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Unimpressive sound from Tannoy B475 subwoofer?

I impulse bought two tannoy b475 18" pro subwoofers over the weekend for what seemed like a good price.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to manage to get decent sound out of them. Did I just make a mistake and buy subs that don't perform well, or is there possibly a problem with my setup?

They want 400w-800w. I've tried a crown 800 (bridged) and a jbl synthesis 400 (bridged) and neither made them sound all that hot. The sub signal is coming from a pioneer elite, which isn't the best setup, but seems to drive my mb quart vera sub fairly nicely. The tannoy sounds much worse.

One possible issue: the crown needs a + and - for input, but the sub output is RCA, so I cut the end off a RCA cable and got the +/- from that. Perhaps bad idea?
dddrrreee
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
Looking at the brochure it appears Ckoffend is correct. The subs are really designed for pro use and are not powered. You could probably make them work and sound good with some work but it is much easier to integrate a Velodyne, REL etc. in your home. Velodyne and others have automatic room EQ and built in amps plus some have video outs which makes setup very easy.

http://www.tannoy.com/products/260/b475%20Brochure.pdf
herman
2,280 posts
 
.

They may be pro audio but no reason they couldn't work in a home system.

I really don't understand how you have them connected so can't comment on that, but you can't really judge them by themselves. Just listening to below 80Hz is going to sound muffled and suck. How does it sound when playing the system full range?

My system if tri-amped and listening to just one band sucks but all together it sounds wonderful.

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rwwear
2,887 posts
 
Your right Herman if his room is large enough and doesn't care about the extra amps, crossover and not getting true deep bass. If his room is not very big it will be hard to integrate them without overpowering the room. And they also take a lot of room themselves.
But they can be made to work well in the right environment.
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
Wow, thanks for all the responses!

ckoffend: I'm at work, so can't check the crown model, but I believe it's a ct800b: http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/legacy/ct800sm.pdf

It only has speaker wire inputs/outputs (they have +,-, and ground). It doesn't have 1/4.

I know the subs are pro. I was hoping for volume and not too much loss in precision. They came from SGI's theater room. The guy I bought them off of raved about them & he seemed like a very honest person. Perhaps he was not discerning about bass or perhaps (I'm hoping) I just have them hooked up wrong.

I know the overall quality of the "sound experience" of just having subs playing by themselves won't be great, but you should at least be able judge the quality of the sub output. E.g., distortion, chuffing, etc. Or am I off base?
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
Herman: sorry for the unclear description. Connection is:

[pioneer elite, RCA sub out] ----> [speaker wire in, crown] ----> tannoy

where the pioneer -> crown is an rca cable with the RCA connector cut off on the crown end and the two wires attached to the crown.

It didn't sound good full range, which is why I tried it alone.

In retrospect I should have gone w/ a velo or a triad, but this is what I (foolishly) pulled the trigger on so I would like to get it working if possible.

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