Distortion Problem with Atrium 4
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I recently wired up a pair of Atrium 4 speakers. I am running them off my iphone via bluetooth through a mini-amp, then through a waterproof volume control box, then to the speakers. The system works well at lower volumes, but at higher volumes the bass is often very distorted.
* The phone is an iphone7
* The mini-amp is a Pyle PDA20BT (2 x 100 Watt MAX) with impedance of 2 Ohm - 8 Ohm. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BTG73J3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
* The volume control is a Monoprice OVC100 100-Watt outdoor volume control with auto impedance matching. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082TQYBF7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I'm frustrated because the speakers themselves get great reviews.
Do I have a mismatch between the mini-amp and the speakers? If so, I can go with a different amp.
Could the problem be coming from the volume control? If so, I could get by using only the volume control on my iphone and removing the volume control box from the setup.
Finally, if folks recommend a different amp, I'd ideally like to be able to add a subwoofer to the system. Do you have recommendations for a different amp that would accommodate a subwoofer?
Thank you in advance! I used to feel that I understood audio equipment, but clearly I don't.
* The phone is an iphone7
* The mini-amp is a Pyle PDA20BT (2 x 100 Watt MAX) with impedance of 2 Ohm - 8 Ohm. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BTG73J3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
* The volume control is a Monoprice OVC100 100-Watt outdoor volume control with auto impedance matching. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082TQYBF7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I'm frustrated because the speakers themselves get great reviews.
Do I have a mismatch between the mini-amp and the speakers? If so, I can go with a different amp.
Could the problem be coming from the volume control? If so, I could get by using only the volume control on my iphone and removing the volume control box from the setup.
Finally, if folks recommend a different amp, I'd ideally like to be able to add a subwoofer to the system. Do you have recommendations for a different amp that would accommodate a subwoofer?
Thank you in advance! I used to feel that I understood audio equipment, but clearly I don't.
Answers
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Seems complicated.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
"but at higher volumes the bass is often very distorted."
The Atrium speakers really don't produce much bass information. In all likelihood you're exceeding their capabilities. There might be a setting for bass on the iPhone app that could be set too high? You'll need to do two things to solve the problem:
1). add a subwoofer, most subs allow for a speaker level input to be used, this would mean that you would simply run an additional pair of speaker wires to the sub. Of course the sub would need to be an outdoors model.
2). for louder levels you might need to add a high pass filter to the Atriums, this is a simple blocking capacitor that is placed in series with the positive wire leading to each speaker. These can be found at most car audio shops and probably online. -
Thank you Selenium. When you speak of running additional speaker wires to the sub, would I need to choose either R or L? The mini-amp has only one pair of speaker outputs.
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It should be fine doubling up on the speaker wire at the amplifier's output, usually either right or left is sufficient for most subwoofer since low frequency information is recorded in equal levels on both channels.
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Thanks!
