- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 7,061
As many of you know, I’ve been constructing my home theater for the past year and a half. This is well documented on my HT web site and it has gone through a series of stages as I try for that perfect (within my means) Home Theater Experience.
About a year ago, the basic home theater was completed and I moved my equipment in, including some new “stuff” such as a DENON 5700 Receiver and M&K 150 speakers all around to supplement my existing components and started enjoying movies. About six months later the (for now) “crown jewel” of my theater, my SONY VPL VW10HT front projector, arrived and I could finally claim that my home theater experience rivaled just about any commercial theatrical experience and, in most aspects, surpassed most local theaters.
Today, I have achieved another such milestone in my Home Theater. Late Friday afternoon a large 63 lb. box arrived via FedEx on my doorstep. It was my long anticipated SVS 16-46PC Subwoofer. This product line, the powered cylinders (thus the “PC)” has just been added to SVS’s line of excellently received subwoofers with outboard amplifiers. The new models have high quality amplifiers integrated into the cylinder, which greatly simplifies set-up and installation and allows great flexibility in moving everything around, just like any other powered subwoofer. Unfortunately, for the past few days I’ve been fighting whatever flu/head cold/etc. that has been taking the East Coast (and I understand the West Coast) by storm. Add to this some family obligations that had my house “invaded” by about 15 relatives on Saturday and this was not exactly the best of times to be setting up and evaluating any piece of equipment, much less a large 46” high, 16” in diameter cylinder. So, unaccustomed as I am to showing patience, in this case I decided to wait until this morning to tackle the project.
A little background information. As part of my original HT design I had decided to retain my trusty old but reliable Velodyne F-1500 subwoofer. It served me well for over a decade and was an old friend. Unfortunately, a few months into the new theater the Velodyne began to show its age and the cone support material began to crack. A call to Velodyne verified that this was common for this butyl compound as it aged. I actually was able to glue the cone and use it, but I felt that I would always be questioning if DAS BOOT or CONTACT or THE MATRIX or similar (you get the picture) would eventually take its toll on my Velodyne. The long and the short of it was that my son inherited a very nice subwoofer (where he had none before) and I decided to purchase an M&K MX-350thx Subwoofer after doing some homework. This is a highly respected SW and, in addition, would serve as a “match” for my other M&K speakers (if that means anything).
A few months later SVS opened its doors. I was intrigued. There were a lot of claims for the new SVS offerings and the measurements appeared to verify the claims. The bottom end of the SVS units, especially the bigger ones, exceeded the specs of my very capable M&K MX350. And the introductory price of $799 (free shipping for the introduction) with a full 45-day money-back guarantee was too good to pass up. So a few days after the PC’s were announced I placed an order. My thinking was to see if an SVS subwoofer could act in concert with another fine subwoofer to produce an even better LFI theatrical experience. I really had nothing to lose except, perhaps, some postage. Time would tell.
And this morning was that time. And what are my initial impressions?
I carefully unpacked the very well protected unit from its inner and outer boxes. The packaging was protected on all sides by a very generous amount of foam, tape, etc. In fact, I would have to state that the hardest part of the installation of this finely constructed piece of equipment was unpacking it! When it finally was released from its protective cocoon the 16-46PC revealed itself to be a handsome 46” high cylinder with black top and bottom caps. It is 16” in diameter. As a bonus, the fabric that covers the cylinder is almost a perfect match for my charcoal gray carpeting and as it sits in my HT it appears that I have customized the case to match the décor. Also included in the box is a small, concise, no nonsense but very informative instruction manual, a detachable power cord and some foot spikes to use as an option to the flat feet installed on the base.
Hook-up is a snap. Assuming you have some rudimentary knowledge of your receiver or components’ handling of LFI there is very little else to do but to connect a 75 Ohm A/V RCA type cable from your receiver or pre-amp SW output to one of the line inputs of the SVS (it doesn’t matter which one since the inputs are summed before amplification), plug in the power cord (making sure 110 or 220V is correctly switch selected) and turn it on!
