Help for new tsi200 owner - Audio Beginner

jtt002

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and apologize in advance if this turns out to be a stupid question.

I'm very new to home audio, I just bought a receiver/bookshelf speaker/turntable set up to play records my grandmother left me. I have a denon avr-391 which I bought on a recommendation, and a pair of tsi200 speakers. My initial worry is that I am getting almost zero action on the tsi200 woofers (with low bass obviously). Even playing bass heavy songs with the bass maxed on the receiver and high volume... I don't even see vibration from the woofers, much less movement. After noticing it was light on the bass I watched a couple youtube videos of the tsi's and saw pronounced movement from the woofers.

Could these be underpowered? I'm using 16 gauge wires, banana clips, the receiver's box claims 115 watts x 5 (though the denon website claims 75 x 5). I've tried cds, my ipod and vinyl... still getting very light bass.

Thanks, the polks sound great besides... just a little confused why the woofers seem so dead...

EDIT *I put this in the wrong section as well... should have gone beginner, not advanced..sorry*

jimbo1421

Hi and welcome to the club.

Since you are not using a subwoofer, I would go through the AVR settings and make sure that the subwoofer is set to 'off' and the front speakers are set to 'large'.

Jim

cstmar01

make sure that if there are dual binding post there should be a metal jumper between them. Make sure this is connected firmly and there is no play with it.

Also as noted above check to see if the AVR is crossed over ect and other settings. If your cranking it as loud as it can go (which I would never recommend) and still not getting the sound then something is wrong.

Also make sure your speaker wire is wired correctly + to + and - to - .

jtt002

Thanks guys!

As my limited knowledge understands it these are single posts, one red and one black per speaker. I will certainly check the subwoofer setting, hadn't thought of that.

And as a pretty silly reference point, here is the video that got me thinking my woofers on the tsi200's weren't nearly as active (or active at all). Is this what they should be doing with adequate power and correct settings? Maybe I'm nitpicking..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kd1apUKYI

Thanks again!

domflane

Welcome to Club Polk jtt. Are you having problems hearing the bass? If not then don't worry that you can't see the woofers moving, I assure you that they are. All speakers take some time to break in, especially the rubber surrounds. As far as the speakers being under powered, is there any reason that you have a 5.1 AVR with HDMI 1.4 and 3-D video processing? If all you're doing is music listening, I would sell the Denon and pick up a nice 2 channel integrated amp. Or better yet, find a sepatate pre-amp and an amp with at least 100 watts of clean power. You'll be amazed at how much better your TSi200's will sound.

cnh

cstmar01 wrote: »

make sure that if there are dual binding post there should be a metal jumper between them. Make sure this is connected firmly and there is no play with it.

Also as noted above check to see if the AVR is crossed over ect and other settings. If your cranking it as loud as it can go (which I would never recommend) and still not getting the sound then something is wrong.

Also make sure your speaker wire is wired correctly + to + and - to - .

+1,

Make sure the jumpers are in place and ALSO that ALL the binding posts are screwed DOWN as tight as possible. If any are not making full contact you'll lose either the highs or the lows.

Also, a question. By deep bass...what are we talking about--remember that these are 'bookshelves' so they're not going to wow you with bass but should have adequate bass?

Other suggestions above are also good.

cnh

jtt002

Hey Dom, biggest reason I went with the Denon was relatively cheap, I paid 210 new and good reviews.. the main reason is certainly music, but now that I have it I have my hd tv and ps3 (which I use for games/movies/cds) running through the hdmi slots, which is convenient I suppose? Probably should have taken a little more time to mastermind my purchases but was a little too trigger happy and uninformed. But you are right, I'm not even planning on getting surrounds (or a 3d tv ), so probably a little over overkill on the options.

But on a positive note, to my ears at least, everything sounds wonderful... just lacking bass. I'm not looking for it to rattle walls obviously, but I do believe there's more in there... getting similar or more bass from my 100 dollar klipsch ipod dock. I think the first couple suggestions of making sure the subwoofer setting is off on the receiver may even be my problem, too be honest I hadn't even thought of that... beginner.

Thanks again... looking forward to breaking out of work and at least being sure the receiver is configured correctly.. I'll check back in.

Happy friday everyone..

jtt002

Hey Dom,

On a side note, the turntable I have is an audio technica lp120, with a shure m97xe cartridge, I've read the built-in preamp is rather so so, would a $50-100 dollar external preamp improve the sound? On a budget. Any recommendations?

And like I said everything sounds really great minus low bass, I'm thrilled about my current buys even if I could have made some smarter decisions.. so no real rush to buy more things, just a thought I've been kicking around..