Hello all
Sorry I have not touched back. I have been busy with some commitment weekend activities and also managed to enjoy the E3s. So let me say a few things here to clear up some things.
It may get lengthy, but hopefully it will all make sense.
First and foremost, the way I have been using the E3s since getting them at its default knob settings on the plate amp, with a crossover rebuild - up until my original post here - the E3s sound wonderful - even if it sounds as if I were using it as a bookshelf speaker with small subwoofer bass output. Credit Jim and his crew for creating and building one of the finest speakers in the world as his flagship speaker. I left the knob settings as they were as I received the speakers some months back, since I tend to be conservative (or liberal - pending on my mood) with the bass settings . Since I have been enjoying the sound, I had no reason to make any changes. Until I replaced the crossovers in my SS8, and noticed tremendous differences between the two speakers in the bass department.
One of the first things I did after starting this thread is to see why I do not notice much bass in my E3s despite the fact, I can hear the woofers working. So one night - after powering off the power amp that is connected to the E3s for the night, I connected my ipad to the line input on the plate amp, and played back a movie trailer on youtube. Sure enough the bass was there, but it was nothing compared to the SS8. So before doing anything else - after disconnecting the ipad from the line input on the plate amp, I decided to open this post and get the viewpoints of others on how their E3s are performing with the settings on their plate amps. Good thing I did too, because I don't want to mess with any of the knob settings on the E3s.
After digesting some of your input, and before going any further - the very next night I switched the Bass Extension from Low to High. I used broadcast television programming as source material and noticed an increase with bass presence, which sounded very pleasant. I continued to listen to the program I had on throughout the night - so we know at this point that the plate amps and the drivers are working as they should. I still was gathering input from everyone here, including Jim Salk, to see what everyone thought of the image I posted containing the settings that I had on the plate amp.
Of course everyone chimed in and agreed unanimously that the volume setting was too low at the 10 o clock position. So the next night, I turned it up to nearly 12 o clock - 5 positions up from the current settings I had on each speaker (and switched back to low on the Bass Extension) and of course, the bass output is no longer shy - forcing me to drop the bass setting on my preamp from 0 to -3. I have since dialed down the bass 2 clicks on each speaker.
So now, I am happy. But of course now I have another bass question, which is being forced thanks to having an SS8 to compare to, which I will open another post for later on today.
Thanks much everyone !!!