I need help with my subwoofer dilemma!!! (1 Viewer)

[Jeff_Rice]

Hello everybody,

I have been reading all about SVS subwoofers and how great they are but I need help from you. I am pretty sure I will get the 20-39 PCi model.

Here is my problem: I currently have the Velodyne CHT-120 (front) and the CHT-80 (rear) but when I order my SVS sub should I sell my front/rear subs? Or should I keep the 120 and put that in the rear? Sell the CHT-80 for $100 to my friend?

Does the cheaper SVS Art 351 Equalizer help that much? How do you hook that thing up to your system?

Room size? Currently my room is 24' long x 12' wide x 8 ft high. This will be later change because all the gear will into my finished basement. This will be 25'x 15'x 7'.

My system is

front speakers: Polk RT800's (bi-amped)

center: CS400 (bi-wired and speaker wire is sent to amp)

rear: RT55's (hooked up to receiver)

rear center: RT35's (hooked up to receiver)

Everything is set to small; speaker lines from receiver to rear speakers (RT55's) are sent through the Velodyne CHT-80 sub, then the speaker lines sent to RT55's.

-Denon 3801 receiver

-Harmon Kardan 2.1 (5 channel amp...100 watts...high current)

-Pioneer DV-525 DVD player (will upgrade when there will be a digital connection (not 5 analog interconnects..too many damn interconnects) for SACD and DVD-Audio.))

-Audioquest interconnects and speaker wire.

-36" TV that is VE calibrated (will be upgraded when everybody figures what is the standard for HD)

I am very happy with the sound of my system but I think a SVS sub will greatly improve the sound from what I read from this forum. I need some good advice and I know this is the place. Thanks all for your time and great advice!

Jeff Rice

 

[Neil Joseph]

I always liked the idea of running with 2 subs although you will have to play around a lot before getting the optimum setup with a sub in the front and one in the rear. I would sell the #3 sub and keep the 2 better ones.

 

[brucek]

Jeff,

I would sell both your subs and replace them with the SVS. There are several reasons, but the most important is this:

When you run two subs without matching extensions you are limiting the better subs' performance. Here's the problem.

Let's say you have two subs. One extends down to 15Hz and the other extends to 25Hz. When you set the level of the better sub first, for example, to 85dB, everything is great.

Then you add in the second "challenged" sub, and the level at the frequencies that are common between the two subs increases the overall level in the room by about 6dB. So you turn down both subs to get your overall level back to where you like it at 85dB, feeling good that you know you have more headroom with the two subs.

The problem is that the level at the frequencies that are "not common" between the two subs (namely 15Hz to 25Hz) did not increase when you added the second sub. Since you had to turn both subs down when they were combined you have effectively turned down the area of the great sub from 15Hz to 25Hz. You've lost a lot of the advantage of the great sub.

Others may disagree, but if you don't combine subs with very similar extension, then don't use two subs....

brucek

 

[Jeff_Rice]

Neil, thanks for the info.

Bruce K......I have a question about rear sound information in movies. When I sit near the rear of my room and I listen to JP III the dinosaur kick off some serious bass in the rear and front, but you should not feel only from the front. For example, when some crazy sounds are coming from the rear you should only feel it from the rear, right? But,not the front. Do you agree?

I never realized how much bass information people are missing from the rear w/o the sub. When I hooked one up I was amazed and thought it sounded cool but I do not want to take away from the SVS. What do you think?

What about does the cheaper SVS Art 351 Equalizer help? How do you hook that thing up to your system?

Jeff

 

[brucek]

Jeff,

Well, I both agree and disagree with you.

Yep, I agree, there's lots of low frequency information coming from the rears, but in a system with all the speakers set to small, all that information, including low frequency information below the crossover for "all" 5 speakers is redirected to the sub.

If the crossover is 80Hz or less, then the information coming from the sub is not localized.

The theory is that you can't tell where it's coming from. Some people like to argue the localization frequency, but that's another issue.

brucek

 

[brucek]

Jeff,
The Art 351, Rane, BFD, etc are all equalizers designed to be placed in-line between the sub-out of your receiver and your subwoofer power amplifier.
They will tame (lower) peaks that are often created in a small room at these low frequencies. The peaks cause you to hear those peaked frequencies more pronounced (so called one-note bass). The equalizer lowers the level of these peaks and allows you to increase the overall level of your sub, yielding a smoother, more even bass sound.
The BFD is a favourite equalizer because it's a parametric and very inexpensive. Do a serach on BFD in this forum and you can spend the next few hours reading. Also see:
Link Removed and do some reading....
brucek

 

[Jeff_Rice]

Thanks Bruce!