Oh I know all too well about being able to hear, or at least notice, sounds that other people don't seem to pick up! I went to a movie with a friend not too long ago. It's a nicer, smaller theater chain downtown that plays the independent movies and such. I've always noticed that they keep the volume lower than a regular theater and their sound systems lack headroom and dynamic range. Just underpowered sound. But they play movies that other theaters don't and the vibe of the place is really nice, so the somewhat lacking audio is forgivable
Well this recent time, we were just sitting down. The trailers hadn't even started, it was just the ads that run before the show starts. We hadn't even found seats and I told my friend that we had to change theaters. He was like, "what?! Why?"
I said, "you don't hear that?" He looks at me with wide eyes, "what?"
I point to the surround speaker on the side wall that was right behind him as he was facing me. "That surround speaker has a broken tweeter! You can't hear that static every time it plays?"
He listens for a second, "what? That little crackle? That's nothing! It's probably someone's phone or something."
"No. It's the surround speaker up there. It's really obvious. I can't listen to the whole movie like that!"
He was just exasperated. It isn't easy being my friend
I've got a somewhat similar situation with my hearing it seems. I try to protect my hearing since I value it so much. But my job requires me to drive around all day and talk to people via radio and in person. I keep an in-ear monitor in my left ear all day, but my right ear is exposed. My last hearing test indicated that I have some typical hearing loss of the over 12kHz frequencies in my right ear. I'm almost 31 and there's nothing unusual about high frequency hearing loss at my age, but it's still disheartening all the same
My left ear though is sharp and has virtually no hearing loss. Pro hearing tests don't really test deep bass very well, but I run my own self-tests using my Shure SE530 in-ear monitors. I can still make out the 18Hz test tone just barely. 17Hz or lower produces nothing, although that might be the earphones themselves just not producing anything
Still, I never notice anything below 18Hz at all, so it's truly sub-sonic to my hearing.
I share much of your feelings about various A/V boards in general. A lot of "echo chamber" type advice, resistance against anything that isn't the "consensus", and folks jumping on a single review or measurement graph as though it is the be all, end all of "proof".
I try to take as much in as I can. I'm lucky to have an acquaintance who works professionally in mixing who sometimes lets me listen in a dubbing stage or mixing studio. Those TV dubbing stages are like my ultimate fantasy
Such a gorgeous acoustic space - not the looks (although some of them are nice) - but just the acoustics. No parallel walls. Everything treated. Big sound board just behind the center of the room and seats in front of it. JBL pro speakers everywhere most of the time. Sometimes other brands, like my friend's Focal Pro speakers, but JBL pro definitely seems to be the most popular.
Funny how you had a semi-unpleasant experience with Chad over at Epik over your return. I had a downright horrible interaction with him, which doesn't help my feelings towards Epik's subs
I still try to be fair - the pair of Sentinels that I had were a very similar case where they definitely played lower than the HSU VTF-3 MK2 that I was looking to replace, but they just didn't have the same tight transient response. Very noticeable overhang with the Sentinels that made the bass "smear" and turned complex bass passages into a bit of a mess. Things between me and Chad got downright nasty before we resolved things. Somewhat to his credit, he does seem to let things go when it's all over. But yeah, getting past his initial attitude on a return can be an issue
SVS wasn't always the greatest, but they're almost like an entirely new company now with the new management. An absolute pleasure to talk over anything with them now, it seems like. And I love their new, much more focused approach and that they actually have subs in stock to sell now instead of constantly being on back order like they used to be!
Rythmik still runs like a small company in a lot of ways. But they have the utmost skill in their engineering and they really, really know their stuff. They're open to talk about anything in their designs, it seems like. I just like their attitude of always wanting to do better and taking critiques as a challenge to improve even more, rather than as some sort of unintended knock.
I haven't really dealt with eD, but I've heard several horror stories about slow and unresponsive customer service for repairs or returns. I can't talk at all from experience though, so I have to reserve judgement.
HSU I've always had a good experience with and Dr. Hsu himself is just amazing to talk to. He's so well educated and can just dig into all the theory and engineering at the drop of a hat! With me, responses have sometimes been a little bit slow and I've gotten a little bit of a "we know what we're doing. We don't need any suggestions" type of vibe from a couple of the folks OTHER than Dr. Hsu himself. But it's never been anything less than pleasant.
Anyways, I'm glad that some hard work on the setup on your part has let you come around - at least somewhat - on the FV12. I feel fairly certain at this point that you're hearing the sort of bass that I was talking about when I first recommended it so highly for your $500 budget. I do often fall into the trap of hyperbole. And that's because it so often takes so much to convince someone else - a stranger - to try a product that they weren't already considering. Most of the time, what people are really looking for is confirmation. They already have something in mind and they just want people on the forum to confirm that choice. But I try to be as brutally honest as I can be and get people the best product for their setup and budget. Trying to do that though can push my words over the edge into exaggeration though and I always try to apologize when that happens because it's a disservice to myself and to the people asking for advice.
With the FV12 though, it's hard to convey that this is a $500 sub and what that really means. $500 is rightly a lot of money to a lot of people! A lot of folks are looking for a $200 sub or to spend $500 on their entire set of 5.1 speakers. So to come along and say that I basically think that $500 and the FV12 is the "minimum" for good bass makes a lot of people balk! But honestly, if you try out even the good subs that cost less than $500, it's really obvious that they compromise in at least one area and often more than one area. The FV12 is just the "right" sort of balance in my opinion. It might not troll the absolute depths of 20Hz and lower bass, but it clearly hits flat below 30Hz, which lesser subs simply can't. It IS articulate and has good transient response. Not the final word. But just clearly better than any less expensive sub. And it honestly holds up pretty well against even more expensive subs. And while it can't match the sheer output of larger, more powerful subs, it will play up to its maximum with rather low distortion, which means that you can drive it hard - as hard as it will go - without running into audible problems before you get there. So you can certainly still do better than the FV12, but just not for under $500! And that's why I like it so much because it is affordable and all around good with no really obvious weaknesses like so many other subs. It is ugly - lol. I guess you can't have everything
If you think the FV12 is big though, you'd really be agape at a VTF-3 MK4 or an SVSound PB13-Ultra or something. Those suckers are HUGE
