I've had a few days available to pick up where I left off . . .
I had bought a used pair of CLS from Brad and had only had a day and a half to set them up before a new job required my attention. At that time I related how terrible they sounded when integrated in my system that was voiced for a pair of Vantages.
This time around I unpacked a digital crossover and went to work. The crossover settings between the panels and subs is currently at 61Hz with a 24dB Linkwitz-Riley slope, a setting I dug up from one of the posts here. I had initially tried different frequencies and stronger slopes but even at 61 Hz a 48 dB setting gave too abrupt a hand off to the subs.
I still had the problem of hearing the speakers as just too boxy, honky, nasally like a cheapo car stereo, though not as bad as without the crossover for some reason.
So I dragged out a book on audio mixing to give me a rough guide on equalization and went to work with the digital EQ. Only the panels are affected by the EQ, subs are untouched by any processing and don't seem to need it anymore (much).
I made very small adjustments for a couple of hours until I felt that I had had enough and would only fool myself if I kept at it. This improved some of the problem but I felt it wasn't enough. So I decided to see what the "Auto EQ" mode would do.
What happened when the Auto EQ was done was a curve that mirrored my own but to a greater magnitude. Here's the result and current setting:
Note the big dip in the honky nasally area. (please note that frequencies below 100 Hz were manually entered)
One big observation with this curve is that although it rises and falls throughout the spectrum, one frequency follows the other more or less. Whenever I used the Auto EQ with the Vantages, no matter the volume, position, or limits on the EQ, I would get a sawtooth pattern along the curve, mostly in the mid and high frequencies. Up, down, up, down, up, down, and so on. Always!
Not so with the CLS. :think:
Now the sound is much mellower. I still don't think it's perfect, not by a long shot. I haven't switched back to the Vantages to compare, as I can only take so much of fiddling around with equipment rather than listening to music, but I do strongly recall the Vantages delivering more detail and life. Goldfrapp's breathy staccato inhale would raise my hackles coming from the Vantages whereas on the CLS it's practically a faint distortion, something else that I hear more of.
I've raised the CLS on 8" concrete blocks and have tweeked the positions a little, and I'm more amazed with their deployment of a soundstage. They're about 4-1/2 feet from the front wall, 11 feet apart, and about 5' from the side walls. They definitely produce more of a back wave than the Vantages and need all the distance they can get from that front wall. It may also be the digital crossover but I think the CLS integates with subwoofers way more efficiently than the Vantages . . . doesn't have all that bass back wave to deal with.
Ooo, one other thing the crossover does is automatically compensate for phase differential between the subs and panels. The subs are in the front wall corners, that 4-1/2 feet and the Cx has the panels delayed at 27.66 mS, the subs at 4.20. Interesting
On a related note, the heat went out a couple days ago, and when Steve, the HVAC guy came in, he was impressed with the CLS. Said he has a set of Maggies. When he left, I lent him my copy of "Get Better Sound". :music:
I had bought a used pair of CLS from Brad and had only had a day and a half to set them up before a new job required my attention. At that time I related how terrible they sounded when integrated in my system that was voiced for a pair of Vantages.
This time around I unpacked a digital crossover and went to work. The crossover settings between the panels and subs is currently at 61Hz with a 24dB Linkwitz-Riley slope, a setting I dug up from one of the posts here. I had initially tried different frequencies and stronger slopes but even at 61 Hz a 48 dB setting gave too abrupt a hand off to the subs.
I still had the problem of hearing the speakers as just too boxy, honky, nasally like a cheapo car stereo, though not as bad as without the crossover for some reason.
So I dragged out a book on audio mixing to give me a rough guide on equalization and went to work with the digital EQ. Only the panels are affected by the EQ, subs are untouched by any processing and don't seem to need it anymore (much).
I made very small adjustments for a couple of hours until I felt that I had had enough and would only fool myself if I kept at it. This improved some of the problem but I felt it wasn't enough. So I decided to see what the "Auto EQ" mode would do.
What happened when the Auto EQ was done was a curve that mirrored my own but to a greater magnitude. Here's the result and current setting:
Note the big dip in the honky nasally area. (please note that frequencies below 100 Hz were manually entered)
One big observation with this curve is that although it rises and falls throughout the spectrum, one frequency follows the other more or less. Whenever I used the Auto EQ with the Vantages, no matter the volume, position, or limits on the EQ, I would get a sawtooth pattern along the curve, mostly in the mid and high frequencies. Up, down, up, down, up, down, and so on. Always!
Not so with the CLS. :think:
Now the sound is much mellower. I still don't think it's perfect, not by a long shot. I haven't switched back to the Vantages to compare, as I can only take so much of fiddling around with equipment rather than listening to music, but I do strongly recall the Vantages delivering more detail and life. Goldfrapp's breathy staccato inhale would raise my hackles coming from the Vantages whereas on the CLS it's practically a faint distortion, something else that I hear more of.
I've raised the CLS on 8" concrete blocks and have tweeked the positions a little, and I'm more amazed with their deployment of a soundstage. They're about 4-1/2 feet from the front wall, 11 feet apart, and about 5' from the side walls. They definitely produce more of a back wave than the Vantages and need all the distance they can get from that front wall. It may also be the digital crossover but I think the CLS integates with subwoofers way more efficiently than the Vantages . . . doesn't have all that bass back wave to deal with.
Ooo, one other thing the crossover does is automatically compensate for phase differential between the subs and panels. The subs are in the front wall corners, that 4-1/2 feet and the Cx has the panels delayed at 27.66 mS, the subs at 4.20. Interesting
On a related note, the heat went out a couple days ago, and when Steve, the HVAC guy came in, he was impressed with the CLS. Said he has a set of Maggies. When he left, I lent him my copy of "Get Better Sound". :music: