Need a Sub to finish off system. Help me with last piece

[Tomorrow]

LOL, another satisfied BB customer.

Good work, Einsteinjb and good final choice. Your doing your research in the right way. I expect a call from Dr. Hsu himself, tomorrow, to assist me in my acquisition...STF-2 or -3. As an aside, I'll ask him his opinion concerning the auto-on feature causing premature sub-death. News at 6.

 

[Tomorrow]

LOL, another satisfied BB customer.

Good work, Einsteinjb and good final choice. Your doing your research in the right way. I expect a call from Dr. Hsu himself, tomorrow, to assist me in my acquisition...STF-2 or -3. As an aside, I'll ask him his opinion concerning the auto-on feature causing premature sub-death. News at 6.

My BAD! I talked with him today and FORGOT this question. (That old age thing again!) I'm so sorry. He told me I needed the STF-3 for my situation. I got so excited about talking with him and ordering one, that I forgot to ask.

There are subwoofer manufacturing representatives on this forum. Perhaps they will give us their $.02 on premature sub-demise.

 

[einsteinjb]

Dr. Hsu

My BAD! I talked with him today and FORGOT this question. (That old age thing again!) I'm so sorry. He told me I needed the STF-3 for my situation. I got so excited about talking with him and ordering one, that I forgot to ask.

Hey no big deal. Would have been cool to get his opinion, but I think Ed Frias is enough of an authority on the subject to take his advice. Besides, for the tiny inconvenience of flipping a switch twice per listening session, it's worth it to save your expensive sub from possibly dying a premature death, right?

Curious, what size is your room that he would recommend the STF-3 over the 2 (besides the fact that there's no such thing as too much bass power, hehe)? Is it because the room is too big for the 2, or because you just love loud, deep, powerful bass that much?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Tomorrow]

Both, Einsteinjb.

But mostly it's because my room is a quite large 'great room'. It's 22x27xvaulted ceiling, plus a galley kitchen off of it all. The poor little STF-1 really had its work cut out, lol. So the little guy will be looking for a new home, soon.

Now where is that turbo? LOL.

 

[Tomorrow]

Dr. Hsu's opinion

I just got an answer from Dr. Hsu concerning the auto-on feature. He believes that the only time you need to unplug it from the wall is during an electrical storm. He wants the sub otherwise to NOT be turned off as it's better for the amplifier if the parts stay on or on standby mode.

 

[einsteinjb]

I just got an answer from Dr. Hsu concerning the auto-on feature. He believes that the only time you need to unplug it from the wall is during an electrical storm. He wants the sub otherwise to NOT be turned off as it's better for the amplifier if the parts stay on or on standby mode.

Reeeeeeeeeally! Now THAT is interesting. Dr. Hsu and Ed Frias are both highly respected speaker engineers yet their opinion differs on this. Ed seemed pretty sure of himself on this one. Well I'm ordering a Hsu VTF-2 Mk 2 very soon so when I do I'll ask him to explain this in more detail.

 

[mfabien]

I just got an answer from Dr. Hsu concerning the auto-on feature. He believes that the only time you need to unplug it from the wall is during an electrical storm. He wants the sub otherwise to NOT be turned off as it's better for the amplifier if the parts stay on or on standby mode.

That is the reason for the Auto-On button... to leave the sub in Standby mode. And I do disconnect the AC for electrical storms, in spite of having a power bar.

 

[Tomorrow]

Reeeeeeeeeally! Now THAT is interesting. Dr. Hsu and Ed Frias are both highly respected speaker engineers yet their opinion differs on this. Ed seemed pretty sure of himself on this one. Well I'm ordering a Hsu VTF-2 Mk 2 very soon so when I do I'll ask him to explain this in more detail.

Good choice, einsteinjb! You'll love the sub. I'm about to have to change my pants...my STF-3 is due to be delivered any day!

If we have any EE's in the room, it would be interesting to get their take on the issue of the auto-on vs. sub life.

Good cheer.

 

[einsteinjb]

Good choice, einsteinjb! You'll love the sub. I'm about to have to change my pants...my STF-3 is due to be delivered any day!

If we have any EE's in the room, it would be interesting to get their take on the issue of the auto-on vs. sub life.

Yes it would. That STF-3 will be HOT! Actually I'm feeling a bit stupid right now, but happy. See, I know sub placement makes worlds of difference in the sound, volume, and frequency response, especially in the bass region. But up until last night, I left the little sub I borrowed (a B&W ASW 500, 70 watts 10" front firing/bottom ported) next to my entertainment center, against a wall but not in a corner, because I felt it was the only place in the room I could get away with placing it. I can't run more wires around the room due to family objections. So basically I've been messing with receiver settings trying to get the system to sound the way I want while waiting til I can get the Hsu, which should fill the room nicely just based on its greater output and power. As an audio engineer, I'm really good at tweaking equipment to get the most out of it, and I'll play with it for days til I get it right. (After getting my system in my minivan tweaked to perfection, I took it back to the shop that installed it and they immediately offered me part-time work tweaking their installs, hehe.)

But alas I couldn't get it right, so I finally broke down and put the sub in the back corner where Dr. Hsu recommended I place the VTF-2 Mk 2 when it arrives. Well, as you can guess, when I fired the system up, GASP! I had BASS!!! Big, full, and fairly balanced bass! I even had to turn the volume down considerably on the B&W to balance it, which was great because now it's hardly distorting at all, even on the scene in Monster's Inc. when Boo laughs in Sully's apartment and the power blows out. (If you haven't watched that on your HT systems, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!) In fact, magically my whole system sounded the way it should, even the highs and mids in the fronts... Obviously the funky bass problems were screwing up my perceptions of the whole system where I had it. Finally my B&W DM602 S2s sounded the way I knew they should.

...So as you can imagine, knowing how good even an inadequate sub sounds in that corner... I am positively DROOLING to get that Hsu!!!!!!!!!! I'd love to hear an SVS back there, but the Hsu meets my needs, budget, and space limitations. (I figure the inconvenience of having to roll up my subwoofer interconnect cable when I'm not using it is a small price to pay.)