My friend picked up a pair of KEF iQ9 tower speakers this weekend, along with an iQ6 center speaker. We had seen the setup at CC, and I had picked up a set of 4 iQ9's and an iQ6 for my basement HT room. He had liked the sound in my room but since he set up his pair in his apartment he hasn't been happy.

He has them about 5-6 feet apart surrounding the TV, with the center under the TV on the stand. They're about 1-2 feet out from the wall. He's been saying they're too boomy, and that the music and effects from the L/R speakers overpower the dialog from the center. He's using a Sony DG800 receiver.

I went back to check CC's setup and they're set up about the same way as his, almost the exact same distances. He tried different thing, like using the low LFE wiring method suggested by the manual. I'm going to let him use the mic from my DG1000 to run the receivers auto calibration. I also thought about him turning off the center and just running a virtual center from the fronts to spread the sound out a bit.

Any advice on running tower speakers in a smaller environment?

Sounds like you're getting alot of boundary effects. Meaning that the room is heavily reinforcing the bass region.

Try playing with the placement. Like toe in and moving the speakers a few inches can sometimes have a large effect

move the speakers out from the walls as far as possible, make sure there is no bass added on the avr/preamp AND dvd player (some add a selectable bass boost), if thee is a sub, turn it down or off. small rooms are tough to be sure...you definitely could consider seeing if the avr can help equalize things out too for room correction...good luck!

Did the iQ9s come with foam inserts for the ports?

I'm not sure you can answer this with surety as I think your speakers (and his) were open-box or floor model buys.

The previous Q series speakers included foam bungs for blocking the ports. I'm not sure if they include them with the iQ series or not. But these can help eliminate the boominess that can be encountered due to small rooms or boundary effects.

Regarding overpowering the center, has your friend calibrated his system properly?

I have two pairs of the foam peices, I'll try those on his speakers and see if they work. I shouldn't be needing them. We'll also try the auto calibration thing, it worked pretty well with my setup, hopefully it will with his as well. He just went from tiny cube speakers to these towers. He's been working on them the last few days but still isn't happy. I'm not too sure what settings he's been trying, but I know he turned the dynamic range compression all the way up cut down on the bass. I'll have him try it without the sub as well.

I have two pairs of the foam peices, I'll try those on his speakers and see if they work. I shouldn't be needing them. We'll also try the auto calibration thing, it worked pretty well with my setup, hopefully it will with his as well. He just went from tiny cube speakers to these towers. He's been working on them the last few days but still isn't happy. I'm not too sure what settings he's been trying, but I know he turned the dynamic range compression all the way up cut down on the bass. I'll have him try it without the sub as well.

those all sound like good ideas, I had fogotten about the plugs on those speakers--that is an outstanding idea. it also does sound like the calibration is off ans needs to be corrected--you can use teh auto setup or you can simply get a sound meter from radio shack and calibrate it yourself! (the advantage of the auto setup is that it also likely does room eq)--what kind of receiver is it?

He's got a Sony DG800

sony's website suggests that receiver accounts for distance, delay, ect I did not see anything about equalizing for room correction...you may be stuck with adjusting the speaker position and using any built in equalizer if there is one and turning down or off the sub--also the problem may be poor sub-speaker integration--it may help to set the speakers to either large and turn the crossover on the receiver as low as possible to avoid the boomines if caused by the sub OR to set the front speakers to small and turn the crossover up to let the sub handle as much of the bass as possible, where you have ABSOLUTE control of the bass by using the volume knob on the sub. That is probably your best bet --eqperimenting with those settings to get the mix just right. Keep in mind what the receiver is programed for may not sound the most ideal to your friend...it may take some work but I am pretty sure he can get it right if he works on it. Is he otherwise happy with the speakers--mids and highs?

I thinks he's happy with the mids and highs, he always commented that the detail was great, and all the new sounds he could here that he never had before.
I guess we'll work with the foam, the auto cal, and the sub to see what we come up with.

it can work just fine. In the end however you may need some EQ depending on the room.

I have large fronts in a fairly small room but don't have any problems.

It sounds like your friend needs to calibrate his speakers. I'd second the recommendation that he get a Radio Shack analog SPL for that. The auto calibration feature may work fine, but I have found that you often need to set your center level 2-3 dB higher than your L and R front levels if you want to maintain a good balance for dialogue (if the center speaker is smaller it won't move as much air as your larger fronts, even if it is the same brand and timbre-matched to your fronts).

He had liked the sound in my room but since he set up his pair in his apartment he hasn't been happy.

He has them about 5-6 feet apart surrounding the TV, with the center under the TV on the stand. They're about 1-2 feet out from the wall. He's been saying they're too boomy, That’s not uncommon when you use big speakers in a small room. Typically they have greater bass output, which is needed in a large room, but can be too much of a good thing in a small room. He should be able to use his receiver’s tone control EQ to tame the bass.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

You probably need to treat the room itself, too. If you don't want to buy some bass traps (from GIK (http://www.gikacoustics.com/), ATS (http://www.atsacoustics.com/) or RealTraps (http://www.realtraps.com/) for example), then you can always glue a foam mattress to the rear wall. (I'm not kidding!)

Note that most listening/demo rooms at stores will have dampening room treatment in the walls, and often absorbtive ceiling tiles, to even out the room and avoid a boomy sound.

Putting in the foam plugs will simply reduce the low frequency -3 point of the speakers. This should be a moot point if they're crossed correctly to a sub. The symptoms described are very typical of a room that needs treating to get bottom end decay times in line.

Bryan