PC-Ultra Owners? Protective Grill Bent by UPS. (1 Viewer)

[Mary M S]

UPS damage on a PC-Ultra and the protective grill has a good ding/crush to the ring across an approx. 1” location. If we keep the sub after demo, it might be that grill cover could be replaced without the need for shipping entire unit back/forth to manuf.
But I need to see under the ring to see what crush damage there is (to what I assume is a raised ridge) on top edge of sub itself.

Since it will not budge for me: trying to rotate or lift, (but I know it should normally)
Is the grill screw on or pop off? This will factor into trying to work it off.
I checked SVS website and could not tell regarding grill removal. I’m assuming it’s a simple lift off since the owners manual does not mention ‘screwing off’ the grill, in the port tuning section. But should be sure before my husband gets home and attempts any gentle forcing to get it off.
Anyone know?
Thanks so much M.

 

[Bill Mullin]

The same thing happened to me, I called SVS and they sent out a new grill the same day. As for removing the grill, it will pop off but you have to use some "elbow grease" to do the job. When asking SVS for the replacement grill, ask at that time about removing the old one.

 

[steve nn]

Darn UPS anyway!

 

[micah bjj]

Every type of delivery service has a high chance of damaging your stuff.

When I got my pb2+ yesterday...I looked in the back of the bax truck and my box fell over and was on its side. Everything seems to be in good shape though. The hole on the outside of the box scared me a little.

Are the cylinders not packaged as well as the boxes? It seems like if they were the UPS drivers would have to basically try to purposely damage them to get through all the foam and packaging.

 

[Mary M S]

Thanks very much. Good to know and that it takes a certain amount of pressure. I was worried if I applied too much pressure (assuming pop up) thinking the crush section was the hold up; - then found out there are threads under there! (whoops)

I had already put in a call to SVS as soon as I opened box and saw damage, but just got voice mail today.
And I know if SVS does not call back today (getting late here) when husband comes in …wanted to be armed with this information. Thanks for the reply!!!

The good news is..I happened to have my 2 sons here (jumping up and down and dragging out bass-heavy CD’s) when it arrived. – wanted to see it (we unpacked –saw the damage etc) but they refused to move the packing out of the room (for me) unless I went ahead and hooked it up. (and in the middle of my work day) I have a feeling I’ll be not working late, back here on the computer as is my wont. But instead prob. pulling out demo material when the husband gets home!

Since the boys pestered me till I set it up …good news….it appears the electronics and amp were not damaged. So far with a (very quick) setup the sub appears to be functioning normally. I was worried since the crush/ding was on the top of the sub and that portion of the box was in the BEST shape. The box had damage at the bottom half (near the plate end and amp). Bottom end of the box looked as if it had come open and been retaped and was actually a larger square diamater down there!
And there are TREAD marks of some kind (maybe just package conveyers) although one looks suspiciously like a foot print, boot tread on the cardboard!!!!

PS Micah just saw your post...I watched my UPS driver heave and dig through the back of the truck (I could see him from a side view, looking like he was slinging things around) then slide it out on its side.
(arrows clearly indicating tall side UP - at all times - fragile!)
Re: cylinders not packaged as well as the boxes
The box is not as heavy gage cardboard as the double thick boxes my Outlaw amp (heavy) and prepro came pkg'd in.
Its normal weight cardboard which could prob do with some wood stiffner boards running down the corners to wood caps....of course then if UPS crushes anything the wood supports would splinter into the sub. So maybe not a good idea.

 

[micah bjj]

The truth is most ups damage has nothig to do with drivers. Its the loaders and unloaders who are to blame most of the time.

 

[steve nn]

When I received my PC-Ultra the first thing I noticed after opening the box was the care in packaging. I think there was a total of five ribs plus the foam panels. Every CS+ I had received in the past was not packed as well as the PC-Ultra. Usually the sock gets a little matted where it lays on the ribs. It does straighten out in time though. The additional ribs seem to put less pressure on each individual rib. I do not recall the foam panels with the CS+'s either. It could be on account of them being the smaller/shorter 25-31CS+ variety and less weight do to no amp?

One thing you know for sure is not to worry. Any problem is easily solved by sending off a mail to SVS or a phone call.

 

[Edward J M]

The entire outer ring comes off, not just the expanded metal inner grill.

Usually people have the best luck with a dull butter knife between the ring and the cylinder. Pry gently in a few spots and it should start to lift. Get your fingers under the ring lip and pull up; it will pop right off.

The end cap of the Ultra is massively thick, and the vents are strong plastic. It is unlikely the sub suffered any damage up top, beyond the dented grill.

Also, if you note what appears to be a missing screw in the inner retaining ring, this is intentional; inserting a screw in this empty hole would damage the underlying vent.

 

[steve nn]

Usually people have the best luck with a dull butter knife between the ring and the cylinder. Pry gently in a few spots and it should start to lift. Get your fingers under the ring lip and pull up; it will pop right off.
__________________________________________________ ______

After doing this four or five times the grill becomes less resistant and in most cases will not require anything but your fingers. Try to stay away from using a screwdriver for it is more apt to cause damage.

