Recent content by Terry St

The first control that is in terms of frequency is probably a crossover, although it's a little strange for a sub crossover to go up into the kHz range. This dial will control the frequency at which the sub starts kicking in. If you hook up your sub using a y-cable from your mains then you...

Terminations are primarily for convenience. If you move your speakers around a lot and have to unhook/rehook them frequently then some form of termination is a big time saver. If you mostly just leave your speakers where they are then bare wire is pretty much optimal. Oxidization is heavily...

Is this all happening in the same room? Some rooms have really strong modes at exactly the wrong frequencies. A parametric EQ might help if that's the case.

I'm not an audio pro either, but SNR pops up in a lot of places. It typically is just a ratio of signal strength over background noise. Higher is usually better. e.g. If you had an amp with a very low SNR, it would not be able to produce signals you want (like a guitar) at volumes that are a lot...

I've seen many speaker lines where the gap was a lot smaller, but I'll agree that you have to examine each lineup individually. There is one other problem with bookshelf speakers to consider though. If you have a significant other who has different priorities for space usage, it may be difficult...

I'll second the notion of concentrating on the center channel first as well. I've seen a lot of speaker-lines that have massive tower fronts and a puny little center that's meant to sit on top of your TV. You really do want your center to be able to go down low enough to mesh with your sub...

Here's a somewhat technical question: Is Sony planning to issue an API so that open source players can start supporting Bluray discs properly? Now, I know the knee-jerk reaction is going to be "No", since this could potentially open up the format to piracy. However, I must point out that...

I'd just like to point out that full bitrate DTS (i.e. 1.5kbps) has been shown to be acoustically transparent in double blind ABX testing. (i.e. You can't tell the difference between it and uncompressed PCM) It follows that DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD won't sound any different than a full bitrate...

With the format war raging you would think that both sides would be bringing out the best catalog titles they can come up with to get as many "gotta have" titles on their side as possible. Neither side is doing all that great, but the HD-DVD side has made some supremely screwy choices. For...

I mostly just skimmed your post(s), but my initial reaction is that you'd probably run into problems with the subs canceling each other out and creating some rather odd nulls and nodes. Still, you might get lucky. Also, have you tried moving your SVS around to see if you just had it in a bad...

The copper may also be reacting with the housing. Either way, replacing it won't hurt.

Stick the sub in your listening position and then crouch down in the places where you think it might fit and see what spot sounds best. Then swap places with the sub.

The Totem Mani-2's are actually the first speaker I thought of when I read the thread title. They go substantially deeper than the Arro's. Extension of +/- 3dB to 29 Hz is nothing to sneeze at for a full size tower, but the Mani-2's are bookshelf speakers! Still, they're a bit pricey and have...

When you were watching the movie, did you have the volume set such that explosions, etc. were much louder than the volume you normally listen to music at? If so, then the sound you're describing could either be port chuffing or your sub bottoming out. The former only happens with ported subs...

Let me try again... Let's say you have a fistful of 10 dollar bills. You can think of these bills as each being the equivalent of a five dollar bill, 4 one dollar bills, 3 quarters, two dimes and a nickel. That sort of thinking is useful when you're paying for a chocolate bar and working out...