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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
2,866 posts
 
There will be a shield and a separate ground wire in most cases but they touch and can be twisted together or not. Most balanced cables have three wires plus the shield.

Balanced still matters whether using one input or two. You may be able to run the amp in mono though.
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
I am connecting the outlaw 950 using a "RCA to speaker wire" cable. The RCA end is going into the outlaw. The speaker wire (+, -) is going to the crown amp (+, - respectively). Should I run the - speaker wire to both the ground and the - on the crown amp? Or do I need to get a different cable entirely?

I'm running the crown in bridged mono mode.
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
Oh, cool. I think I got it. I just solder the ground to the outside of the RCA connector?

When I touch a ground wire manually, the hum goes to almost nothing, so I assume that's the right approach.

Thanks for the insights!
rwwear
2,866 posts
 
The ground and negative wire should be attached to the grounding post of the RCA. The shield really doesn't matter as long as it doesn't touch the positive post.

Or, you could just use an XLR to RCA adapter. The best thing would be to get a balancing transformer from someone like Jensen.
sthomas12321
408 posts
 
08-07-11: Rwwear
Pro subs are designed for high output but not necessarily low bass. Your sub will go down to around 28hz but you may not get that in your room. The SMS-1 will come with a setup mic to tune the sub to your room. It will have video out to see the results and allow you to adjust for your room and give you the ability to have 5 different settings plus have remote control for the volume and different modes. Velodyne's DDS series has this built in

Above post was right on the money of what I was emplying with the sms-1 or any other eq. The nice thing about the sms-1 type is you get a nice grapch on your screen and some auto eq to get you started. You need to get that sub playing lower even if it costs you some max output at the 50hz and up freq responses. Home theater subs need to hit around 25hz to really get you excited about the .1 channel.
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