Finnish subwoofer shootouts

[mulester7]

Now the PB10 seems to be a good compromise for this. It seems to extend pretty flat out to 100 or so, yet maintain the low end pretty well. Good sub.

.....and a 10 inch woofer cone emits a wonderful voice on the top of it's range, Mac.....

 

[Ilkka]

Eugene, I believe the 2nd pic is the ISD and ultra. The third pic is the plus and ISD. If i remember right the ISD has a stamped steel frame and the plus/ultra have alum frames.

Nope, second pic is Plus and Ultra. Plus has a steel frame.

 

[Ilkka]

Ilkka,
I think you did a nice job on the measurements.

One thing I did notice that seems to hold true to my listening tests of the SVS units. They all seem to start to peter out ~50Hz (-6db point was around there for most of the measurements). When we went and listened to them, this was the impression I got. I would also like to say that I do strongly recommend the SVS for HT use, but if you want to do serious music listening, you are going to need a pair of loudspeakers capable of going down to~40Hz to use these subs, and make the integration seamless. I simply do not believe these subs work well with smallish loudspeakers (small towers, bookshelves etc.) Now the PB10 seems to be a good compromise for this. It seems to extend pretty flat out to 100 or so, yet maintain the low end pretty well. Good sub.

I would say they have a boost below 50 Hz, not a dip above it. One almost definitely needs some PEQ with the bigger SVS subs. Otherwise the low end is too bloated and sounds too strong. But one basically needs a one wide filter at around 20-30 Hz to bring that FR down. Usually the built in PEQ in Ultra series is enough. Plus users do need some external unit like BFD or SMS-1.

 

[MacManNM]

Nope, second pic is Plus and Ultra. Plus has a steel frame.

I guess memory doesnt quite serve anymore, you and eugene are correct.

 

[MacManNM]

I would say they have a boost below 50 Hz, not a dip above it. One almost definitely needs some PEQ with the bigger SVS subs. Otherwise the low end is too bloated and sounds too strong. But one basically needs a one wide filter at around 20-30 Hz to bring that FR down. Usually the built in PEQ in Ultra series is enough. Plus users do need some external unit like BFD or SMS-1.

Well if you look at this data you took, it is pretty flat from about 18 to 50, if those were the 3db points.

 

[Ilkka]

Well if you look at this data you took, it is pretty flat from about 18 to 50, if those were the 3db points.

Yes, one can say the FR slopes above 40 Hz or it has a very wide bump in 20 Hz- 60 Hz range.

But it is almost certain that one needs to apply some PEQ for that low end, otherwise it will get boosted too much when the room gain boosts it even more. Usually even that built-in PEQ helps a lot. I don't recommend more than 5-6 dB house curve for the movies (rise from 80 Hz to 20 Hz).