic-kits-and-proje.../1xxx/1043.pdf

Here's a Denon spec on a loudness control:
Loudness control 50 Hz : + 10 dB, 10 kHz : + 5 dB(at VARIABLE LOUDNESS " max " position)

And here's the best explanation I've seen so far:

http://members.aol.com/sbench/freqres3.html


I did find a reference specific to a specific brand/model that says it only controls bass:

CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE LOUDNESS CONTROL Yamaha's unique variable loudness control compensates for the ear's inability to distinguish bass at low volume by increasing the bass proportionally as the volume is decreased. (http://www.800stereo.com/killer/SRC.html)


I'll run pink noise through my receiver later and watch the effect of the loudness control on a spectrum analyzer (if anybody's interested), but I'm virtually certain it boosts treble as well as bass.
Old 04-30-02, 02:12 PM
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The loudness switch may or may not boost highs in addition to the bass. It depends on the mfg.

Typically, the loudness boost is NOT reduced as volume is increased.

The purpose of the loudness switch is to compensate for the way our ears hear SPL levels. At lower levels, the bass and highs drop off significant - that is, we have a harder time hearing the bass and highs when the volume is soft. Therefore, in most instance, the loudness swithc should really only be used during low volumes, and switched off when blasting the vol levels.

If you have a "cheapo low budget HTIB" sub, then setting optimum bass levels is very difficult. The cheaper the sub the less surprise I'd be if it does hurt your ear -- maybe it is calibrated too high. But, if you have a very good sub (SVS any, HSU TN/VTF, Velodyne SPL/HGS, others,..) then the bass should sound sweet and effortless and mistakenly setting the level high will not even sound bad.
Old 04-30-02, 02:42 PM
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Originally posted by TimothyW
Typically, the loudness boost is NOT reduced as volume is increased.

I'm sorry but if we're talking analog type volume controls then "loudness" is most certainly reduced as you increase the volume. If it wasn't then it would just be a "bass boost". I'm not certain how the newer digital volume controls handle this. I have a newer Sony and it doesn't have a "loudness" control only a "bass boost" button.

jr

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