RTR 280DR - what would you do?

[OddLot]

Hey Tom, everyone,

Check out these speakers.  I hooked them up to my Pioneer SX750, which is normally combined with 2 JBL L40's that I got in Pittsburgh, and which are awesome.  Anyway, the RTR's sound good with the only exception being very little bass.  The highs are very clear.  Is this a case where a different amp would better drive these - note each speaker has 4 woofers..  Would you experiment with hooking up all 4 speakers (ie the JBLs and the RTRs) to the Pioneer?  Just curious if anyone has thoughts on these - I include pictures of the speaker with cover on, cover off, of the back, and finally of the Pioneer amp.

Andy

[OCCD]

With the added info, I would be checking the x-overs. They may need rebuilt. You should get good bass out of those.

[Falcon]

The obvious thing is make sure they are hooked correctly.  Even the best audio geeks make that mistake sometimes!!  If they are correctly in phase, do like OCCD said and rebuild the crossovers, it is simple to do, and not a whole lot of money..  Those old caps dry out, and the low frequency's are gone.   
  Cool speakers!!

[OldiesButGoodies]

Like Falcon says try reversing the polarity on the wire going to one of the speaker terminals just to see if it is a phase issue. Then look at recapping the cross-overs (using the usual sources,  Partsexpress.som, etc., for parts)

I recommend you do all of this very slowly, 70% of the fun in this hobby is in fixing your setup.  Once you get it all sounding right you listen to it for a couple of months, posting to the "what are you listening to right now?" thread.  Ever so slowly you then discover an unexplainable need to upgrade or change some parts or the whole setup.  That is when you have visit Tom's store on a Saturday afternoon,  and the cycle begins again.
 

[OddLot]

my bad - the polarity was switched.  i thought i'd been careful, but it was dark when i set them up.  thanks for the suggestion.  they still don't have the bass of the JBL's, but sound nice in their own way.  great detail in the mid to highs.  speaking of the crossovers - and i am sorry to sound like an idiot - but are those knobs on the back just like volume controls for specific frequencies?  they are twisted all the way right (clockwise) - is that where they should be?  also, have you ever seen a reset button on the back of a speaker?  i had not.  does anyone know what that does?

[MWM]

Andy,

Do you still have your 280dr's

[OddLot]

yes i do still have them.  wife wants me to sell them.  the Carver amp I was running them with had a problem - got stuck on a very high volume - don't know why.  so its all been in a closet for several months now.

[MacGeek]

The knobs are intended to function like tone controls.  With two, one is probably for the highs and the other for mid-range.  The reset button is to reset the circuit breaker that protects the x-over and/or drivers from over driving the system and/or DC leakage.

If anyone has ever serviced the systems or been inside the cabinet, is it possible one or more of the four woofers may be mis-wired, or out of phase with the others, hampering bass output?  It might be fun to deliberately flip the polarity of one or more of the woofers to hear if there is any improvement or degradation of the sound.   I suggest keeping detailed notes if this notion is pursued.  Just a thought............