What should I do with my Sub?

clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
I'm literally doing that right now, just trying to find a long enough cable, I know I have a good quality one some where from before I moved. /digging in boxes.
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
If you're watching a movie at 2AM... she won't just be angry, she will be the Dark Side of the Force! :p
To give you an idea, I turned this all on, finally for the first time last night at about 12:00 am. Baby was sleeping so I was being careful to do some testing. After turning it up, going upstairs over and over... I got to a point I was doing a rattle test on the wall using the sub.

I'd like to report not a single rattle I could hear anywhere and baby was not disturbed. I finished my testing at around 1am.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I'm literally doing that right now, just trying to find a long enough cable, I know I have a good quality one some where from before I moved. /digging in boxes.
I say take a little time, maybe even do another calibration by running a setup routine so you can have a good idea of how good it really can sound. Then go throughout the house and see if you notice it being any louder in any of the other rooms.

Another consideration for late night watching or for the baby's sake, there's usually a LFC or dynamic volume setting in most avrs that do help contain some of the bass. It doesn't always sound the best, but for the baby...
 
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Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
To give you an idea, I turned this all on, finally for the first time last night at about 12:00 am. Baby was sleeping so I was being careful to do some testing. After turning it up, going upstairs over and over... I got to a point I was doing a rattle test on the wall using the sub.

I'd like to report not a single rattle I could hear anywhere and baby was not disturbed. I finished my testing at around 1am.
Not a single rattle.? That tells me you aren't trying very hard. ( :)).
When I was testing my new Monoprice sub, I started hearing rattles I couldn't quite figure out when I was thumping the volume. I searched all over my music room and couldn't locate the source.
Long story short: my rattles were from picture frames hanging in the hallway OUTSIDE my music room.
Those dudes were hanging on for dear life down the hall.

My door in to the music room also became a sounding baffle : it made a really weird racket at just the right frequency and SPL. I had to weatherstrip the doorframe.

If you have zero rattles, I think you need some more db! More cowbell !!
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
OK sooo. none of you will believe me when I say this.. So I want to try and see if I can record it in a way that you can tell.. May not be possible..

But when I removed my sub from the box it lost ALL power. I turned it up to 75% and it still sounded super week. I was seriously worried that when I moved it it somehow broke it, I even swapped out the cables thinking maybe that's why.

As soon as I put it back in to the box.. It was booming again, turned it back to 45-50% and it's doing a lot more then at 75%.

Explanations, thoughts?
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
I think you need some more db! More cowbell !!
LOL I agree with you! However I do like my ears so I keep my sub at about 35-50% even when listening to music and watching movies. I did turn it up to about 80% I refuse to bring it to 100% I rather not damage my gear for this test.

My room is kinda larger so I did not have the door issue, also all my pics I have 3M taped down on all 4 corners :) I used about a gallon of wood glue and a lot of rubber nails and large screws when I built this wall. Vibration was a concerns of mine from day one. Few things can make even a 400K sound system sound like crap like some rattle somewhere.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
OK sooo. none of you will believe me when I say this.. So I want to try and see if I can record it in a way that you can tell.. May not be possible..

But when I removed my sub from the box it lost ALL power. I turned it up to 75% and it still sounded super week. I was seriously worried that when I moved it it somehow broke it, I even swapped out the cables thinking maybe that's why.

As soon as I put it back in to the box.. It was booming again, turned it back to 45-50% and it's doing a lot more then at 75%.

Explanations, thoughts?
Not too hard to believe, really.

I think your description of "booming" is probably spot on. The way you have it in there I'm sure some frequencies are greatly exaggerated and that would make it sound louder. At what frequency that is, is a guess. Point is I think you're working with a distorted and/or very uneven frequency response. I'm sure it's louder but I'm also sure it's probably a pretty ugly looking (and one-note boomy) response.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Not too hard to believe, really.

I think your description of "booming" is probably spot on. The way you have it in there I'm sure some frequencies are greatly exaggerated and that would make it sound louder. At what frequency that is, is a guess. Point is I think you're working with a distorted and/or very uneven frequency response. I'm sure it's louder but I'm also sure it's probably a pretty ugly looking (and one-note boomy) response.
I’ll add that I doubt it was recalibrated either.

