Time for an update, been 25 years

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I wanted to go to 2 subs and my sub being over 20 years old I looked locally and could not find another. The bass wasn't very clean. Now that I hooked up the 2 13s I do see it is punchier.. Clean sounding. I want to try a few movies with them. I ordered them direct so I have 45 days to decide. I also considered the Monolith 15 subs. I have to take into consideration not to over power the room with too much bass.

My compromise with the wife was to move the sofa away from the rear wall as it was up against it. Now it's just shy of 2ft. Had the home builder not had 3 large windows in the one wall, I would have run the system length wise for the perfect setup. We just didn't want to block the windows with a massive TV.

Just cover up all the windows nicely and pretend they don’t exist.

 

[Wardog555]

This is the way!

 

[BFL]

All I can say is it's an uphill battle. My wife has tinnitus and isn't into the HT thing.. Definitely did not like me having 2 subs now, but I'm giving them a try anyway.

Weird how far audessey reduced the gain. The avr after audessey are at - 5.5 for the subs and the gain on the subs themselves are turned way down to a level 3 on one and 4 on the other which is appx - 35db

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

All I can say is it's an uphill battle. My wife has tinnitus and isn't into the HT thing.. Definitely did not like me having 2 subs now, but I'm giving them a try anyway.

Weird how far audessey reduced the gain. The avr after audessey are at - 5.5 for the subs and the gain on the subs themselves are turned way down to a level 3 on 1 and 4 on the other.

We all have our battles lol!
Typically you’d want audyssey to came beck with a trim around -10 to -8. That way you can trim them up a few, and still stay below -0. You can also use the svs app to do the same thing. I just find the AVR trim easier. Trimming up after Audyssey 3-6db is pretty normal. I can also use the Audyssey app curve editor to make custom house curves.

 

[BFL]

I notice with eq on I get some base with movies but seems absent on music. I tried both reference and flat as well and with music I had to go in the svs app and raise the base about 12db which seems like a lot to do.

Another thing I was playing with was the multi eq range.. I tested movies and music at full range, 500hz, and 300hz for all speakers. Is one preferred over the other?

 

[MrBoat]

When home movies were all the rage in the '60s and '70s, we used to move furniture out, and then back again when done. Movie screen and audio were also brought out, set up, and then stowed when not in use. We used to have family reunions with the cousins etc. coming from out of state and we would rearrange to accommodate. This all took around 5 minutes at most to move chairs in and my dad and uncle used to set up the functional bits of the process in 15.

I reckon I just don't get the idea of permanence with modern audio setups, vs. less than optimal rooms. While the electronics can certainly remain planted, speakers and chairs can be moved in, out, or around when it really matters. It's certainly easier than loading up the car for a night at the drive-in or walk-in theater.

When I do music marathons, I move sofas and MLP for the best performance and for extra guests when needed and even put a padded area rug down that the dog would otherwise takeover if it were in place all the time. Otherwise, I do mostly a more head-phonic styled near field experience for just myself. This opens up many more performance possibilities, regardless of what the room otherwise dictates.

Static audio setups rarely work outside of dedicated/designed HT rooms, especially with the modern penchant for the almighty open and highly reflective floor plans. I get enough daylight and UV outdoors, and am ready for some low-light atmosphere by the time I come inside.

I have a friend of mine here in Tampa doing just this now. It had never occurred to him to move his speakers 2ft out into the room, and his sofa off of the back wall on weekends. He and his hunny-bunny only watch movies on weekends and just regular TV during the work week so they don't really need the all-out experience all the time. Truth be told, they could get by with a sound bar for their regular TV duties during the week. He likes listening to music a lot more than his wife does, so he too now, has a potent near field desk setup in a spare room that he has acoustically treated and soundproofed.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Another thing I was playing with was the multi eq range.. I tested movies and music at full range, 500hz, and 300hz for all speakers. Is one preferred over the other?

Try each one and see.

Personally I don’t mess with EQ above 200Hz, so I would say the 300Hz is best for me.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I notice with eq on I get some base with movies but seems absent on music. I tried both reference and flat as well and with music I had to go in the svs app and raise the base about 12db which seems like a lot to do.

These room corrections seem to decrease the Trims (speaker and sub levels). I always have to increase everything manually.

 

[Eppie]

I'm in Florida.. There used to be a lot of av stores.. Now most of the ones that come up in Google are home installer companies.. Not an actual showroom.
I did find 1 that I will go to Thurs, but it would be nice to have more than 1 option. Hopefully Gene will look at the thread again and post a few as you mentioned... Thanks for the input.

If you put an @ in front of Gene's forum name @gene will get a notification on the thread. Maybe he knows of some show rooms in Tampa.

 

[BFL]

If you put an @ in front of Gene's forum name @gene will get a notification on the thread. Maybe he knows of some show rooms in Tampa.

Thanks.. Appreciate it

 

[lovinthehd]

All I can say is it's an uphill battle. My wife has tinnitus and isn't into the HT thing.. Definitely did not like me having 2 subs now, but I'm giving them a try anyway.

