2. speakers
  3. 1312327098

Unimpressive sound from Tannoy B475 subwoofer?

I impulse bought two tannoy b475 18" pro subwoofers over the weekend for what seemed like a good price.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to manage to get decent sound out of them. Did I just make a mistake and buy subs that don't perform well, or is there possibly a problem with my setup?

They want 400w-800w. I've tried a crown 800 (bridged) and a jbl synthesis 400 (bridged) and neither made them sound all that hot. The sub signal is coming from a pioneer elite, which isn't the best setup, but seems to drive my mb quart vera sub fairly nicely. The tannoy sounds much worse.

One possible issue: the crown needs a + and - for input, but the sub output is RCA, so I cut the end off a RCA cable and got the +/- from that. Perhaps bad idea?
dddrrreee
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
Iimig: dumb terminology question --- what is the shield? The crown has +, -, and ground terminals. By shield do you mean ground?

I'm only using the amp for one sub, so there is only one input -- does balanced still matter in this case?
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
OK, forget the second question. Doing some reading on unabalanced vs balanced...
rwwear
2,692 posts
 
There will be a shield and a separate ground wire in most cases but they touch and can be twisted together or not. Most balanced cables have three wires plus the shield.

Balanced still matters whether using one input or two. You may be able to run the amp in mono though.
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
I am connecting the outlaw 950 using a "RCA to speaker wire" cable. The RCA end is going into the outlaw. The speaker wire (+, -) is going to the crown amp (+, - respectively). Should I run the - speaker wire to both the ground and the - on the crown amp? Or do I need to get a different cable entirely?

I'm running the crown in bridged mono mode.
dddrrreee OP
38 posts
 
Oh, cool. I think I got it. I just solder the ground to the outside of the RCA connector?

When I touch a ground wire manually, the hum goes to almost nothing, so I assume that's the right approach.

Thanks for the insights!
More to discover