S4/8 Owners Manual Ver 0.1
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a b s o l u t e f i d e l i t y
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experiment with increasing or decreasing the low pass filter control.
This control will raise or lower the frequency cutoff point of the woofer.
If you find that the sound is “thin” or lacking in mid bass, and that
turning the gain control up to “thicken” the sound creates too much low
bass, this is a good indication that you may want to turn the low pass
filter up to a higher frequency instead. This will extend the response of
the S4/8 into the upper bass regions without affecting the low bass
level.
Next, check the S4/8 using more than just a voice. Select some music
that you know to have good deep bass, a symphonic piece of music if
you can, or use a natural bass instrument for your guide. Try to make it
sound real. You may have to return to the vocal track from time to time
to make sure you have not gone too far in one direction.
If, at this point, the overall sound seems to be lacking in mid bass, turn
the low pass filter to a higher position or, alternately, position the main
speakers closer together in order to achieve better mid bass coupling
between the main speakers. If the overall sound is too “fat” turn the low
pass filter down or adjust the gain. At this point we suggest you use
only the low pass filter control until you get to the refinement stage.
Low bass
If you find that there isn’t enough deep bass in the overall sound of the
system, your first remedy is the gain control on the S4/8 amplifier. This
has several limitations. First, turned up too high, it may result in some
distortion on very low frequencies.
Secondly, you may make the mid bass produced by the top of the
woofer out of proportion with the mid bass produced by the bottom-end
of your main speakers. This would make your system sound “boomy”
in the mid bass regions.
A good rule of thumb is to first adjust the gain control of the subwoofer
for proper mid bass response rather than low bass. The theory is that if
the mid bass response is correct, then the low bass response should
be very close to correct.
A good balance between proper low bass extension and a deep and
spacious soundstage needs to be established to optimize your new
speaker’s performance.
