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Woofers Gone Wild

Rega P3 with 301 arm/Sumiko BPS III. Even at lower levels, woofers in my B&W 803's are going nuts, flopping around all over the place (and I would imagine, sucking up lots of juice in the process).

Is there compliance mismatch here? From what I can tell, all should be well within the desired range. But still the woofer action.

TT is equipped with Black Diamond Racing footings, and is well placed. All adjustments on table checked/rechecked.

Am going to have a beer and not think about it for a while. Any others with this situation, or any solutions out there?

Thanks for any help,

Doc
docwoof1961
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Actusreus, I guess I would really challenge whether or not that cartridge and arm combo is really correct. I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor, so I'm always looking for the simplest explanation. So when I hear that, the simplest explanation to me is that maybe someone made a mistake. Its a lot more complex explanation to have two properly set up arm/cartridge combos, where one causes wild woofers and the other doesn't, despite the electronics having the bandwidth.
actusreus
733 posts
 
The test record and my calculations both put the resonant frequency of my tonearm and cartridge combination above 9 Hz, which I understand is considered correct. My phono stage is from the same manufacturer as my cart, and matches the recommended capacitive and resistive load of the cartridge. I realize it's a complex issue, but reasonably can anything else be done, I wonder?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Actusreus, what kind of speakers do you have? One area where there is not much you can do is if you have smaller woofers in a smaller cabinet. Once you get out-of-band there is nothing keeping the woofers from flopping around. In a case like this I would recommend the filter.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Everyone is talking as if the rumble filter were merely a high pass filter. Actually, a rumble filter mixes the two channels below a certain frequency without affecting pass band (although there is often a subsonic filter included that does that). LPs produce signals which are mono at low frequency. Stereo signals involve vertical modulation of the groove, and will result in tracking problems, so record producers mix to mono at low frequency. Therefore, any stereo signal you see at low frequency is NOISE alone, and the rumble filter gets rid of it.
actusreus
733 posts
 
Atmasphere,
My speakers are the Totem Acoustics Hawk.

Eldartford,
That's my understanding of the filter as well. I've personally noticed absolutely no deterioration in sound since I put it in the signal path. In fact, I think it has improved the sound.
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