Unimpressive sound from Tannoy B475 subwoofer?

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What isn't "decent" about them?

Integrating subs is never easy and now you need to integrate two. They need to be crossed over at the proper frequency with the proper slope at the proper level and properly placed. This takes a lot of time experimenting so no wonder you haven't achieved decent sound yet.

The number one mistake people make is turning them up too loud. If they are drawing attention to themselves they are too loud.

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Sorry, I wasn't very precise.

If I turn off all speakers and *just* have one sub going (so there is no interference), the sound coming out of it sucks. It's just kind of muffled/chuffing and not that strong. Crossover is at 80

The music I was playing is unusual in that it is bass dominant, so in this case they should be drawing attention to themselves.

The much smaller mb quart vera sub I have (sadly discontinued) is way way better. Which is unfortunate. It's fairly precise and still strong enough to shake house foundations.

I'm hoping I'm just doing something wrong. E.g., not enough power from my home circuit?

Are the B475's viewed as good subs? I couldn't find much on the net other than tannoy seems like a respectable company.

There are 2 different ways to connect a sub. The first is that it is powered by your own amp from which it would have a barrier strip or some other speaker connection....., and the other, it gets a signal from your preamp/Receiver, and the signal goes to the sub's own amp which includes a crossover. The RCA's are probably the input to its own built in amp. It sounds like you got the connections confused. Recheck your connections. RCA female inputs need to come from the sub/out of your receiver.

Stringreen --- the RCA butchering was for the crown amp. It only takes speaker wire inputs (+ and -) rather than RCA connections or something along those lines.

The tannoy's use "speakon" connections.

Right now I have the subwoofer out from the pioneer receiver (an RCA connection) going to the crown amp (where I cut out the + and - wires from the RCA cable for the crown's input connections). The crown amp's outputs go to a speakon connector plugged into the tannoy.

The crossover is done at the pionner end (set to 80).

Or did I misunderstand what you meant?

What model crown 800 amp are you using? I am guessing it is an older model by your description of the input scenario. Doesn't the crown amp have a 1/4" jack input? This is what I typically see, or possibly an XLR input.

If it has the more standard 1/4" input, you can go to guitar center and get an RCA female to 1/4" male converter or just a cable that runs from male RCA to male 1/4".

Did you know these subs are not made for home use? These are like DJ speakers/subs. The purpose of these types of subs are very different than what we use subs for in the home setting (ie. they typically extend up much higher in the frequency range to 200+ hz in pro use). Also, these Tannoy Pro subs are intended to be used as part of a complete system designed for a professional type of application.

My primary concern is the connection system you seem to have rigged between the pre-out and the crown amp.

Where did you get the subs? I'd take them into Guitar center and ask them to hook them up in their sound room and play them with another pair of pro speakers to see how they sound.

Finally, listening to just the sub? I can't imagine that it sounds very good. I know once I had my Rels hooked up but my amp turned off (unknowingly) and got music just out of the Rels. It wasn't a pretty sound by themselves.