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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

Showing 9 responses by rwwear

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.
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
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
The Pioneer crossover should work.
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
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.
rwwear
2,887 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.
rwwear
2,887 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.
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
The transformer looks like the right one.
An SMS-1 could be picked up used for around 400.00. It would help greatly.
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
Velodyne-SMS-1
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
I check the 'Gon every day when possible.
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