What causes clipping?

Robotman, after you check the cables and speakers, go through your audio menu on the dvd player and the HK volume tweak settings. I have a HK AVR5 and Kinergetics SW200 amp and I did have problems with it. If you are using the SW200 Compusound 2 mono amp, which I am using, it clipped constantly when I used the THX input. I ended using the l&r inputs on the amp with the the toggle switch in norm, not THX. This way I could use the volume control on the front of the amp if I needed a change. If you have full range fronts, try selecting sub off, fronts large on the dvd menu, fronts large on the Hk and use the front pre-outs on your receiver. You should experiment with different settings on the dvd and HK menus. I did try this amp on my music system and I can blast the Kinergetics with no problems, even at a 4 ohn load. The only time a fuse would go was when it is turned on or off. Once you get it on, leave it on, unless you want to keep replacing fuses.

Good luck and keep in touch. You just may have a frustrating task on your hands, especially using the remotes. Now, does anybody know how to lower the xover on these amps from the current 80hz? Info would be appreciated.

While I certainly don't want to contradict Eldulcesol's first hand experience. I think it prudent to warn you that the Spicas are not full range or "large" and are not know for durability, original replacement parts may be hard to come by and matching other drivers around their unusual cross-overs might be tricky. You might want to excerise some caution in shifting some of the burden of the Kinergetics to the Spicas. THX usually rolls off a bit of the top end something the Spicas tend to do on their own. As such I suspect there is some very good suggestions here, keep the volume down and proceed with caution.

I did some experimenting over the weekend.

The Spica's are not full range speakers and if I don't call them "small" speakers on the HK receiver, NO signal will be sent to the subwoofer. Granted that they are physically large speakers, but their range is considered "small".

The SW-200 are "stereo" L and R subwoofers which have two 10" speakers in each box. The HK sends out a pre-amp mono subwoofer signal cutoff at 100Hz, so I split this and then go in the L/R pre-amps on the Kinergetics amp.

I found an old Enya CD which had some good simple monotone bass notes which helped me diagnose a bit more.

I tried switching the L/R speaker cables from the amp to the speakers. The problem stayed on the right speakers after the switch. This tells me that the amp is not the problem, but the right speakers themselves are having a problem.

But here are some notes / questions:

1. The problem is that both 10" speakers inside the right speaker sub box are vibrating to their extremes causing a jackhammer sound. This originally sounded like out-of-control, distorted, popping in the bass movie scenes, but with the clean Enya monotone, it was a steady pounding noise and I could visibly see what was happening.

2. Although the right speaker set has this problem, it sounds perfectly fine until it gets turned up to a loud volume.

3. I can turn the left speaker sub up quite a bit more and get it to do the same thing.

So... does this sound like a problem with the right speaker set or possibly a small room problem? I was wondering if there is some effect I don't quite understand where the speakers aren't able to create the bass they are trying to generate which causes this over excursion problem and speaker jackhammer effect. If it is actually a problem with the speaker, what could it be since they sound fine up to a point?

Any ideas welcome. Thanks for all your help!

John

Robotman, for me I had to use a 5.1 out on the dvd player to the 6 ch. in on the receiver. What I did was set everything to large, sub yes,set the distances, effects and volume controls almost to the max. This is on the dvd player menu. Check also to see if your dvd menu has a sub freq. on it.

After that, then try to tweak the volumes with the HK. I believe the SW200 xover is 80hz. If you can, adjust the sub out freq on the HK to that. If you are finding out that the tweak volumes on the HK are at two extremes, fronts -10 center +10, go back to the dvd menu and make some changes. All this is possible if your dvd menu has the capability to do this.I know all of this is a pain, especially if you have to go through 4, 5 steps just to get to the audio menu on the dvd player as I had to do.

Try the other suggestions from above about placement and not plugging the amp to the HK. Also, if your are not sure about the condition of the amp and subs, try it out with a different receiver or system to be sure.

If these SW are acoustic suspension (sealed box..no vent) your box might have a leak. Tighten all the mounting screws on the drivers. Check for any other source of leakage.

Test the polarity of the drivers by touching the speaker wires to a battery. Make sure that the cones move in the same direction.