I just purchased my first home theatre in a box, it sounds pretty good but the bass seems to be seriously lacking for something thats is 110W. I have the bass level on 10 (wich is maxed out) and I can hear it but I was expecting more. I mean my crappy creative PC speakers with 4 inch sub hass more oomph, I cant even feel any air get pushed with the Yamaha.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone has experience with that system and if the bass sounds good to you? I'm starting to think there may be something wrong with it, as all the reviews I read about it talk about it shaking the walls, the only thing it shakes is my head going is that all you got. :(

I just purchased my first home theatre in a box, it sounds pretty good but the bass seems to be seriously lacking for something thats is 110W. I have the bass level on 10 (wich is maxed out) and I can hear it but I was expecting more. I mean my crappy creative PC speakers with 4 inch sub hass more oomph, I cant even feel any air get pushed with the Yamaha.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone has experience with that system and if the bass sounds good to you? I'm starting to think there may be something wrong with it, as all the reviews I read about it talk about it shaking the walls, the only thing it shakes is my head going is that all you got. :(

How big of a room do you have it in?

Try to set all speakers to 0db a nd the sub put to 10db and check the crossover put it at 150hz-200hz. Any improvement?

Try to set all speakers to 0db a nd the sub put to 10db and check the crossover put it at 150hz-200hz. Any improvement?

crossing over this high will result in being able to localize the bass to the sub...not good. cross-over no higher than 100Hz.

setting the sub to its maximum gain runs the risk of the receiver sending it a clipped signal and getting distortion on peaks in movie soundtracks. you'll want to set the gain on the sub to about 10:00 and the receiver trims somewhere in the middle. ideally, you should be getting the same SPL (volume) from all speakers and sub at the main listening position.

that said, it is an inexpensive (passive?) HTIB sub. you can't get blood from a stone, and you're not going to get great bass from a sub like this. that's part of the reason why you can buy the whole pacakge for ~ $200.

Thanks for the replies.

It sounds acceptable, but not awqesome when I lower all speakers to -8 -7 and boost the bass to +9. But thats not the way it sould be, I know.

The room is med\large but it is very open, there is a stair case behind it and a den beside it, but even when sitting right by the sub you can tell it's not booming like it should. The other speakers all sound good and it does soumd full with the sub, but I want the walls to shake (something all the reviews said this rig will do)

And there is no cross over or bass knob on the sub.

Anyway I think I am going to return it and get something better, trying to talk my GF into getting something at Visions b/c they have a 2 year no payment/intrest thing.

So my next question is what would you recomend for a set up? I read great reviews on Onkyo recevers but dont really know what else to get from there. I figure satalite speakers will be good enough for now but it is important for me to have a good deep sub.

I know these are not the right settings, but the guy wants to shake the walls, doesn't he? And with the passive sub supplied that is the way if you want to squeeze something out of it.

So my next question is what would you recomend for a set up? I read great reviews on Onkyo recevers but dont really know what else to get from there. I figure satalite speakers will be good enough for now but it is important for me to have a good deep sub.

what's your budget? this is the primary deciding factor here.

if good, clean, deep bass is a high priority and your funds are limited, i'd recommend you start over with a 2.1 system and add pieces as your budget allows.

the best budget 7.1 receiver out there right now IMO is the onkyo 503, which you can get from shoponkyo.com for about $180.

then grab an inexpensive pair of bookshelf speakers from advent, athena, polk, infinity, JBL, etc. here you'll spend about $50 - $150.

for the sub, there are a lot of options, i'll list them in order of increasing price (and not surprisingly performance). there are others out there, but these seem to be the popular choices from those in the know:

athena P-4000 $150
Bich Acoustech H-100 $225
Hsu STF-1 - $300
Mirage S12 or Hsu STF-2 - $400
SVS PB-10 NSD - $450

of course there are better subs, but i'm assuming you're on an HTIB-sized budget. the best compromise of of price/performance in that bunch is the H-100, and the best performance will be had with the SVS.

Thanks Gstar, that really helped.

I guess my budget is about $400 canadian, but if I could get no payments for a while I would be willing to spend $1000 - $1200 max.

I will definetly look into those subs you recomended. Also just wondering if the front and surround speakers could be the same or is there a big advantage to getting a specific type speaker for it's placement.

Also just wondering if the front and surround speakers could be the same or is there a big advantage to getting a specific type speaker for it's placement.

the surrounds can be the same as your mains, or a bit smaller. i would stick to one brand though, to get optimum tonal characteristics all the way around, especially if you do multi-channel music.

Ninja, I have the same system and had the same issue. The way I cleared it up was to change the spk set (as displayed on the receiver) to all small. The bass came out loud and clear without having to max the the gain to it.

crossing over this high will result in being able to localize the bass to the sub...not good. cross-over no higher than 100Hz.

setting the sub to its maximum gain runs the risk of the receiver sending it a clipped signal and getting distortion on peaks in movie soundtracks. you'll want to set the gain on the sub to about 10:00 and the receiver trims somewhere in the middle. ideally, you should be getting the same SPL (volume) from all speakers and sub at the main listening position.

that said, it is an inexpensive (passive?) HTIB sub. you can't get blood from a stone, and you're not going to get great bass from a sub like this. that's part of the reason why you can buy the whole pacakge for ~ $200.


what does pacakge mean?

what does pacakge mean?

package = HTIB (home theater in a box) that comes with a receiver, speakers and a sub.