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Possible issue with new HTD Level 3 Bookshelf Speaker?

1683 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by HankTheTurtle, Sep 6, 2019

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · Sep 5, 2019

I've been working on putting together a home theater and a bit of research led me to get HTD Level 3 bookshelves and center channel, along with an HSU VTF-2 MK5 subwoofer, all running off a Denon 4500 receiver. The current surrounds are the old mains from a stereo system I got in the late 90s, but they seem to do the trick for now.

So far I love what I'm hearing whenever I watch anything. I was trying to do a rattle test the other night and noticed an odd sound coming from the left front speaker when I played a 30Hz test tone, and a little less so with a 40Hz tone. I've yet to notice it when actually watching anything, though. It's almost like a paper crinkly sound and isn't happening with the right speaker. Is it possible there's an issue there that's likely to get worse?

Actually, come to think of it, my crossovers were set to 40Hz, so shouldn't the 30Hz tone have been pushed to the sub anyway? Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious. I'm still learning. I only thought of this today, and I haven't had a chance to test this theory yet, but is it possible the left speaker was actually being affected by the subwoofer and wasn't putting out any sound at all at 30Hz? It's a pretty small room and a pretty beefy sub that's about 5 feet away from the left speaker. It's right next to the right speaker, but maybe being that close and off to the side protects it a bit? Is that a thing that even happens? It also felt like the port on the speaker was pushing out a significant amount of air. Is that a clue, too?

When I get home I'll have to try playing the tone with the sub switched off.

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

gajCA

· #2 · Sep 5, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
I've been working on putting together a home theater and a bit of research led me to get HTD Level 3 bookshelves and center channel, along with an HSU VTF-2 MK5 subwoofer, all running off a Denon 4500 receiver. The current surrounds are the old mains from a stereo system I got in the late 90s, but they seem to do the trick for now.

So far I love what I'm hearing whenever I watch anything. I was trying to do a rattle test the other night and noticed an odd sound coming from the left front speaker when I played a 30Hz test tone, and a little less so with a 40Hz tone. I've yet to notice it when actually watching anything, though. It's almost like a paper crinkly sound and isn't happening with the right speaker. Is it possible there's an issue there that's likely to get worse?

Actually, come to think of it, my crossovers were set to 40Hz, so shouldn't the 30Hz tone have been pushed to the sub anyway? Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious. I'm still learning. I only thought of this today, and I haven't had a chance to test this theory yet, but is it possible the left speaker was actually being affected by the subwoofer and wasn't putting out any sound at all at 30Hz? It's a pretty small room and a pretty beefy sub that's about 5 feet away from the left speaker. It's right next to the right speaker, but maybe being that close and off to the side protects it a bit? Is that a thing that even happens? It also felt like the port on the speaker was pushing out a significant amount of air. Is that a clue, too?

When I get home I'll have to try playing the tone with the sub switched off.

Play the tones with the speakers set to "large."

When done, let us know if one speaker exhibits the resonance while the other does not and more than likely at that point have HTD send a replacement and a free return shipping label.

As for the 40hz crossover don't use that even if your EQ set it to that as EQ of all varieties makes "mistakes."

All speakers should be set to "small" with an 80hz crossover as the subwoofer has nearly flat frequency response from 80hz to about 20hz while your speakers most assuredly do not have flat frequency response from 80hz to 40hz.

Reactions: 2

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 5, 2019

gajCA said:
Play the tones with the speakers set to "large."

When done, let us know if one speaker exhibits the resonance while the other does not and more than likely at that point have HTD send a replacement and a free return shipping label.

As for the 40hz crossover don't use that even if your EQ set it to that as EQ of all varieties makes "mistakes."

All speakers should be set to "small" with an 80hz crossover as the subwoofer has nearly flat frequency response from 80hz to about 20hz while your speakers most assuredly do not have flat frequency response from 80hz to 40hz.

Do you know if manually changing the crossover will affect the other Audyssey settings?

zieglj01

· #4 · Sep 5, 2019

As stated ... change the crossover to 80 hz .... the Level Three bookshelf are made to work with a sub for lower end bass

gajCA

· #5 · Sep 5, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
Do you know if manually changing the crossover will affect the other Audyssey settings?

It won't affect the other settings.

I've had to "fix" Audyssey mistakes on two Denon receivers this year; at my sister in law's and at my friends.

Both times it set the three front speakers to large with 40hz crossovers and with Dynamic EQ on.

Turning off Dynamic EQ and setting speakers to small with 80hz crossover improved the sound dramatically.

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 5, 2019

gajCA said:
It won't affect the other settings.

