hello there, i need help i just bought a system, it consists of a soundlab 800 a set of soundlab speakers and a set of soundlab bass bins, what i need help with is connecting it all up, i have been told to connect the bass bins up to the amp, the top speakers to the bass bins, i have done it like that, next i'm connecting a cd player to the amp (cant afford a mixer at the mo) the lead i used was a 1/4 jack with 2 phono plugs on the other end, i connected it to the left hand side got music out of the left hand speaker, none on the right connected up to right side got sound from the right not the left this might be a silly question but is that normal? if so how do i get music out of both sides also i noticed that there was music coming out of the bass bins very stiffled am i supposed to hear music coming out of them if not y is it doing that and how do i sort it out sorry to be a pest but i havent got a clue lol thanks for any help and advice


mark

I think, if Im understanding the description correctly, that you need to replace the:

One lead that has 2 x Phono's to a single 1/4inch jack lead.



with...


2 x single phono to single 1/4inch jack leads.


or...

A pair of normal phono-phono leads (probably in the box with the CD-player), and a pair of single Phono to 1/4 inch jack ADAPTORS.


I've not come across any amplifier which uses a Stereo 1/4inch jack socket for music input, therefore you getting some CD player music coming out of the left hand speaker when you plug it into the left amp input etc...




As for the Bass speaker sounding muffled. Well, if you mean that the sound coming out of it was just the very low, deep notes and no midrange or treble, then that seems to be fine. The other cabinets/speakers which you have should either be full range (eg: They give out Treble, Midrange, and Bass), or they could be Mid-Hi cabs, which simply dont play any bass...they let the bass bins provide that.

I have read, re-read and re-re-read and I think Gary is correct.

Yep our Technical Guru Gary is spot on again .

BTW:- The sound coming from Bass Bins will never actually sound as loud and clear as that coming from a full range set, purely because the Bass Bins only reproduce the Bass frequencies of the music, which will sound dull without the Treble .

I would also advise that you buy a mixer as soon as financies allow, even if its only a 2nd hand or basic one. By bypassing the mixer you are losing control over the amount of Bass & Mid & Treble Frequencies that come from the speakers so it will sound "flat" especially if you intend to use the system in a venue or hall. Plugging in a CD Player directly into Amp is not ideal for the long term.

thanks guys i'll try everything suggested, the only reason i plugged cd player directly to was to see if speakers were working ok i guess so, i'll invest in a mixer as soon as lol (any help and advice on mixers would be great, i need one thats suitable for karaoke and one that good value for money) thanks for your help and advice and for such a newbie too (blushes) thanks

hmmm a mixer thats suitable for Karaoke huh?

Well, If I were adding Karaoke to my Disco, I would simply use one spare input (If I had one!) and run a seperate mini-mixer (sub-mixer) from the Karaoke gear. The sub-mixer would have the audio of the 2 Karaoke CDG/DVD players feeding into it. As for the punters/singers mics, I would either plug those into the CDG players (as most models seem to offer mic inputs), or run mics into the sub-mixer.

Either way, the whole sub-mixer would then just have two phono leads (Left & right) running into my main/ordinary mixer.

One cost effective(?) route that you can take for playback of Karaoke CDG's is use the Citronic KD-1, a £100 (ish...see Chris for best price) device which plugs into the digital output of most CD-Decks (EXCEPT Pioneer, who dont use true sub-layered digital outs on their CDJ range). The KD-1, then displays the graphic part of the CDG disc (including the colour changing lyrics, and dodgy background film footage) out to your TV monitors.

Alternatively, I've seen more and more Karaoke tracks/albums appearing on DVD, which obviously then just needs a nice £50 DVD deck to play both music and video from.

A good mixer for Karaoke and Disco use is the "SOUNDLAB "FISSION" MIXER " which I bought from Chris's sales site , I have no complaints about this mixer , "hmm well maybe a couple " , it could do with a switch for the DJ mike and a talk over.

The mixer is on offer cheaper than I paid earlier in the year

Yes, the Soundlab does lack the useful feature of a mic talkover, but their argument is that it is a Karaoke mixer so why should it have ducking on the Mic Channels....Hmmmm Okay .

An Alternative to the Fission, but a few £££'s more expensive, is the Citronic CDM10:4DSP which also has both Digital Echo & Effects (A must for Karaoke!) but also has the very useful talkover option.

Another advantage of the Soundlab Fission is a switchable video output so that you can either use the Soundlab Dual CDG Player, or two seperate CDG / VCD Players, and the mixer allows you to switch between them to one monitor!.

The features required for Karaoke (DSP etc) means that there is not really a budget option for instance under £100 like there is on DJ mixers.