craigslist purchase sub + lsi9

ctrulock

I just bought an M&K v125 sub woofer from craigs list to augment my lsi9's and I am stunned. I can not believe how good my 2.1 system sounds now. I am floored. I was running them with out a sub before. Wow! Sub is in almost mint condition and I paid 125$ for it-just for fyi.

leroyjr1

Congrats!!!! Nice grab.

lanion

Awesome 2.1... great craigslist deal.

MK subs are great -- I guess more of a 'music sub' by today's insane standards of what a HT sub should do, but they are very good.

dorourke07

I had the same experience, a sub really opened up the 9's. Great pick-up

danz1906

Congrats-Mk makes great subs!

organ

Congrats. M&K subs are excellent. Where do you have your x-over dialed to? I think I had mine pretty low running the LSi9 and a sub.

ctrulock

65 hz is where I think they seem the best in my small room.

dorourke07

Just a humble opinion, but I have been going back and forth on two settings, 120hz for music and 70hz for movies. Seems to maximize the experience for me at least.

ctrulock

I am still tinkering a lot so I might try out a higher cross in a bit. Just wondering about the directionality of 120hz? What frequency is the highest non-directional?

organ

ct,
Yeah, mine was pretty low too. I think I had it around 50Hz or so.

dorourke07,
What are you powering them with? The LSi9 should be fairly flat from 60 to 120Hz, so sub integration should be low. I think I had the same problem as you when I was blending in the sub w/9's. I found a different spot which made the mid-bass suddenly come alive. Try moving them forward and back to find a good spot where the bass is even. Did you play around with the phase setting on your sub?

dorourke07

right now they are only bi-amped with an onkyo 706, not the ideal situation power wise. They are tightly flanked by the tv and bookshelves, which I think chokes them a little. I have a ML abyss at 180 degrees and haven't played with the phased setting. I have not made a lot of adjustments as I have gotten started with this process, I have been trying to really just get a grasp of what I am hearing at each step. I left the sub alone after my neighbor didn't notice it in the corner and commented on how good the speakers were and that it didn't makes sense to waste money on adding a sub.

dorourke07

Organ, I really do mostly music listen with the setup and was wondering your opinion on how to better power the LSI9's. They have a great soundstage in my room and maybe f power is making them more affective with the sub's support.

organ

I find that a good start (and less$) for good power on the 9's are used 2ch integrated amps. They can be had for a couple hundred. You can get a seperate 2ch amp and use your receiver as a pre-amp (that is if your receiver has pre-outs). You will get more power and dynamics but you're also keeping the sound signature of the receiver's pre section.

So a used integrated is a good place to start. But playing around with speaker placement can provide a big increase in performance too. Try bringing them well away from the front wall. Try the 1/3rd or 1/5th rule. What you'd want to do is bring them 1/3rd of the way into the room. This is too much for a lot of people and they end up going 1/5th. This type of set up usually minimizes standing waves and should even out the bass. My guess right now is that the Onk is not providing enough oomph in the bass and upper bass region.
When I had my 9's, I went from an Onk receiver to NAD seperates. I was able to enjoy this set up without a sub. Of course, bass extension was missing after about 50Hz but the bass that the LSi9's could produce is mind boggling.

For the phase control. Have somebody play around with the switch while you're listening to bass heavy music. Listen for more pronounced and depper bass.

AGUERRA

congrats and nice price

lumpy

I have a pair of 9's in a 2.1 set up and find that I need to set the crossover to 100-120Hz for music (except for daytime rock when the wife is not around), and at 80Hz for movies. It may be that I have too much external power, but the bass in the 100hz range from the 9's is like someone is pounding the floor with a rubber mallet. The sub will get the bass a bit lower and I can controll exactly how I want the bass to sound.