The amplifier included with the 16-46PC (and I assume the other models in this line) has some very nice features. There is a POWER switch (with LED) that offers three settings, ON, OFF, and AUTO. The AUTO feature is especially useful for my application. When set in this position the amplifier automatically turns on in a fraction of a second whenever a signal is applied to the inputs. Additionally, the amp does not turn off for several minutes so that there is practically no chance of the SW turning on and off during the course of a listening session. I had wondered how I was going to handle powering the SW on and off. I wasn’t looking forward to another switch to turn or to program and the AUTO feature made this a non-issue.
Other features include Line In and Line Out jacks (stereo) in case you wish to route your signal to your signal amp with the bass information extracted. There are even high-level input/output binding posts for systems without low level output (rarely used today). There is a volume control, a crossover frequency dial with a range of 50-150 Hertz in case you wish to set the crossover frequency of the SW yourself, a crossover bypass switch (which negates the crossover frequency dial), a phase dial (0-180 degrees) in case the SVS output is canceling some low frequencies from other speaker sources, a Bass Boost Switch with settings of 0, +3 and +6dB and a fuse holder which uses an easily obtainable Radio Shack Part #270-1066 4 amp 125v 5x20mm “slow-blow” fuse (and not something only available by Yak Pack from Timbuktu!) All in all a most flexible set of controls for the tweakers of the world.
But now to the important stuff – how does it perform? As most people who find themselves at the SVS website contemplating a subwoofer purchase most likely realize, the most important parts of setting up such a device are placement, calibration and integration. A subwoofer’s performance can dramatically improve (or be degraded) by these factors and it is not the intent of this review to give the reader a course in such matters. But rest assured that the concise manual points even the novice in the right direction with instructions for using simple equipment like a Radio Shack SPL meter. In addition there is advice about securing one of the calibration disks such as Video Essentials and Avia. Finally there are the resources of the company itself including FAQ’s, e-mail and other support.
As I mentioned earlier, my intention was to see if I could use the SVS 16-46PC to complement my M&K MX350 subwoofer. The one area that the SVS clearly excels (on paper) is in the ultra-low frequency area. My thinking was that I could continue to use the M&K to handle all frequencies from 80 Hertz on down, with the SVS kicking in below 50 Hertz or so to pick up the slack to its lower limits. The set-up options available with the SVS built-in amplifier made this a breeze to implement. I choose not to by-pass the SVS crossover and set the dial to a 50Hertz crossover. I also set the phase shift to 0 degrees as a starting point, assuming that there would be little phase cancellation if the two subwoofers were not working on the same general range of frequencies. I connected both subwoofers to my DENON 5700’s single SW output with a Y connector and set the initial volume for the SVS at ~ ¾ of full (as recommended in the instruction manual.) I figured that this would be a good starting point and that I could make other adjustments later on to see how they compared. I then queued up the ANTZ demo from the DTS Demo #4 disc and let it roll.
You’ve got to be kidding!! I’ve always used the sneaker thumping scene from ANTZ DTS as a great intro demo to newbies in my HT and thought that it sounded great. Now it sounded PHENOMENAL! Where things shaked before, they now quaked. I quickly moved on to the HAUNTING DTS demo track and I couldn’t believe my ears. The headrest on my Lazy Boy literally shaked. (So much for considering “bass shakers.)” Then on to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (also on the DTS DEMO #4 disc) with the same result. All the detail, all the remarkable contrasts (the side remarks, the ricochets, the eerie hollow silence when Tom Hanks temporarily loses his hearing) were still crystal clear and the RUMBLING of the tanks was more realistic than ever before (and before it had been demo quality!)
Nothing boomy about this non-box. In fact, the tight bass produced by the very low frequencies was very reminiscent of my now departed Velodyne F-1500 servo subwoofer. Tight bass stopping right in its tracks. (This had been about the only thing about the Velodyne that I missed a bit with the M&K). Now it was back! I know the SVS is not a servo-controlled sub, but it sure delivers on the low end without a trace of boom. In fact the only residual effect after the fact was some rattling by a Howard Stern’s Private Parts framed poster that I have since added some felt pads to in order to control the rattling in the HT. I consider the M&K/SVS marriage a complete, unqualified success.
