Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

Having just recently converted (this past February) our upstairs family room into a "Man Cave" home theatre hang-out, I realized that, although the set-up looks great and sounds half-way decent, it definitely could use some upgrading. The new 63" plasma is awesome (!), but my old pioneer (pre-htmi) receiver and 'cheapie' surrounds really could be improved. I'll address those issues as the time and budget allows...

Part of this initial upgrade was to increase the "oomph" of the lower end: greater bass for the full HT experience. I discovered that although my 'new' subwoofer— a BIC Acoustech H100— gets rave reviews and is quite a sub for the price, it just didnt do the job in creating the deep, visceral BASS experience I was searching for.

My 'old' Acoustech H100:



The room is 17 x 18 x 9 (peaked roof) and so I figured I'd be better served by upgrading to a more substantial sub.
Here's a partial room shot of the set-up from SuperBowl sunday this last February...



Part of the problem also is the current sub placement is in the path to the corner bookshelves, so I was looking to find an alternate location that still provided adequate bass.
After extensive research and communication with a number of folks who have greater HT experience than me, I decided upon ordering the SVS PC12-NSD. This unit resolves the 'placement' issue as it will fit nicely in the opposite corner (across the room from the plasma screen) as it has a relatively small footprint (16" diameter). It's output and range should be a 'night & day' experience according to those who have experience with both the SVS and h100. It cost almost 3x the Acoustech, but my hope is it resolves the current lack of DEEP bass...

SVSound - Cylinder Subwoofers



Needless to say, I'm stoked and am anxiously awaiting the PC12's arrival in the next week or so. I'll post my impressions once this bad boy get here....

Re: Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

that's my hope.....

While I'm waiting for it, I gotta pull together some good DVDs to give it a REAL break-in.

Re: Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

Just got email notification from UPS that a 60 lb box from SVS is scheduled to be delivered by this Friday. Way cool......

Re: Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

Well, the UPS driver dropped off my new sub yesterday (Monday) afternoon— it was originally scheduled for delivery last Friday, but the UPS truck took off before I could get to the door! —so I had to wait all weekend for the Monday delivery...

The UPS driver says, "Looks like someone's gonna get some serious bass." I said ,"I hope so!"— to which he responded, "I hope your neighbors like it."

I had my two sons lug the 60lb box upstairs to the HT room. "Looks like a medium-sized hot water heater!" states my youngest. We unpacked the contents and began the set-up & calibration. Props to SVS for doing an excellent job of packing this sub. The outer box had some rather nasty looking creases, scuffs and gouges, but the contents within were unaffected.

We positioned the PC12-NSD in a corner (see room illustration below) and hooked it up with 12-meter BetterCable interconnect to the sub-out on my receiver. Following the SVS set-up instructions using the AVR's test tones, I settled on the speakers @ 75db & the sub @ around 78db.



We played several scenes from movies just to get an initial impression of what the PC12 can do: opening cannon salvos in "Master & Commander," the tiger/panzer tanks entering the destroyed village in "Saving Private Ryan," plus some depth-charge explosions from "Das Boot." Wow! My wife came from the other side of the house wondering what the causing the 'thunder' that reverberated across the entire house (the HT room is upstairs over the garage)...lol :p
My sons were all for "doing it again!" so we've some time to devote this week to both music and movies. Should be fun. What a treat!
I'll also post some pics of this badboy in it's new place...

Re: Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

Nice! I got an email from SVS saying that IF I wanted to add another PC12, I'd get a nice discount on the second. I mention this fact to my wife and her response was...

Played a few scenes from "War of the Worlds" last night— the SVS really rocked the rafters throughout the house! I felt compelled to peek outside and make sure there really wasn't an alien hovering over our house!

Re: Phase 1: HT System upgrade— NEW Subwoofer

I can believe it, after hearing it with just one!

Best reaction was by my "show-me-before-I-believe-it" 21-year old son who was sitting on the floor during a particularly volatile scene in the movie. He just started laughing and said, "...holy cr_p!...did you feel that?"