Boomy Subs

[mulester7]

......guys, what causes this animal to rise up and cause us grief?....my McIntosh pre-amp has one set of tone controls....bass and treble....when I have the bass tone control higher than flat, boominess in the subs can occur from the increase of the bass tone control passed along to the sub signal....what about surround receivers?....when you increase the bass tone controls to the main's regiment, does it add the same increase in bass tone control to the sub-out signal?....to me, this would be the prime cause for boominess in a sub....another cause for the sub to go boomy would, of course, be placement....some subs are better off to not be in a corner....thoughts?......

 

[j_garcia]

I leave all my tone controls flat or bypassed. Tone controls for receivers are generally global, affecting all channels including the LFE in most cases. There are a few exceptions.

Boomy starts with the sub, but room placement can be a BIG factor as well. It usually involves a sloppy driver that has to be overdriven to achieve good SPLs and a cabinet that is less than adequately optimized to take advantage of the driver. The definition of boomy to me is when every note sounds the same; there is no definition to individual tones.

 

[Sheep]

Mine only affect my mains. I have an RX-V440 for reference. Subwoofer gets boosted in the menu.


SheepStar

 

[j_garcia]

Not talking level adjustment, just bass boost via tone controls. Some receivers have a bass boost "feature" (which should be turned off, IMHO), is that what you're talking about Sheep? I've installed the RX-V640 and I don't remember a bass boost.

 

[Sheep]

Not talking level adjustment, just bass boost via tone controls. Some receivers have a bass boost "feature" (which should be turned off, IMHO), is that what you're talking about Sheep? I've installed the RX-V640 and I don't remember a bass boost.

No, I meant level control. But it can reduce and boost the subwoofer output. Not a tone control though.


SheepStar

 

[3db]

Just a thought

......guys, what causes this animal to rise up and cause us grief?....my McIntosh pre-amp has one set of tone controls....bass and treble....when I have the bass tone control higher than flat, boominess in the subs can occur from the increase of the bass tone control passed along to the sub signal....what about surround receivers?....when you increase the bass tone controls to the main's regiment, does it add the same increase in bass tone control to the sub-out signal?....to me, this would be the prime cause for boominess in a sub....another cause for the sub to go boomy would, of course, be placement....some subs are better off to not be in a corner....thoughts?......

Have you connected your sub via the line level outputs of your receiver and then running your mains through the lowpass filter of outputs of the sub? This could explain why when using your tone controls that the sub gets boomy. The only thing I can suggest is moving the sub from its present location out into the room or playing with the sub's level control.

 

[Sheep]

Have you connected your sub via the line level outputs of your receiver and then running your mains through the lowpass filter of outputs of the sub? This could explain why when using your tone controls that the sub gets boomy. The only thing I can suggest is moving the sub from its present location out into the room or playing with the sub's level control.

you might wanna see what subs hes got.

http://www.svsubwoofers.com/subs_b12_plus_4.htm

2 of these. Moving them around is not a "small" task. They are also passive, so hes got amps hooked up to them via, something. What are they hooked up to Mule?

SheepStar

 

[3db]

I was of the other thought

I leave all my tone controls flat or bypassed. Tone controls for receivers are generally global, affecting all channels including the LFE in most cases. There are a few exceptions.

Boomy starts with the sub, but room placement can be a BIG factor as well. It usually involves a sloppy driver that has to be overdriven to achieve good SPLs and a cabinet that is less than adequately optimized to take advantage of the driver. The definition of boomy to me is when every note sounds the same; there is no definition to individual tones.

That receiver's tone controls only affect the L/R and not all other channels. At least this is the case for my Technics A/V receiver

 

[3db]

you might wanna see what subs hes got.

http://www.svsubwoofers.com/subs_b12_plus_4.htm

2 of these. Moving them around is not a "small" task. They are also passive, so hes not amps hooked up to them via, something. What are they hooked up to Mule?

SheepStar

Well if its a passive sub, then he's running them thru the line level outputs, ie speaker outputs, in which case is yeah.. the tone control will affect the signal going to his sub. I run my active sub thru the LFE output of my A/V receiver and tone controls do not affect this. I don't know how he's going to be able to fix the boominess. I guess moving his subs maybe be his only option as hard as it maybe.