Just to be sure that I had the right combination for my needs I tried several other arrangements over the next couple of hours. My original (and final, for now) placement of the SVS was to the right of the screen, near a corner behind my M&K S150THX pedestal mounted right front speaker. The M&K SW is located on the left side of the screen near the other corner. Here are some of the other things I tried.
·I moved the SVS to the left side, next to the M&K sub.
·I tried going “full range” with the SVS, bypassing the internal crossover.
·I tried some phase shift adjustments to see if there would be any further enhancement.
·I tried various volume adjustments of the SVS and M&K subs.
In the final (for now) analysis my first instinct sounded at least as good as any other option so I returned to the original placement and settings as previously described. (SVS on right side of screen, set at ¾ volume, internal crossover set at 50Hertz, phase shift set at 0 degrees.) There was one additional benefit of this arrangement. In order to fit the SVS behind the right front M&K pedestal (so I can access my media collection on the shelves at the right) I had to place both Left and Right speakers about 5” further forward than they were before. This places the L&R speakers ~a full 2 feet forward of the front wall – something that has been advocated by sound aficionados such as Mike Knapp for some time.
My conclusions? The SVS/M&K “experiment” exceeded my expectations. I expected some improvement, even if just due to the presence of a second subwoofer, but nothing like this! I feel that the price of this unit ($799 + shipping) is an absolute steal. The price/performance ratio is amazing. If you already own a subwoofer you might want to consider “lowering the Hertz bar” another notch. If you haven’t yet made up your mind about a subwoofer you owe it to yourself to try at least one of these models (SVS offers a full range of models) in your home since there is a 45 day money back guarantee (less shipping). There is no substitute for listening in your environment.
Someone asked me if I had it all to do again would I have purchased an M&K subwoofer or even another Velodyne? After seeing and hearing the SVS I can honestly say, “No.” At least not at these price points. I would probably get a pair of SVS units in one of their configurations. Of course SVS wasn’t in existence when I made my purchase and I still feel my M&K is a fine unit. And after seeing the convenience of the self-contained powered units I feel that’s the way I would go. Some people mentioned that you lose a dB or two when incorporating an amp within the cylinder. Believe me, even if this is true you’d never miss them.
Even it your budget is limited for a subwoofer you should be looking toward SVS as a viable option. We are talking about subwoofers costing hundreds of dollars that perform like subwoofers costing THOUSANDS, and I mean MANY THOUSANDS of dollars.
The downside? You must have the space for these cylinders and, of course, you must live in a house or have VERY understanding neighbors. And, with all the possible adjustments available the SVS PC’s can either be viewed as a tweaker’s paradise or as a tweaker’s nightmare. Anyone who has ever adjusted the convergence on a CRT knows what I’m talking about. I’ll leave the technical measurements to the likes of “Subhuman” Tom Vodhanel (the “V” in SVS and a term that is used in the instruction manual). However, I have a feeling that the out of the box recommendations will be just fine for many users as they were for me within the parameters of what I was trying to accomplish. At least they represent a starting point and you don’t need a degree in electrical engineering to make appropriate adjustments.
Remember, I’m nursing a head cold and even with that I was able to adjust this subwoofer to my liking. Today the leaves were changing here in New York and my wife decided to take advantage of this with a ride in the country. I decided to seize the opportunity of an empty house to crank it up and see what it could do. Hey, if you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all. And, once you’ve heard an SVS cylinder there’s no turning back.
I’m impressed (and would have finished this article several hours earlier if I didn’t keep putting in disc after disc to hear many soundtracks like I’ve never heard them before.).
Here are a few pictures I took to accompany this review.
