Helped set up the son inlaw's system

[3db]

My son inlaw's system except for the display are components I gave him. The amp is a Yamaha RX-V1800 AVR rated conservatively at a 130 Watts/per channel when driving only two channels full bandwidth into 8 ohms. Its a 7 channel amp. I think its was produced in 2008. He has a Panasonic 720P plasma display, a Roku stream stick, and a Bluetooth to analog out converter connected to it. The main speakers are the orginal PSB Alpha, PSB Alpha center channel, and the surrounds are PSB Alpha Minis. There are two subs connected to it, a PSB Subsonic 5 which is a dual port 10" driver, and an Energy S8 single port 8" driver designs.

The initial set up looked like this.

The full frequency response of the initial setup

I did not have my laptop and measurement MIC when we first set up the system.

 

[3db]

After moving both subs around and playing with phase, I determined that the best sub locations are as shown

Notice that both subs are now oriented with the drivers facing one another. The Energy sub was placed in the corner. Here is the in room sub responses.

At this point I ran Yamaha's YPAO room correction facility to integrate the remaining speakers with the sub into the room. YPAO put the virtual sub at 12.5 feet from the mic. I then ran a full frequency to see how it looked

There's a nasty notch happening between 65 and 150 Hz. I fixed this by playiing with the distance that YPAO had set and I found by trial and measurment that the best integrated response occured with the sub distance set to 8.5 feet as shown below

The room is an acoustic mess with bare walls, bare concrete floor, and duct work. The only thing sort of helping is that its an open ceiling. Its a bit too much for the earlier versions of YPAO to handle effectively. I set the EQ on YPAO to try and give a flat response.

Just to make it easier, I'll post full frequency response before and after today's work. There is no minidsp used here.

Before:

After

I bumped up the volume of the subs on the AVR side soit effects both subs equally to try and get a Harmon curve.. The red trace is where PEQ has been set to flat, speakers to small, bass sent to subs only,crossover at 90Hz, sub distance is 8.5 feet. The green trace is with PEQ turned off, mains set to large, bass sent to both sub and mains, crossover at 90 HZ, and isub distance set 14.5 feet.

 

[Bobby Bass]

After moving both subs around and playing with phase, I determined that the best sub locations are as shown View attachment 62339View attachment 62338

Notice that both subs are now oriented with the drivers facing one another. The Energy sub was placed in the corner. Here is the in room sub responses.
View attachment 62343

At this point I ran Yamaha's YPAO room correction facility to integrate the remaining speakers with the sub into the room. YPAO put the virtual sub at 12.5 feet from the mic. I then ran a full frequency to see how it looked
View attachment 62341
There's a nasty notch happening between 65 and 150 Hz. I fixed this by playiing with the distance that YPAO had set and I found by trial and measurment that the best integrated response occured with the sub distance set to 8.5 feet as shown below
View attachment 62340

The room is an acoustic mess with bare walls, bare concrete floor, and duct work. The only thing sort of helping is that its an open ceiling. Its a bit too much for the earlier versions of YPAO to handle effectively. I set the EQ on YPAO to try and give a flat response.

Just to make it easier, I'll post full frequency response before and after today's work. There is no minidsp used here.

Before:
View attachment 62344
After
View attachment 62340

I bumped up the volume of the subs on the AVR side soit effects both subs equally to try and get a Harmon curve.. The red trace is where PEQ has been set to flat, speakers to small, bass sent to subs only,crossover at 90Hz, sub distance is 8.5 feet. The green trace is with PEQ turned off, mains set to large, bass sent to both sub and mains, crossover at 90 HZ, and isub distance set 14.5 feet.
View attachment 62342

Looks great and from your measurements I’m sure it sounds great too. Lucky guy and kudos to you for paying it forward. Always enjoy helping out family or friends passing on old equipment and/or setting up systems. Found an old pair of Cambridge SoundWorks M50 bookshelf speakers in light maple at a yard sale last weekend. cleaned them up and checked them out and gave to my friend that has an old system. Texted me last night that he loves the new sound.

 

[3db]

I spent Halloween until Sunday morning at my daughter's place. I brought the PSB Subsonic 2 that I saved from the landfill and replaced the 8" Energy sub that was there. I kinda plunked it on the right side of the system without taking measurements and it seemed to work really well there. I then cleaned up the wiring on the system first

Before shot

After shot

 

[3db]

Now here are the rest of pics of my daughter's/son-inlaw basement room

 

[3db]

Here the measurements that confirm that the placement of the subsonic 2 works well.

Some background information/definitions is required before I post the measurements. Music Mode is the AVR (Yamaha RX-V1800) set to run the the front L+R speakers (PSB Alphas) full range in conjunction with the subs with no room correction employed (YPAO for Yamaha) by the AVR . Movie Mode is the AVR set to run the front L+R speakers crossed over at 80Hz with YPAO set to flat) To measure the output with the AVR set to Pure DIrect (no YPAO and no subs) I had to manually turn off the subs.

First the sub responses only. With only the Subsonic 5 running, one can see a deep notch in the 55Hz region. With only the Subsonic 2 running, there's a very deep notch around 110Hz. With both subs running, the notch at 55 Hz is gone and the notch at 110Hz is also gone, There is a notch at 105 Hz but the PSB Alpha's will fill that in as shown next.

Full frequency sweeps running. Same idea as above. Subsonic 5 only, then Subsonic 2 only, and finally both Subsonic 5+2 subs running. As you can see the PSB Alphas took away that notch around 105 Hz.

Next graph shows just how much the subs enhance the bass. The purple trace is music mode with the two subs engaged along with the PSB Alphas. The pink trace is just the output of the PSB Alphas with the subs powered off. The AVR model is old and engaging the Pure Direct on the AVR turned off the ability to run measurements. I simulated by powering off the subs.

The last graph shows the difference between Music and Movie modes with both subs running.

 

[3db]

I helped my son-inlaw staple landscape barrier to the ceiling of his basement to help stop the dust from dropping everywhere. Because he's renting the house from the Canadian military, he's not able to put something permanent up like a drop or dry wall ceiling, hence the landscape fabric.

Here are some pics

Below shows how much crud falls down from the unprotected ceiling.

Shots of the room once the overhead lights are off.