Question about CLX bass response

I am upgrading my system and strongly considering puting CLX's up front were Prodigys currently sit. I'm also remodeling the room so I will provide pics when I get it all back together. I get a little nervous when I see bass upgrade threads for the CLX's involving granite and such. I have 2 Velodyne DD 15's for front and 2 Descent's (non i's) on the rears. Are my concerns justified or am I just trying to talk my self out of the upgrade?

GaryG said:

I am upgrading my system and strongly considering puting CLX's up front were Prodigys currently sit. I'm also remodeling the room so I will provide pics when I get it all back together. I get a little nervous when I see bass upgrade threads for the CLX's involving granite and such. I have 2 Velodyne DD 15's for front and 2 Descent's (non i's) on the rears. Are my concerns justified or am I just trying to talk my self out of the upgrade?

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I have the CLX's. For two channel and Home Theater, I am using one JL113 subwoofer. It works well for both. I sold my Velodyne DD15. I could never get it right when I owned the Martin Logan Vantages for 2 channel music listening. It worked well for my home theater though.

Ron said:

I have the CLX's. For two channel and Home Theater, I am using one JL113 subwoofer. It works well for both. I sold my Velodyne DD15. I could never get it right when I owned the Martin Logan Vantages for 2 channel music listening. It worked well for my home theater though.

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Interesting, I have been using the Velodyne's primarily for HT and some dvd-a listening. I have been reasonably satisfied with the base of the Prodigy's in 2 channel. My rear speakers are currently Aeon i's and I have been using the 2 Descents to augment the 8" woofers.

GaryG said:

Interesting, I have been using the Velodyne's primarily for HT and some dvd-a listening. I have been reasonably satisfied with the base of the Prodigy's in 2 channel. My rear speakers are currently Aeon i's and I have been using the 2 Descents to augment the 8" woofers.

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The CLX's sound great even with no sub. My speakers before the CLX's were the Summits. I did not need any sub with those speakers. Only used the sub with home theater. I was used to the deep base with the summits. That was the only reason for using the JL113 for two channel with the CLX. It does not smear the beautiful midrange and highs of the CLX sound. I hope your DD15 can handle the speed of the CLX speakers. I am using the McIntosh MX150 processor which is a room perfect processor that dials in the sub really well. I hope the DD15 works for you.

Ron, Thanks for your input. I'm using a Meridian G68 controller with the HD621 audio processor. Should be able to make it sing - I hope.

GaryG said:

I am upgrading my system and strongly considering puting CLX's up front were Prodigys currently sit. I'm also remodeling the room so I will provide pics when I get it all back together. I get a little nervous when I see bass upgrade threads for the CLX's involving granite and such. I have 2 Velodyne DD 15's for front and 2 Descent's (non i's) on the rears. Are my concerns justified or am I just trying to talk my self out of the upgrade?

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Hola Gary...my experience with the CLX is that the subs should be cut at 30Hz and the CLX full range, not cut. This is only to give to the CLX that bottom that it lacks. Try it, you might like it as we do here in Costa Rica, happy listening,
Roberto.

A review of the CLX is in this TAS Speaker .pdf.

http://www.avguide.com/buyers-guide/the-absolute-soundhi-fi-guide-high-performance-loudspeakers

I think is very interesting.

Gary,

I think your granite comment referred to my CLX bass tweak. I had Summits before the CLXs and the Summits benefited from isolated weight placed on the top of the bass enclosure. The point of my CLX bass tweak was that the CLX improves bass with isolated weight.

In fact, I think if you read many threads here at the MLC forum you will find that many owners have added isolated weight as a cheap tweak to improve perceived bass.

The CLX is one of the all time great speakers and that is not just my opinion. I liked it so much that I got 4 CLXs, but I did the bass tweak on all of them because one it is inexpensive , two at least mine look kind of cool with the black granite on top of the enclosure and three I percieve the effect as positive, but then again I have a JL Gotham to handle the LFE channel so my bass apreciation could be warped.