 

[SVS-Ron]

Mary,

There was a power outage at our phone sales/support office today. We'll have a new grill on the way to you tomorrow (Erik Kroner will confirm this).

The grill removal actually does have a brief section in the manual, just think of that big black lid as the top of a Cool-Whip (TM!) container and you have the idea.

Replacement is very simple, 2 minutes with a power screwdriver. As noted above, one screw is supposed to be left out to clear the adjacent port flare.

Let us know when you are ready and we'll be glad to get on the phone with you as the replacement is done. I'd say you can do it with your eyes closed but easy as it is, I haven't actually tried that yet ;^)

PS, the grill is relatively fragile, as you have discovered it's very probable nothing is wrong with the sub itself.

Ron

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Mmmmm, Cool-Whip.

I prefer creme and sugar and a Kitchen Aid mixer, though

 

[Edward J M]

If you will be actually replacing the inner retaining ring too, it would be most prudent to plug all three ports before you start removing screws. Like their huge counterparts in deep space, the black vent holes have a way of sucking in things like screw drivers and screws. The last thing you want to do is pull that massive driver to recover dropped parts.

 

[Mary M S]

Thanks for all the help! Eric @ SVS did call after six, and suggested the butterknives. Which worked fine popped right off and no damage to the underlining ridge upon which the ring rests. Now I wish I had come back into this forum last night, because the missing screw caused some worries! My husband noticed it when he got the ring off, and tells me he hates to think of a bouncing screw loose in the cylinder. I’m all set to have him disconnect the sub and start fishing for it! He studies the situation a little further and comes up with your explanation; that hole never had a screw due to underlining plastic ring.

I do have one ongoing worry; any input on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
I hate to say that “You guys, told me so” but reading archived posts on the subject of adding in an SVSub, I had noted all the exclamations regarding …’will find every rattle in the room’

I was already aware that my display cabinet appeared to be vibrating by the time SVS called back. I queried Eric regarding damage to electronics in the unit. He felt it might be of greater concern if the display was CRT. (misalignment of guns) but since ours is LCD with solid state prob. no worries.

This is my setup. 60” LCD screen backed into corner of room with PC-Ultra wedged right behind it in corner. We have left literally only approx. a 1-2” gap between the back of the display cabinet and the sub cylinder itself. The plastic back of the display is pie/wedge shaped and is acting like a resonance chamber. The wide end of this triangle pie is of course at face of screen with full-length display speakers running down left/right side of screen. The worst audible vibrations are resonating through the display back and rattling in the speaker ends (outer left/right edge) of the display box.

Wood component base cabinet, which display rests on. Metal rollers underneath component rack resting on wood floor (we can not pad the rollers since I pull the whole thing out when added/deleting new components) The cabinet base is 6 component; metal racks for top two rows, wood for bottom row. WOOD seems to be the largest culprit as far as conduction of certain frequencies. I came to this conclusion because the worst rattle when I first fired up the sub yesterday came from a Panamax unit, which sits on the right WOOD bottom shelf , by far the worst noise culprit making incredible racket. I put socks under it till I can buy pads for Panamax feet.

The last major vibration left (other than the back of display resonating out to speaker ends) is above the display where there is again (wood) shelf which a 50 pd center speaker rests on.

Wood appears to be my strongest conductor of unwanted vibration/noise.
Solutions we have thrown around this AM. Is a circular pad under the SV-Ultra to insulate from wood floor helpful or detrimental? Trying to reduce waves sent via wood floor up and through the wood display base.
Trying to place some sort of pad/or insulation in any air gaps under plastic footprint of display to damper vibrations from wood it rests on. Affixing strips of dynamat down back of display plastic cabinet itself, (staying off all air vents) to dampen the cabinets resonance. Not sure how much of via air waves/Vs wood transfer through floor/cabinet.

We could not cover the entire back of the display with dynamat (due to weight of the mat itself) and a concern that although the plastic cabinet of display is not built as a heat sink, we might actually insulate heat into the internal cabinet.

Not a question of pulling the sub back as tend to slightly under integrate sub calb. with the HT and the Ultra is currently running at a fraction of its capiblity. (I LOVE headroom - better even (I feel) for lowest THD etc!)
Sub is not calb yet but running at ¼ gain. –2dB in the Outlaw 950 which integrats into room very well (if we can tame all component/cabinet vibrations. Tuning the sub to 16hz tamed the vibrations a hair, but if I bumped 2dB (to allow for SPL loss due to lower tuning point, vibration levels were back).

I would hate to think what would happen if I really cranked the gain via either Outlaw or Sub!! My husband stated he could picture the roof of this tiny room lifting up and down on the rafters!

My concern is my boys can figure out (if they think about it a while),,,,how to bump gain in the Outlaw, (for this reason I should prob. calibrate to +9 on the Outlaw sub output (at my level) so they don’t really have anywhere to go)
For the safety of the display, (these vibrations can not be good). I really need to address this issue for 1)noise 2)For Integrity of all electronics involved.

PS: Half my bass heavy DVD's are MIA, the vibration issues arise with source material such as "Fight Club" CD track 3. Cannon fire on "Master and Commander" is excelent not hearing the vibration in display but this would be somewhat masked by the ST in general.