Hi. I have two b&w 683 s2’s, which I find lack a bit of punch for the kind of music I am listening to (mainly in the drums that don’t really have any body feeling for a lack of better working). So I have bought a 10 inch B&W subwoofer, which I have set up putting the crossover knob to the lowest the speakers can go and adjusted the volume in order not to hear the transition between the speakers and the sub.
But the thing is, even though now I have more deep bass, the mid bass of course remains unchanged because of the crossover frequency.
My question is, is there another way to set up the crossover in order to make the mids a bit more energetic. Does the overlap in frequencies cause any undesirable effect?
Thanks!
A simple trick is to stuff the ports of the 683. This reduces the bass output so you might set the crossover a bit higher.
If you were to use a matched high pass filter on the mains to remove their unwanted low frequency displacement then you will get a flat rather than humped response in the crossover region and reduce IM distortion in the midrange. Here on page 15-16 of the measurement descriptions report is info and examples on the subject of subs and midrange distortion. The increased clarity of the midrange is usually fairly apparent if a sub is integrated properly rather than like many audiophiles do it with only a low pass filter on the sub.
The chest slam you feel in your body with drums and bass is around 50Hz, so well within the ability of your speakers.
You probably have room modes causing nulls at certain bass frequencies meaning yiure missing bass impact. Unless you have physical room treatment / bass traps or use room correction EQ, you will have uneven bass. It’s a 100% gaurentee.
I’m sure if you measure and EQ, you’ll get the bass slam you’re after.
If your speakers and your sub are both producing 120 Hz but they are greater than 1/4 wavelength apart then you will get comb filtering.
So if you speakers and sub are close enough that any overlapping frequencies will combine constructively then you’re fine.