I've had to "fix" Audyssey mistakes on two Denon receivers this year; at my sister in law's and at my friends.

Both times it set the three front speakers to large with 40hz crossovers and with Dynamic EQ on.

Turning off Dynamic EQ and setting speakers to small with 80hz crossover improved the sound dramatically.

They are set to small, but I'll definitely change the crossover. I forget if I had Dynamic EQ on.

gajCA

· #7 · Sep 5, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
They are set to small, but I'll definitely change the crossover. I forget if I had Dynamic EQ on.

I only use Dynamic EQ, (with an offset, not "full" on), with very very old movies.

Generally black and white and some early color films with wimpy soundtracks.

Before you run your test tones you might want to gently tighten any visible screws on the cabinet holding on the tweeter and woofer and whatnot.

bac2040

· #8 · Sep 5, 2019

Tightening screws is an excellent suggestion. I have a HTD Level 2 Center and had some buzzing/vibrations. Found a few loose screws and problem was resolved after they were tightened. Also went around and made sure all were good and tight. Not to pick on HTD since this could happen to any brand.

Madmax67

· #9 · Sep 6, 2019

gajCA said:
It won't affect the other settings.

I've had to "fix" Audyssey mistakes on two Denon receivers this year; at my sister in law's and at my friends.

Both times it set the three front speakers to large with 40hz crossovers and with Dynamic EQ on.

Turning off Dynamic EQ and setting speakers to small with 80hz crossover improved the sound dramatically.

Point of fact Audyssey has nothing to do with receiver crossover settings or Large /Small speaker designations. That's all the receiver makes doing. What Audyssey does is set levels, distances, F3 points and lastly FIR filters according to perceived need. Chris Kyriakis (founder of Audyssey) has long lamented those ambiguous Large /Small speaker designations and advocated instead for Bass managed and Not bass managed designations to no avail.

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 6, 2019

gajCA said:
Play the tones with the speakers set to "large."

When done, let us know if one speaker exhibits the resonance while the other does not and more than likely at that point have HTD send a replacement and a free return shipping label.

As for the 40hz crossover don't use that even if your EQ set it to that as EQ of all varieties makes "mistakes."

All speakers should be set to "small" with an 80hz crossover as the subwoofer has nearly flat frequency response from 80hz to about 20hz while your speakers most assuredly do not have flat frequency response from 80hz to 40hz.

When set to Large both sound a bit wonky, but about the same. With them set to small and the crossovers set to 80Hz the sub is now picking up most of it and it sounds good. So I think I can breathe easy and not worry about making a return for now.

RMW1982

· #11 · Sep 6, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
When set to Large both sound a bit wonky, but about the same. With them set to small and the crossovers set to 80Hz the sub is now picking up most of it and it sounds good. So I think I can breathe easy and not worry about making a return for now.

Are they ported? Sounds like it could be chuff.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 6, 2019

RMW1982 said:
HankTheTurtle said:

When set to Large both sound a bit wonky, but about the same. With them set to small and the crossovers set to 80Hz the sub is now picking up most of it and it sounds good. So I think I can breathe easy and not worry about making a return for now.

Click to expand...

Are they ported? Sounds like it could be chuff.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes. They’re ported. What is chuff?

Madmax67

· #13 · Sep 6, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
Yes. They’re ported. What is chuff?

Air through the bass port can start to make a specific sounding noise commonly called chuffing when being overloaded reproducing bass tones it's not meant to handle. Bottom line is best not to send low frequency test tones through bookshelf speakers. Their specced -3dB points are already dubious enough. You basically made your speaker shart just a bit.

gajCA

· #14 · Sep 6, 2019

HankTheTurtle said:
Yes. They’re ported. What is chuff?

I've never heard it even with my tiny ported subs in my secondary room.

It is not uncommon for people who like a lot of "in your face" sub presence to run into that when over driving a sub.

For most it is not an issue.

Elihawk

· #15 · Sep 6, 2019

I've only heard chuffing on my crappy klipsch subwoofer (RWD12 or something, long gone now)...but in theory, any ported speaker can do this. If this noise goes away when you change the crossover to 80hz, then it is likely the culprit!

HankTheTurtle

Discussion Starter · #16 · Sep 6, 2019

Elihawk said:
I've only heard chuffing on my crappy klipsch subwoofer (RWD12 or something, long gone now)...but in theory, any ported speaker can do this. If this noise goes away when you change the crossover to 80hz, then it is likely the culprit!

Yeah. After reading about it a bit I think that's totally what it was. The speaker specs say 47Hz on the low end, and the only time I was hearing it was at frequencies lower than that. I'll just let the sub handle those from now on. Everything else about the speakers has been pretty incredible.

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