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Guys...I'm not getting much bass out of my sub (SVS) (1 Viewer)

Patrick.B

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Nov 18, 2005
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I just ordered a 16-46pci as I mentioned in another thread a day or so ago. It was going well and I was getting nice bass and then I watched a few more movies today without really changing anything and am not really getting any bass if I'm more than a foot or so away from the sub. I have the crossover on the speakers set to 80 hz and the sub is a little above half on gain. Phase is in the middle and onboard crossover is disabled. My receiver was running anywhere from -30dB to -12dB and it only got marginally better as I turned it up. What am I doing wrong? I watched the explosion of the tall building in Independance Day and the bomb scene in Contact which SVS mentions in their manual. I also watched Stealth and didn't get much bass at all from that. The first film I watched (and got good bass with) was Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The only things I can think of I've done since watching Smith was do the auto-calibrate on my receiver with the little mic that came with it (Onkyo 803) and turn the gain knob down because it was bothering the dog (this bass was at about 1/3 when I was getting GOOD bass, now at more than double that I'm getting hardly any). What's the deal? Help?

Thanks in advance,
Patrick
 

SteveCallas

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Dec 23, 2003
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Auto calibration/EQ probably messed your settings up. Make sure speakers are small, crossed over at 80hz, sub is set to yes, dvd player is set to bitstream and not PCM, all that good stuff. Also check your sub levels with an spl meter if you have one to get a better idea of what's going on.
 

RichardH

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What was your previous sub? Can you try out another sub in the place of the SVS without changing anything else? It sure sounds like a setup/settings issue.

What is the channel level of the sub on your receiver? Try the phase all the way to the left (at 0) first. Then experiment with other phase settings.
 

John Garcia

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Always check your setings after running autosetup. It may have set some of your speakers to large which will send less bass to the sub.
 

MikeyWeitz

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Feb 10, 2002
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Well, if you ask my wife, she will tell you our 16-46PC+ Def. has TOO much bass :)

Calibrated and eq'd flat, she always gives me a funny look when I shake the house :)
 

Patrick.B

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Nov 18, 2005
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I don't actually see a large/small setting for the speakers on my receiver. The only setting I see is a crossover frequency which is set to 80 hz. The sub is indeed set to "yes" and I went to my DVD player and set it up Downmix: Dolby Surround, Digital Out: On, Dolby Digital: Dolby Digital. DTS: On. On thse speaker set up, the LPF of LFE is 80 hz (THX). This is the lowest frequency option (90, 100 and 120 hz are the other options).

I don't have a previous sub-- this is my first one. So I can't switch it out and don't have a frame of reference other than what it did when I first got it. The channel settings of the mains are both +0 dB and the sub is also +0 dB. I also don't have a set up CD or an SPL meter. All I have to go by are test tones sent from the receiver.

Mikey, what level of gain are you running it at? Maybe give it as an o'clock (with the min being 7 and the max being 5 o'clock) Mine is right now right at noon. I don't want to run it too high so I can get the bass I want and risk damaging something. Maybe I'm not running it as high as I should be?

Thanks for all the help, guys!
 

Dick Knisely

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Oct 22, 2005
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:laugh: Must be somethin' about wives (quick duck!). Mine says the same thing and I know that "funny look" really well.
 

RichardH

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Check out your receiver's manual. You have to have a large/small setting for each channel. The receiver might call it something different, though, like "normal" or something like that.

Also, what is the channel level for the sub on the receiver?
 

Patrick.B

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Nov 18, 2005
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The forum won't let me link to the manual, but if you go to the Onkyo site --> Downloads --> Manuals --> Receivers --> TXSR803 and click the first one (the English one) it's the manual in PDF format.

I've looked through the manual and the only thing I can see that is somewhat similar to the large/small setting is mentioned on page 71 in the manual. If you set the mains to "full band" you can set a subwoofer mode of "Double Bass" where it says it puts the bass from the mains through the woofer and "LFE Only (THX)" which only outputs the LFE channel, but as I said the mains have to be set to full band to access this. The THX settings are all at 80 hz and that's what I have the crossover at.

I honestly don't see anything else similar to a large/small speaker setting.

Maybe if someone else has an Onkyo receiver they can help. I'll ask over on the Receiver forum.
 

Dick Knisely

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Oct 22, 2005
Messages
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Patrick,

That's the equivalent and from what you quoted, I think that is exactly what you want. That's an odd way to describe it but
is precisely what you want.

You may have some trouble getting a smooth transition from the front mains to the sub but that's dependent on the characteristics of the mains and I'm not familiar enough with those to say.

Also, exactly how is the sub connected to the receiver--which output?
 

Patrick.B

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Nov 18, 2005
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I was confused with that setting because the mains had to be set to full band for that setting to be done. The sub is connected with a sub cable from the sub pre-out.
 

Dick Knisely

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Oct 22, 2005
Messages
372
Hopefully it will route both the bass and LFE channel to that output in all combinations of inputs. But try those settings and see what happens with DVD's (2 channel output, DTS, Dolby Digital, etc) and CD's. It ought to work -- doesn't mean it will but it should.
 

Patrick.B

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Nov 18, 2005
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14
I was thinking it doesn't have a "large/small" setting but it does have a frequency setting for each speaker (I think it starts at 40 hz or so) which I have set to 80 hz for the mains. I was thinking this was sort of an advanced "large/small" setting that would push all bass below the specified frequency to a subwoofer but from what you are saying I am not sure.

I went and bought an SPL meter and moved the sub to the "best" corner in the room. I put that in quotes because there isn't really a good corner for it. One corner has a door in it, one corner has windows for one of the walls and the other two have the wall open from about 4 or 5? feet from the corner. I put the sub in the corner closest to the TV with the one solid wall and one solid wall for 5 or so feet. The meter read about 76 dB for both mains and 79 dB for the sub. The sub is doing much better in that corner although it's not quite what I was expecting.

I fear this is the best I can do in this room. It's no reflection on the sub, I think, but rather on the room. The room is about 21x18x12 (lxwxh) with the tv on one of the short walls. The rear short wall has the door in it and one of the long walls is glass while the other is basically open except for about 4 feet on either end. Both openings go to rooms much larger than the one the TV is in. I think it was perhaps unrealistic to expect large, feelable bass in this room, especially with the sub I bought.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I think it's as good as it will probably get but if someone has some more advice, I'd love to hear it!

Patrick
 

RichardH

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Nov 28, 2000
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742
Well, that is a THX Select2 receiver, so I'm sure there's a way to get it set for THX standard setup of all channels as small w/ 80Hz crossover, and the sub getting all 5 channels' bass below 80Hz plus the LFE. It's just the language they use that makes it a little confusing.
 

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