If you go for the CLXs first you will not regret it and then if you ever wonder if you can upgrade the low end, well all I can say is the JL Gotham is unbelievable. In fact I would say that CLXs and single of dual Gothams is a combination that you would have to spend double or triple to equal of surpass, but then again why would you.

JM,

Thanks for your relply. You are correct. My tile comments did indeed refer to your CLX bass tweak. It was not my intent to disparage your tweak but to find out if there was an issue (tweakable or not) with the bass response of the CLX. From your reply it looks as though you understood. Also from your pictures the tile bass tweak does indeed look kinda cool.

For the past 8 years I have had Prodigys as my mains, and I love them. I don't use subs when listening to two channel but I do have 2 Velodyne DD 15's and 2 ML Descents for HT and some DVD-A listening.

Earlier this summer I needed a new controller and ultimately bought a new Meridian G68 and HD621. This lead to a case of upgrade-itis. So I started thinking new speakers. Since I am familiar with the ML sound it seemed like the CLX's were a good place to start. I am now convinced the CLX's are also a good place for me to finish. Unless upgrade-itis continues on to Gothams.

Gary,

I know Upgrade-itis all too well, I have been afflicted now for several years, god I hope the credit cards don't give out, or Upgrade-itis will be the death of me.

Anyways, the CLX have nice bass staight out of the box, in fact many like them just like that with no subwoofer. They are really great speakers, one of the best and I think all my tweak does, is tighten or clear the bass just a little, but that could be in my head, maybe I just like black granite.

And then again whenever the Gotham speaks, everyone listens so since I listen strictly to multi-channel, the CLXs just sound spectacular.

If you have an interest in a less than 1 year old Descent i with the CLX card, let me know, just send me a PM. I have a Descent i that I will probably put up for sale soon.

This is a black wood Descent i that it is perfect, it has less than a 100 hours on it and it works perfectly with CLXs, allowing you to dial them in so that they are a perfect match.

Here's an update.

I reached a mutually acceptable price on a pair of 25th Anniversary CLX's listed on Audiogon from Davinci Media. We are working on the shipping details. The boxes were described to me as coffin sized. Hopefully that is not a bad omen. I will put my old friends, the Prodigys, in the rear posts.

If these speakers make me happy you all get some credit. If they don't make me happy, you can find my future posts on the Bose user group site.

Thanks everyone.

GaryG said:

Here's an update.

I reached a mutually acceptable price on a pair of 25th Anniversary CLX's listed on Audiogon from Davinci Media. We are working on the shipping details. The boxes were described to me as coffin sized. Hopefully that is not a bad omen. I will put my old friends, the Prodigys, in the rear posts.

If these speakers make me happy you all get some credit. If they don't make me happy, you can find my future posts on the Bose user group site.

Thanks everyone.

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I was following that audiogon add for some time. That was a very good price from a dealer. Much less than I paid for mine. I did speak to him about those speakers. Did he offer you the 5 year factory warranty? Congratulations. I think you will love these speakers.

I am betting on the credit, I love shopping with credit.

Seriously, congratulations and I am also betting that after Gary gets them set up and starts listening, we will never hear from him again, at least until his family misses him and goes looking for him.

Update: the CLX Anniversary's arrived this weekend. Got stuck in the sweet spot and never even hooked up any subs. Forgot that football season had started. What can I say - they sound great.

What is going on for the center channel there?

I didn't put it back in its stand yet but I put this together for my Prodigy's. It is the Master 4 Theater. That is 4 Theaters managed by a dbx Driverack 260. I have multiple programs for using 1, 2, 3, or all 4 Theaters. It is powered by two Bryston 4B-SST's. Almost exclusively used for movies. My 58 year old ears couldn't hear the center after all the explosions so I tried 2 then 3 then 4.

Interesting set up. I'd love to hear it.