Vantage Hz Control

Today I disconnected my depth sub in order to get the Vantages playing bass as smoothly as possible, but ran into an odd issue. On a few songs where there is a strong bass line I noticed there being a nasty peak in the mid bass region. The only way to help tame it was to set the left speaker at +5 and the right one at -10. When I did this the deeper bass became more apparent while reducing the mid bass output. When it is vice versa (right +5/left-10) the mid bass spike is even worse. With both speakers set to the same setting,irregardless of + or -, the mid bass remains dominant. It is only when the right speaker is in the - and the left + does it seem to reduce this hump. Of course the further in the - that I take the right speaker and the further in the + the left speaker, the less mid bass is there and more lower bass present. Is this normal? Shouldn't both speakers be set to the same setting or at least close? Why would the right speaker exaggerate the mid bass so much? It's as if by lowering the right while raising the left output they seem to cancel each other out in that region. I'm not sure yet whether I like the way it is at this point. I will have to listen some more tonight. Has anyone else encountered this?



P.S.
I checked all of the cables and speaker wires to make sure they were all hooked up properly. The speakers seem to be working properly, but I am wondering if this is a room node problem or something else. Thanks for your help.

Can you please describe the placing of the speakers in the room?

miljac said:

Can you please describe the placing of the speakers in the room?

Click to expand...

The speakers are approximately 6' from the front wall and 31" from the side walls. They have a slight toe in and are parallel to the floor. You can get a visual by looking at my member's page picture, but they have been pulled out from the front wall an additional 12" since that picture. Thanks.

Ok, problem is now somewhat solved. After listening for a while last night and could not believe the awful flabby bass that was eminating from my speakers I decided to replace the tubes in the McIntosh MC275 back to the originals. Instantly a much more taut bass was now playing and the soundstage became more engaging. After reflecting on the issue that has been causing problems over the past several weeks the solution seems rather obvious now. I thought I was going crazy because when the bass sounded tolerable a few days earlier it now sounded extremely tubby and bloated. I assumed that my ears were playing tricks on me because what sounded good last week sounded terrible this week. GROWL!!!! Oh well, at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel. There is still a bass problem however, but not anywhere near to the degree it was before. In fact brand new tubes may take me the rest of the way there since the originals may not have a whole lot of life left in them either.

This thread is probably now an analog issue rather than a Martin Logan problem, so it may need to be moved. Since I will most likely not be able to replace all of my tubes at once, which ones would clean up the bass the most? This way I can address this issue first, then I will replace the others as funds allow. Thanks.

Glen, good to hear that the root issue was found.