snaxo settings

Posted by: howard karbel on 13 January 2002

For those of you who are driving SBL's actively and are using a CDSII, 52 and Snaxo, I am curious as to the settings on the Snaxo. I have experimented some and have finally settled on the factory settings but have heard that many think the CDS is a touch bright and have turned down the high frequency on the Snaxo. What has been your experience.
Posted on: 13 January 2002 by ken c
the whole point of the snaxo is to allow you to tune the sound to your room acoustics, so other snaxo owners' settings may not be of much use to you. having said that, on mine, bass is slightly less than factory setting (unfortunately there are no graduation marks on the trim pots) and treble is flat. this nicely cured the tendency for the sbl's to boom a little in my office -- because there are not as far from the corners as perhaps they should be.

i found it very hard to adjust these pots (i cannot begin to imagine how it would be with a 3 way ststem!!) but once i got it, it was a real "sweet spot" sort of thing.

i hope you manage to find the setting that is suitable for your room. do let us know.

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by J.N.
Howard,

I have CDS2 - 52 - 250's into active SBL's and have not altered the default, factory settings.

It sounds about right to me, but of course depends on your room 'acoustic'.

There's no right and wrong, however and like most things, it's down to personal choice.

Just don't get into the paranoia of leaving the case off permanently to adjust it for every CD you play.

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by Ron Toolsie
quote:
Just don't get into the paranoia of leaving the case off permanently to adjust it for every CD you play.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by Steve Crouch
I've heard that it sounds better with its lid off. Ron, put your lid back on and let us know what you think!

I'm quite interested in having a fiddle now that it has had time to warm up over the last 8 weeks. Are the pots labelled and how far do you turn round?

Steve

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by ken c
Are the pots labelled and how far do you turn round?

steve, the trim pots are labelled, but unfortunately not graduated.

watch out, a very small change to the settings can have a surprisingly large impact.

when i achieved the sweet spot, the inclination to want to adjust them simply vanished -- it simply "felt" right.

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by Thomas K
Strangely, when I opened my SNAXO (bought new), the factory settings looked anything but flat, i.e. they were not at the 12 o'clock position. Sounded flat (and good), though.

Thomas

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by howard karbel
Ken,
I agree, room acoustics have their effects and of course personal choice is critical. I was just curious if anyone found the CDSII a bit brighter than analog and therefore made adjustments. After fiddling around for a couple of weeks, I finally settled on the factory settings because anlalog sounded great and I didn't really feel the CDS was too bright. You are quite right that even the slightest little adjustment can have significant effect and I also wish there were some markings to help the adjustment. Luckily for me, my snaxo is down the basement with the power and my sources are upstairs so I cannot be tempted to run it with the cover off and keep making adjustments. Thanks for all the responses. The paranoia is waning....
Posted on: 13 January 2002 by Martin Payne
quote:
Originally posted by howard karbel:
...but have heard that many think the CDS is a touch bright and have turned down the high frequency on the Snaxo.


Howard,

of the half-dozen or so CDSII systems I've heard on a regular basis, none of them sound bright. On first hearing I actually thought it sounded dull (compared to the CDX/XPS it replaced), but now I just think it sounds fine - includingwith SBLs.

It is my personal feeling that speakers should be setup so that they sound good on the flat settings. I don't think that a poor setup with compensating SNAXO settings is as good as not having to compensate. Generally these imbalances are caused by excessive reverberation, which will be causing some confusion to the sound.

Ken,

cutting the bass/mid pot will have the equivalent effect of increasing the treble, I.E. all frequencies up through the midrange will be depressed.

I have always found with Briks (three way, yes a bugger to adjust) that adjusting just the bass (rather than bass & mid together) will always make the lower midrange sound wrong. Same goes for treble, anything other than flat makes the crossover regions sound wrong.

It will be interesting to see if the same holds true of the DBL. But since I see this as something of a last resort, I don't expect to be trying this for at least a few months.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by David Dever
quote:
Strangely, when I opened my SNAXO (bought new), the factory settings looked anything but flat, i.e. they were not at the 12 o'clock position.

The "flat" position varies depending on the crossover (speaker model, NAXO / SNAXO of whatever vintage) and the band in question (referenced to input, these might be as different as:

-2.4 dB HF
-4.7 dB MF
-4.7 dB LF

for example--and the potentiometers' physical positions may be different at the same setting from channel to channel, unit-to-unit.

I typically make gradual adjustments by ear after setting up the speakers, then measure the settings, noting the deltas from "flat", adjust accordingly and exactly from side to side (the Audio Precision ATS-1 on my desk displays .01 dB increments at a 2.5V reference level), which is difficult to achieve by adjusting by hand and "by ear".

Dave Dever

[This message was edited by David Dever on SUNDAY 13 January 2002 at 21:33.]

Posted on: 14 January 2002 by Thomas K
Thanks.

Thomas

Posted on: 14 January 2002 by ken c
martin,

cutting the bass/mid pot will have the equivalent effect of increasing the treble, I.E. all frequencies up through the midrange will be depressed.

what i was told, makes sense in theory, but i had some difficulty achieving making it work in practice. to get the sweet spot, i found i had to directly adjust both pots. by the way, thanks for your advice to leave the snaxo caseless while doing the adjustments. it took me listening to quite a few records before i got it right -- but when i got it, the system just felt "right"...

lucky americans have people like dave d who can make these adjustments more precisely and presumably much faster. in a lot of cases, i sort of suspect the "flat" setting, which on my snaxo is a marker pen line, will be OK ... ish..

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 14 January 2002 by bob atherton
I use a SNAXO with IBL's, no factory setting here! Set the bass pots to maximum & mix the HF to suit. Took me a few days to get the right balance.

For me the big thing is to use the SNAXO without it's case. With case IMHO the sound becomes a bit wooden & shut in. YMMV.

Bob.

Posted on: 14 January 2002 by Thomas K
How do you prevent the PCB from becoming all dusty, though? Or is there no need to worry about that?

Thomas

Posted on: 14 January 2002 by ken c
How do you prevent the PCB from becoming all dusty, though? Or is there no need to worry about that?

during the 2 or 3 days that i had mine open, i made a cardboard cutout that just covered the internals and minimise dust. whether this makes any difference or not, i just didnt want any gremlins in there. also the cardboard was strong enough to take the impact of anything falling from my huge bookshelf just about the hifi.


enjoy

ken

ken