Weird how far audessey reduced the gain. The avr after audessey are at - 5.5 for the subs and the gain on the subs themselves are turned way down to a level 3 on one and 4 on the other which is appx - 35db

Audyssey is just trying to balance the sub gain for the pre-out level. Very common to need to lower the gain on the sub itself to achieve such, and as was said aiming at even higher than -5.5 isn't particularly unusual....you just don't want to hit -12dB (usually, some avrs go to -15), as that means the avr cannot adjust gain with the setting you have on your sub, which would mean you'd want to lower gain on the subs until you get to -11.5 or better.

I notice with eq on I get some base with movies but seems absent on music. I tried both reference and flat as well and with music I had to go in the svs app and raise the base about 12db which seems like a lot to do.

Another thing I was playing with was the multi eq range.. I tested movies and music at full range, 500hz, and 300hz for all speakers. Is one preferred over the other?

A lot of music doesn't have bass content to match movies. If you're boosting the sub by -12dB that's more a taste thing, more than I'd ever want.

 

[BFL]

Audyssey is just trying to balance the sub gain for the pre-out level. Very common to need to lower the gain on the sub itself to achieve such, and as was said aiming at even higher than -5.5 isn't particularly unusual....you just don't want to hit -12dB (usually, some avrs go to -15), as that means the avr cannot adjust gain with the setting you have on your sub, which would mean you'd want to lower gain on the subs until you get to -11.5 or better.



A lot of music doesn't have bass content to match movies. If you're boosting the sub by -12dB that's more a taste thing, more than I'd ever want.

Well, the audyssey put the subs at - 37 and - 32 during the sub matching part. Plus the avr wound up being - 5.5 and - 5. I left the avr alone but brought some bass back in on the sub itself. Guess it shows some weakness in my mains, but they are appx 25years old even though they look new.

 

[lovinthehd]

Well, the audyssey put the subs at - 37 and - 32 during the sub matching part. Plus the avr wound up being - 5.5 and - 5. I left the avr alone but brought some bass back in on the sub itself. Guess it shows some weakness in my mains, but they are appx 25years old even though they look new.

The avr doesn't show trim levels like -37 or -32 so that must be the gain setting on your sub (which is relation to what particularly?). Usually one can get more repeatability/accuracy of using the avr's sub trim control rather than the controls on a sub, but that more relates to the usual controls on subs (detentless knobs, with a vague scale, on the back of the sub only). Your subs are a bit more modern with electronic readouts for more precise control, so you can go that way, but you'll need to change it for types of content....altho with many avrs you can simply set particular profiles to employ for music vs movies, too and leave the controls alone. The numbers on your subs aren't particularly meaningful on their own, tho.

 

[BFL]

The avr doesn't show trim levels like -37 or -32 so that must be the gain setting on your sub (which is relation to what particularly?). Usually one can get more repeatability/accuracy of using the avr's sub trim control rather than the controls on a sub, but that more relates to the usual controls on subs (detentless knobs, with a vague scale, on the back of the sub only). Your subs are a bit more modern with electronic readouts for more precise control, so you can go that way, but you'll need to change it for types of content....altho with many avrs you can simply set particular profiles to employ for music vs movies, too and leave the controls alone. The numbers on your subs aren't particularly meaningful on their own, tho.

Actually those numbers are from the SVS app. Back of the sub just has a normal 1 thru 10 type of scale, but I know what you mean. I thought SVS said the numbers on the app are based off 75 db reference being 0 is which puts me in the 40db range if I have that right.

 

[lovinthehd]

Actually those numbers are from the SVS app. Back of the sub just has a normal 1 thru 10 type of scale, but I know what you mean. I thought SVS said the numbers on the app are based off 75 db reference being 0 is which puts me in the 40db range if I have that right.

Without having a specific input voltage value, hard to know what SVS means by that, do they provide such? I wouldn't try and conflate the avr's and the sub's readouts particularly in any case. Maybe use the sub app as a difference in level/power for changes (like just the difference using just its scale say between -32 and -40, not the particular number on the readout).

 

[BFL]

Without having a specific input voltage value, hard to know what SVS means by that, do they provide such? I wouldn't try and conflate the avr's and the sub's readouts particularly in any case. Maybe use the sub app as a difference in level/power for changes (like just the difference using just its scale say between -32 and -40, not the particular number on the readout).

I will call svs tomorrow to clarify. But I totally get what u are saying.

 

[lovinthehd]

I will call svs tomorrow to clarify. But I totally get what u are saying.

I'd be curious what they say, never looked into it much. I'm thinking it's like how an avr will suggest in sub setup to try a mid-way point on the sub's gain settings, it's merely a guess when setting them together.

 

[BFL]

I'd be curious what they say, never looked into it much. I'm thinking it's like how an avr will suggest in sub setup to try a mid-way point on the sub's gain settings, it's merely a guess when setting them together.

I will post what they say. Be good info for any svs owner.

 

[BFL]

So, 2 things.. 1st I spoke to SVS and they cannot say that the db on the app for setting the volume is truly based off 75db reference cause that would vary if the avr is over or under in it's signal as in my case my sub outs are - 5 and - 5.5 set by Audyssey.
The 2nd thing.. I visited a av shop today and turns out the owner knows Gene. My wife and I looked at the Paradigm and Martin Logan. I purchased the Martin Logan F100 and C10 center to fit my cabinet.