Link Removed
This picture shows the location of the front speakers(Note: picture lighter and, therefore, grainer than usual to show detail)
Link Removed
Location of Left Speaker and M&K Subwoofer
Link Removed
Location of Right Speaker and SVS Subwoofer
Link Removed
How speakers line up with screen lowered
------------------
RAF
[Demented Video Dude since 1997]
[Computer Maven since 1956]
["PITA" since 1942]
Link Removed
About a year ago, the basic home theater was completed and I moved my equipment in, including some new “stuff” such as a DENON 5700 Receiver and M&K 150 speakers all around to supplement my existing components and started enjoying movies. About six months later the (for now) “crown jewel” of my theater, my SONY VPL VW10HT front projector, arrived and I could finally claim that my home theater experience rivaled just about any commercial theatrical experience and, in most aspects, surpassed most local theaters.
Today, I have achieved another such milestone in my Home Theater. Late Friday afternoon a large 63 lb. box arrived via FedEx on my doorstep. It was my long anticipated SVS 16-46PC Subwoofer. This product line, the powered cylinders (thus the “PC)” has just been added to SVS’s line of excellently received subwoofers with outboard amplifiers. The new models have high quality amplifiers integrated into the cylinder, which greatly simplifies set-up and installation and allows great flexibility in moving everything around, just like any other powered subwoofer. Unfortunately, for the past few days I’ve been fighting whatever flu/head cold/etc. that has been taking the East Coast (and I understand the West Coast) by storm. Add to this some family obligations that had my house “invaded” by about 15 relatives on Saturday and this was not exactly the best of times to be setting up and evaluating any piece of equipment, much less a large 46” high, 16” in diameter cylinder. So, unaccustomed as I am to showing patience, in this case I decided to wait until this morning to tackle the project.
A little background information. As part of my original HT design I had decided to retain my trusty old but reliable Velodyne F-1500 subwoofer. It served me well for over a decade and was an old friend. Unfortunately, a few months into the new theater the Velodyne began to show its age and the cone support material began to crack. A call to Velodyne verified that this was common for this butyl compound as it aged. I actually was able to glue the cone and use it, but I felt that I would always be questioning if DAS BOOT or CONTACT or THE MATRIX or similar (you get the picture) would eventually take its toll on my Velodyne. The long and the short of it was that my son inherited a very nice subwoofer (where he had none before) and I decided to purchase an M&K MX-350thx Subwoofer after doing some homework. This is a highly respected SW and, in addition, would serve as a “match” for my other M&K speakers (if that means anything).
A few months later SVS opened its doors. I was intrigued. There were a lot of claims for the new SVS offerings and the measurements appeared to verify the claims. The bottom end of the SVS units, especially the bigger ones, exceeded the specs of my very capable M&K MX350. And the introductory price of $799 (free shipping for the introduction) with a full 45-day money-back guarantee was too good to pass up. So a few days after the PC’s were announced I placed an order. My thinking was to see if an SVS subwoofer could act in concert with another fine subwoofer to produce an even better LFI theatrical experience. I really had nothing to lose except, perhaps, some postage. Time would tell.
And this morning was that time. And what are my initial impressions?
I carefully unpacked the very well protected unit from its inner and outer boxes. The packaging was protected on all sides by a very generous amount of foam, tape, etc. In fact, I would have to state that the hardest part of the installation of this finely constructed piece of equipment was unpacking it! When it finally was released from its protective cocoon the 16-46PC revealed itself to be a handsome 46” high cylinder with black top and bottom caps. It is 16” in diameter. As a bonus, the fabric that covers the cylinder is almost a perfect match for my charcoal gray carpeting and as it sits in my HT it appears that I have customized the case to match the décor. Also included in the box is a small, concise, no nonsense but very informative instruction manual, a detachable power cord and some foot spikes to use as an option to the flat feet installed on the base.
Hook-up is a snap. Assuming you have some rudimentary knowledge of your receiver or components’ handling of LFI there is very little else to do but to connect a 75 Ohm A/V RCA type cable from your receiver or pre-amp SW output to one of the line inputs of the SVS (it doesn’t matter which one since the inputs are summed before amplification), plug in the power cord (making sure 110 or 220V is correctly switch selected) and turn it on!
