As a proud owner of new EgglestonWorks Andra I speakers, I am completely impressed and satisfied with their sound, from 63 Hz and up. In my room, they are amazingly live, dynamic, detailed but natural, very well balanced (as the frequency response shows (Rives CD, RS analog meter)), and the sense of acoustic space is just unbelievable.
But then there's the bass...I know the Dynaudio bass drivers (two 12" in each cabinet) take some time to break in. I have bearly any audible response below 50Hz; the response drops 15 to 20dB from reference (80dB) very quickly after 63Hz. When I crank up the volume on the 20Hz tone, I get the woofers moving, but the equivalent volume level would be around 95db at 1Khz. That's loud folks!
I tried respositioning the speakers closer together, to simulate a friend's setup, also Andra Is, and he's only down 3dB at 31Hz. No such luck for me, so I don't think it's a room thing, not for the lowest octave and a half range like this, so it must be break in, right? My bass drivers just don't seem to want to move that much at 80dB.
What would be the safest way (for the drivers and the simple low pass bass crossover). I assume that playing the 20Hz tone repeatedly may cause overheating of either? I guess I am impatient! I have about 50 hours on the speakers thus far (yeah, I know, that's nothing!).
Are you kidding? You cannot expect changes on the order of 15dB from "break in," even if you assume that it will change anything. It is room acoustics and/or setup. Putting the speakers closer is not the issue. It is the relationship of the speakers to room boundaries and the room modes consequent to their dimensions. So, while you are doing a long-term break in, read up on such things. Try www.rivesaudio.com for a start and links.
I am leaning Grant's way here (on the driver or crossover perspective; I know it's not my system, since it was also used on my Andra IIs)...I only agree with you on the "can't gain 15db during break-in" statement, and not on the room issues. If it were a room issue (it's not, since my Andra IIs, similiar bass driver configuration) in the exact same spot had plenty of low bass at 30 and 40 Hz.
I can't believe it's upstream since nothing really changed since the Andra IIs.
I did look at both speakers, and neither of the bass drivers are moving very much with a normal music signal at normal to louder listening levels. Hardly moving = hardly any bass.
Sorry to intrude, but fact is I have had very similar things occur and after 300 hours I have had drivers that were very stiff all of a sudden open up and drop quite a bit in impact and octave range... However this is not the whole story, your room has incredible impact on the results, room acoustics will in fact start erasing some of the holes in frequency response, especiall the room loading factor that will give you the smooth / full / wooly even bloom your missing to gain back warmer and much more impactfull presentation.
I really doubt eggleston would ever dare ship a non-fully tested against the reference speaker on site product, this is the practice of all super hi end companies from my understanding.... Unless you have shipping damage or really badly matched equipment.
Grant, I checked both speakers out while playing a 20hz tone (volume level normalized to 80dB @ 1kHz), and felt both drivers...very slight movement on the bass drivers of both l and r channels. I then cranked the volume up to what would normally be about 95dB @ 1Khz, and I got the drivers moving pretty well, and they were outputting about 80dB (or slightly less) of the 20Hz test tone.
So to answer your question, no, I didn't inspect them individually while the alternate channel was unpowered.
Phase is correct, as it was one of the first things I checked, as are the connections.
I can put my little VSA VR-1s back in the loop, but I'm not sure that they go deep enough. I can also connect my cdp directly to my Dodd monoblocks to at least rule out the preamp.
That just reminded me....I used to run off the 4ohm taps on the Dodds, now they are on the 8ohm...hmmmm, could that kill my lowest two octaves?
I am leaning Grant's way here (on the driver or crossover perspective; I know it's not my system, since it was also used on my Andra IIs)...I only agree with you on the "can't gain 15db during break-in" statement, and not on the room issues. If it were a room issue (it's not, since my Andra IIs, similiar bass driver configuration) in the exact same spot had plenty of low bass at 30 and 40 Hz.
Well, having that addition info, I tend to agree. OTOH, it is hard to imagine that both speakers had the same malfunction. Is there any difference between them, tested individually?
While this may not be an acoustics problem, it sure ain't gonna be cured by break in.
It really sounds like you are sitting in a bass null, have you used the rives calculators? Have you moved around the room with the sound pressure meter.
The Rat Shack meter is not accurate at 20hz also, so I assume you are using the Rives Test disk to help compensate?
Have you considered that just the bass drivers, or just one of the bass drivers is out of phase. I've had that before from a 'high end manufacturer' and couldn't find the problem myself and had to send it back for repairs. I'd contact Eggleston and ask them for help- isn't that why we pay the big bucks?
The traditional way to break in a peaker is to play a fequency sweep or noise or a radio station with the speakers facing each other and cover them with a blanket and crank it. Do that for a couple of days. If you think I am kiddig look at reviewers techniqies . I disagree with these others some speakers need pretty high volumes to sound good. If you don't like the sound at 80-85 db,you may be proud but they are not for you. Also I think the Classe I own a 25 aroe are your budget sound awful.
I agree that it sounds like one of the bass drivers may be wired out of phase. Testing a single speaker at a time will instantly tell you if this is the case.
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