New guy checking in.

[SPaZZdOG]

Hi,
I recently got into HT hobby.I'm in the process of making a dedicated HT room.I already have all of my equipment and most of the room done.All I really like is to paint some trim and hang a couple of doors.I still need to buy my seating ,but that will have to wait a month or two(have temp seating for now).

My setup is:
Samsung 6187 1080p DLP
Oppo DV-970HD
Yamaha HTR 5960 Receiver
Xbox 360
SVS SBS-01 7.0 setup
SVS PB10-NSD

Only problem i'm having so far is calibrating my sub to my liking.I have the Avia disk and the RS SPL meter,but it's still confusing to a complete noob.I don't understand about the pink noise among other things.

My only regrets so far is I wish I bought a bigger sub,so that will be my first upgrade later this year.

 

[Gimpy Ric]

Welcome to the nut house! I'm new too, but so far everyone has been super. Now, about setting up that sub.

I've owned four different subs, and they all reveal good and bad recordings. Good being most anything after the 80's. I'm 42, but still listen to Rock music most of the time. From AC/DC to ZZ Top it's all good. And XM channel 42 (squizz) modern rock which is equilized a bit on the bottom end. Even more equilized is XM Sweet 62 (R&B). That channel will drive nails with a sub.

Try a manual setup with your HTR 5960, put away the calibration equipment, and set it up by ear. Set your crossover to 80 hz, and put in a bass heavy cd, like Linkin Park, or some R&B, or rap - whatever blows your skirt up. Turn your sub up as much as you need to have fat bottom end, like it was recorded. Now, put in an old cd lacking bass and see what happens. Your sub may or may not do hardly anything. Try some action DVD's and the explosions should wake up your next door nieghbors.

I'm not trying to start a flame war here, as many would disagree with me and my methods. I turn my sub up as high as I can without loosing midrange and high end. Most of my friends agree with the sound, and some those friends are musicians in bands. Remember, YOU bought the system for YOU, not for a meter.

Stick around here and you'll learn about all kinds of neat equipment, and you'll want to buy more and more and more...

 

[Adam]

SPaZZdOG, welcome! Nice set-up that you have there. Which part of the calibration is giving you trouble? Is it setting the cross-over frequency, the volume, the location, or a combination of those? There are some people here who are good at explaning that stuff.

There are also some helpful article on this site, such as this.

Again, welcome to the forum.

 

[SPaZZdOG]

The main thing i'm having problems with,is that i'm not getting enough boom from it.I have my cross-over set at 80,gain on sub almost half way,and receiver sub volume at -3 I think.My room is 10 1/2ft X 17ft with 3 doors,one to a closet,one to a bedroom and one to the hallway.My TV,mains and sub is located along one of the 10 1/2ft wall with the sub in the corner by the bedroom door.I could turn up the volume more,but I don't want to blow my sub.

 

[avaserfi]

Have you tried walking around the room and seeing if there was better bass response in different areas? Your sub placement might need some fine tuning.

Check this article out.

 

[SPaZZdOG]

I haven't crawled around the room,but I have read the article before.I think some of my problem is the sub is next to a bedroom door.The door is a hollow core cheap door.I also thought about building some corner bass traps for the corners of the room.

I played some movies near reference level last night and it sounded pretty good.My main problem is my wife won't let me play it that loud when she watching movies with me.She made the comment last night"Why do you play it so loud?You act like your in a movie theater.".I thought that was the whole purpose of having a HT,to reproduce the movie theater experience.But what do I know.

 

[avaserfi]

One thing to check are the SPL levels in your bedroom, with the door closed. You could see the exact consequence of your subplacement and how much sound is leaking through etc...