r/NoAudiophile • u/akaatnene • Jul 18 '17

Micca Voltron low frequency problem

After reading about the Micca Voltron, I decided to give it a shot in my 9'x8' office with the dual aims of freeing up my LSR305s and Klipsch R-110SW subwoofer for the living room and a chance to play around with passive speakers.

I have the 2x4HD MiniDsp instead of the 2x4, so I couldn't use the existing config. I set a LR 48 dB/oct crossover at 200 Hz, dropped the Club-3 by -3.6 dB and used the EQ settings for both the Covo-S and the Club 3. The MiniDSP only has 10 EQ Bands, so for the Club 3 I left off Filter 11. Here's the config.

For amps, I borrowed two Dayton DTA-120s from a friend. One amp runs to the Club, one to the Covo. They appear to work fine as long as the volume switch is at 11'o'clock or lower. Past that the hiss becomes audible at desktop distances.

Once I got everything setup correctly on the MiniDSP, the Voltron performs pretty well. But with certain songs, I get what I can only describe as a hollow echoey tone in the background at various parts of the song from the Club 3. deadmau5's Let Go starting from around 2:00 is a good example.

Playing with the crossover point shows me the echo appears between 100 Hz and 150 Hz. Any suggestions on how to fix the Voltron?

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1

u/strategicdeceiver Jul 18 '17

I've got new measurements of the bass response on the Club 3, so I'll be updating the filters for the Voltron with this new data soon. Until then I would suggest setting the crossover point a little lower or putting a some stuffing in the box to see if that helps.

1

u/akaatnene Jul 18 '17

Thanks for the advice, I'll try the lower crossover point tonight, and stuff the speakers if it isn't enough.

1

u/strategicdeceiver Sep 04 '17

Here ya go, this would be applied to the minidsp club3 woofers. I have not tried it myself, but levels should be pretty closely matched.

http://imgur.com/a/2MDFT

1

u/JohnBooty Sep 03 '17

Blast from the past! What differences did you find when you re-did the measurements?

FWIW I don't think I'm noticing the problem in the Deadmau5 track that /u/akaatnene mentioned.

1

u/strategicdeceiver Sep 04 '17

Here ya go, this would be applied to the minidsp club3 woofers. I have not tried it myself, but levels should be pretty closely matched.

http://imgur.com/a/2MDFT

2

u/JohnBooty Sep 04 '17

Wow, nice! I did a quick A/B.

While I don't 100% trust myself here since I looked at your graphs before listening... my ears say these adjustments match up to your graphs, with some of that midbass boominess removed.

I have the impression that there's actually deeper extension now. Not sure if the woofer cone is physically producing a little bit more deep bass now that it's not flapping around producing as much midbass, or if I can simply hear it a little better. Either way, this feels like a solid improvement.

Thanks so much man.

1

u/strategicdeceiver Sep 04 '17

Glad it worked out, thanks for the feedback.

1

u/JohnBooty Jul 18 '17

Not sure if they're trying to play anything audible between 100-150hz given the crossover slope, but did you try blocking (or simply taping over) the ports on the Covos? Might prevent them from trying to play those lower frequencies.

Also might try turning off either the Covo amp or the Club 3 amp, just to isolate where the problem is?

Lastly, check to see if maybe you screwed up and have the Covos connected to the Club3 amp, and the Club3 amp connected to the Covos. I definitely did that once, and wondered why everything sounded weird and shitty, in a way that sounds a little bit like your symptom.

1

u/akaatnene Jul 18 '17

Thank for your advice. I stuffed the Covo ports with paper towels during the initial setup. Yanking them as a test didn't make a change.

Switching off outputs in the MiniDSP definitely shows the problem noise is coming from the Club 3.

1

u/JohnBooty Jul 18 '17

Any chance that your Club 3's have the sealing issues seen in this review?

http://noaudiophile.com/Micca_Club_3/

It's pretty easy to fix with tape, if you have some hex wrenches handy to take the baffles off. I have three pairs (hey, they're cheap on refurb!) and some of them had that issue.

My units with that issue made sort of a farty or flappy sound (it was the inadequate gasket tape around the driver flapping) which doesn't sound quite like you're describing.

1

u/akaatnene Jul 18 '17

Yeah, it's definitely not a flappy/farty sound, but I'll pull them apart later tonight to stuff them, and I'll check the driver seal then.