The amplifier included with the 16-46PC (and I assume the other models in this line) has some very nice features. There is a POWER switch (with LED) that offers three settings, ON, OFF, and AUTO. The AUTO feature is especially useful for my application. When set in this position the amplifier automatically turns on in a fraction of a second whenever a signal is applied to the inputs. Additionally, the amp does not turn off for several minutes so that there is practically no chance of the SW turning on and off during the course of a listening session. I had wondered how I was going to handle powering the SW on and off. I wasn’t looking forward to another switch to turn or to program and the AUTO feature made this a non-issue.
Other features include Line In and Line Out jacks (stereo) in case you wish to route your signal to your signal amp with the bass information extracted. There are even high-level input/output binding posts for systems without low level output (rarely used today). There is a volume control, a crossover frequency dial with a range of 50-150 Hertz in case you wish to set the crossover frequency of the SW yourself, a crossover bypass switch (which negates the crossover frequency dial), a phase dial (0-180 degrees) in case the SVS output is canceling some low frequencies from other speaker sources, a Bass Boost Switch with settings of 0, +3 and +6dB and a fuse holder which uses an easily obtainable Radio Shack Part #270-1066 4 amp 125v 5x20mm “slow-blow” fuse (and not something only available by Yak Pack from Timbuktu!) All in all a most flexible set of controls for the tweakers of the world.
But now to the important stuff – how does it perform? As most people who find themselves at the SVS website contemplating a subwoofer purchase most likely realize, the most important parts of setting up such a device are placement, calibration and integration. A subwoofer’s performance can dramatically improve (or be degraded) by these factors and it is not the intent of this review to give the reader a course in such matters. But rest assured that the concise manual points even the novice in the right direction with instructions for using simple equipment like a Radio Shack SPL meter. In addition there is advice about securing one of the calibration disks such as Video Essentials and Avia. Finally there are the resources of the company itself including FAQ’s, e-mail and other support.
As I mentioned earlier, my intention was to see if I could use the SVS 16-46PC to complement my M&K MX350 subwoofer. The one area that the SVS clearly excels (on paper) is in the ultra-low frequency area. My thinking was that I could continue to use the M&K to handle all frequencies from 80 Hertz on down, with the SVS kicking in below 50 Hertz or so to pick up the slack to its lower limits. The set-up options available with the SVS built-in amplifier made this a breeze to implement. I choose not to by-pass the SVS crossover and set the dial to a 50Hertz crossover. I also set the phase shift to 0 degrees as a starting point, assuming that there would be little phase cancellation if the two subwoofers were not working on the same general range of frequencies. I connected both subwoofers to my DENON 5700’s single SW output with a Y connector and set the initial volume for the SVS at ~ ¾ of full (as recommended in the instruction manual.) I figured that this would be a good starting point and that I could make other adjustments later on to see how they compared. I then queued up the ANTZ demo from the DTS Demo #4 disc and let it roll.
You’ve got to be kidding!! I’ve always used the sneaker thumping scene from ANTZ DTS as a great intro demo to newbies in my HT and thought that it sounded great. Now it sounded PHENOMENAL! Where things shaked before, they now quaked. I quickly moved on to the HAUNTING DTS demo track and I couldn’t believe my ears. The headrest on my Lazy Boy literally shaked. (So much for considering “bass shakers.)” Then on to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (also on the DTS DEMO #4 disc) with the same result. All the detail, all the remarkable contrasts (the side remarks, the ricochets, the eerie hollow silence when Tom Hanks temporarily loses his hearing) were still crystal clear and the RUMBLING of the tanks was more realistic than ever before (and before it had been demo quality!)
Nothing boomy about this non-box. In fact, the tight bass produced by the very low frequencies was very reminiscent of my now departed Velodyne F-1500 servo subwoofer. Tight bass stopping right in its tracks. (This had been about the only thing about the Velodyne that I missed a bit with the M&K). Now it was back! I know the SVS is not a servo-controlled sub, but it sure delivers on the low end without a trace of boom. In fact the only residual effect after the fact was some rattling by a Howard Stern’s Private Parts framed poster that I have since added some felt pads to in order to control the rattling in the HT. I consider the M&K/SVS marriage a complete, unqualified success.
