RT2000p's out of phase with each other? RT owners help

Whateverer

I'm having an issue with my beloved rt2000p's. Whats happening is there is a major bass dead zone anywhere between the speakers. Also for about 4 or 5 feet in front. I have kind of noticed this before but it was nothing like it is now. Now here is whats changed their current room is about 1/3 maybe even 1/4 the size of their old room. Now they are in about a 9*11ft room and 1 1/2 taller celing. Really small i know. I'm fearing its just too small for thease guys.

Once you get about half way across the room there's lots of nice thick bass. As they should sound. Near the walls there's tons of bass. I have them about 6 or 7 feet apart. So that creates a rather large rough triangle shaped dead zone. My desk seating position is in this dead zone between the speakers so that's getting really annoying.

Before I just accept that the room is just much to small I want to get opinions of some other people. Has anyone else experienced something like this? I just don't understand why there is almost no bass anywhere in the room besides within 2-3ft from a wall. When your between the speakers its like the powered sub's are out of phase. The mids and highs are defiantly not out of phase though.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

so_ein_pech

This is a bit strange, but any speakers can be prone to dead spots in the bass. Have you tried playing with the speaker position? Moving them closer or farther from walls etc?

Do you get the same effect when you run the powered amp trough the rca input (disconnect the jumpers first, so that the sub is only getting input from one source at a time)? If the bass is totally flat between the speakers, it could be a phase problem.

It is possible that the speakers were accidentally wired out of phase at the factory, I suppose, and you just now noticed. You should be able to take the back panel off and reverse the connections to the sub speaker, unless the connectors are different sizes. If you modify the connection, make sure you do the right one, or the speakers will both be out of phase with themselves (which is harder to diagnose by listening.) You can use an AA battery to check that the direction of the woofer excursion is the same. You would have to to this directly at the subwoofer speaker terminal (wires that go to the speaker basket) inside of the speaker because the terminal on the outside feeds the built in amp, and will not--nor should it--amplify DC current.

Whateverer

Unfortunately I don't have much other options for speaker placement. I will probably try something different though. I also haven't tried using the RCA inputs on them for a long time. Not since I was also using a subwoofer in the system. Now I'm not using a separate subwoofer I may try that again. I also will probably try turning off each amp individually soon and see how the dead zone compares with only one amp/subwoofer on.

I'm now pretty sure though that most of my audio quality loss, and poor subwoofer performance when using the LFE is my receiver. An onkyo tx-sr504. It has been on almost 24/7 for about 5 years. I switched back to an analog connection from the optical and it seams to have helped. So maybe my optical cable is at fault. Maybe the DAC in the receiver. Maybe just the receiver in general is dieing on me. It doesn't help matters that thease rather large speakers are in a much to small room.

amulford

Sounds like your having some cancellation problems to me.

amulford

I guess I oughta expand. I don't think your problem is phase as much as reflective wave cancellation. See if a wave of a certain amplitude is met by an opposite wave of the same amplitude they will cancel each other out. Since you are having plenty of bass along the walls, outside of the triangle, and in the rear half of the room, that is telling me that your room is creating the problem.

If you have the time, look up room treatments and get your read on. You probably need some bass traps to cut down on the reflective waves. try some heavy drapes or blankets hung in the corners and first reflection points and see if you have any changes.

Lemme know what you find out...

tonyb

Could be ^^^^, but I find having big breasted women in the corners, turned a certain way, does wonders for in room response.