When the level was set for being in a closet(front wall thingy), the gain was backed off since the tiny area probably forced some cabin gain. Like in a car...
Then when pulled out, the gain needs to be turned up to stay level matched. And like you said, I’m sure the passband was narrowed dramatically and emphasized.
Just a hunch.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I’ll add that I doubt it was recalibrated either.

When the level was set for being in a closet(front wall thingy), the gain was backed off since the tiny area probably forced some cabin gain. Like in a car...
Then when pulled out, the gain needs to be turned up to stay level matched. And like you said, I’m sure the passband was narrowed dramatically and emphasized.
Just a hunch.
Especially when you tweak the level of the sub with the gain control on the sub by "percentage" :)
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
I see where you're going with that and I'm sure when I take the time to do that it will help a lot. But to save LOTS of time for now, I created a new scene before I moved it and using that. Comparing default to default, I know this is lazy of me and I should take the time to calibrate each time I move.

Question
Can/Should I use the umik-1 I ordered today to better calibrate vs the mic it came with?
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
Especially when you tweak the level of the sub with the gain control on the sub by "percentage" :)
I'm leaving the gain control at .5, I'm talking about the volume knob on the sub.

I normally set it to 50% and then mess with it on the pre-amp. Is there a different recommended setting?

I think I got this from the setup guides saying set to 50% before calibration.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'm leaving the gain control at .5, I'm talking about the volume knob on the sub.

I normally set it to 50% and then mess with it on the pre-amp. Is there a different recommended setting?

I think I got this from the setup guides saying set to 50% before calibration.
I'm just yanking your chain a bit. I've never seen a sub with both a volume control and a gain control, as they're one and the same on active subs. It's just a way of matching up to your pre-out voltage level (and to match up with your speakers). Any suggestion of a starting point is going to be very general as the controls vary, as does amp sensitivity, from sub amp to sub amp. I'd generally say set the levels properly and then any tweaking with the pre-amp's sub trim level control rather than the gain on the sub's amp. What particularly is set to .5?
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
I did type gain control.... Crap I was thinking Q control.. but typed gain... brain vs typing sync error.
that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
Ok, after moving the sub around and playing different test sounds... I get what you guys are saying. I found that piratical frequency that caused issues to really show, around 30hz. It was clear a night and day. It's almost like I could hear the high pressure build up between the cone and the wall as the sub would start to struggle against it's own power.

I did notice that this issue did not accrue in most of the music I like, (not a dub-step fan) as base drops would be impact-full but short allowing the pressure to dissipate before the next hit.


Still playing with finding the correct place.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
This has all made my head spin. You have done a nice neat installation, but the speakers you have used are not designed to work that way.

If you are going to build a system in like that, then you have to have speakers that are designed to work that way.

The biggest problem I see is the subs, that are not going to produce accurate sound in that arrangement.

Those Klipsch speakers are not designed for that application either, as you have upset the full space half space transition. So I would imagine is has made them bass heavy.

For a system like that all the speakers need to be designed for such an application. Commercial speakers are not. It really comes down to the fact the speakers need to be custom. Even then you can reinforcement from the reflected wave from the wall at the lower frequencies which is hard to tame.

I have done a design and build for my wife and had hours of work into the design. It is designed to work in a wall from the ground up. It is a system we actually use a lot and my wife loves it.

You can see the design approach, construction and measurements here. We have really enjoyed this system as well as the theater upstairs especially during this lock down.

You seem to posses excellent aesthetic design and constructional skills and look like an excellent candidate to learn to design and build unique systems.
The point is that having to use off the shelf equipment really limits the possibilities and performance of an endeavor such as yours.
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
Very clean system, how deep did you push that wall out or did you take up space in what ever is behind it?

I don't have any paint brushes so I'm going to finish it up tomorrow after a trip to Lowes.
 

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TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Very clean system, how deep did you push that wall out or did you take up space in what ever is behind it?

I don't have any paint brushes so I'm going to finish it up tomorrow after a trip to Lowes.
I used the space between the fireplace breast and kitchen.
 
clamatowas

clamatowas

Junior Audioholic
Do you have pictures or a post showing the physical build? I'd like to see your construction technique.
 
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