Just to be sure that I had the right combination for my needs I tried several other arrangements over the next couple of hours. My original (and final, for now) placement of the SVS was to the right of the screen, near a corner behind my M&K S150THX pedestal mounted right front speaker. The M&K SW is located on the left side of the screen near the other corner. Here are some of the other things I tried.
·I moved the SVS to the left side, next to the M&K sub.
·I tried going “full range” with the SVS, bypassing the internal crossover.
·I tried some phase shift adjustments to see if there would be any further enhancement.
·I tried various volume adjustments of the SVS and M&K subs.
In the final (for now) analysis my first instinct sounded at least as good as any other option so I returned to the original placement and settings as previously described. (SVS on right side of screen, set at ¾ volume, internal crossover set at 50Hertz, phase shift set at 0 degrees.) There was one additional benefit of this arrangement. In order to fit the SVS behind the right front M&K pedestal (so I can access my media collection on the shelves at the right) I had to place both Left and Right speakers about 5” further forward than they were before. This places the L&R speakers ~a full 2 feet forward of the front wall – something that has been advocated by sound aficionados such as Mike Knapp for some time.
My conclusions? The SVS/M&K “experiment” exceeded my expectations. I expected some improvement, even if just due to the presence of a second subwoofer, but nothing like this! I feel that the price of this unit ($799 + shipping) is an absolute steal. The price/performance ratio is amazing. If you already own a subwoofer you might want to consider “lowering the Hertz bar” another notch. If you haven’t yet made up your mind about a subwoofer you owe it to yourself to try at least one of these models (SVS offers a full range of models) in your home since there is a 45 day money back guarantee (less shipping). There is no substitute for listening in your environment.
Someone asked me if I had it all to do again would I have purchased an M&K subwoofer or even another Velodyne? After seeing and hearing the SVS I can honestly say, “No.” At least not at these price points. I would probably get a pair of SVS units in one of their configurations. Of course SVS wasn’t in existence when I made my purchase and I still feel my M&K is a fine unit. And after seeing the convenience of the self-contained powered units I feel that’s the way I would go. Some people mentioned that you lose a dB or two when incorporating an amp within the cylinder. Believe me, even if this is true you’d never miss them.
Even it your budget is limited for a subwoofer you should be looking toward SVS as a viable option. We are talking about subwoofers costing hundreds of dollars that perform like subwoofers costing THOUSANDS, and I mean MANY THOUSANDS of dollars.
The downside? You must have the space for these cylinders and, of course, you must live in a house or have VERY understanding neighbors. And, with all the possible adjustments available the SVS PC’s can either be viewed as a tweaker’s paradise or as a tweaker’s nightmare. Anyone who has ever adjusted the convergence on a CRT knows what I’m talking about. I’ll leave the technical measurements to the likes of “Subhuman” Tom Vodhanel (the “V” in SVS and a term that is used in the instruction manual). However, I have a feeling that the out of the box recommendations will be just fine for many users as they were for me within the parameters of what I was trying to accomplish. At least they represent a starting point and you don’t need a degree in electrical engineering to make appropriate adjustments.
Remember, I’m nursing a head cold and even with that I was able to adjust this subwoofer to my liking. Today the leaves were changing here in New York and my wife decided to take advantage of this with a ride in the country. I decided to seize the opportunity of an empty house to crank it up and see what it could do. Hey, if you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all. And, once you’ve heard an SVS cylinder there’s no turning back.
I’m impressed (and would have finished this article several hours earlier if I didn’t keep putting in disc after disc to hear many soundtracks like I’ve never heard them before.).
Here are a few pictures I took to accompany this review.
Link Removed
This picture shows the location of the front speakers(Note: picture lighter and, therefore, grainer than usual to show detail)
Link Removed
Location of Left Speaker and M&K Subwoofer
Link Removed
Location of Right Speaker and SVS Subwoofer
Link Removed
How speakers line up with screen lowered
------------------
RAF
[Demented Video Dude since 1997]
[Computer Maven since 1956]
["PITA" since 1942]
Link Removed
