My new HT is on the way!!! (1 Viewer)

[Ryan West]

I guess I'm totally electronically illiterate. My receiver is only 80w per channel and I don't even know for sure if that includes the sub channel.. My receiver isn't pushing enough juice to the sub even at high volume to bring the sub even close to it's potential so if the gain on the sub is on 2 the internal amp is hardly even being used? I have weird theorys in my head lol..

 

[schan1269]

No, the AVR is not powering the sub. "gain" is irrelevant to the grand scheme. 20hz takes more power than 80hz. Basically the AVR is making the sub "match" the sonic capability of the AVR. Reference volume is 85db with 20db of headroom. 85db, with most speakers...is 1 watt(assuming you sit 2 meters from the speakers...plus gain of 5 speakers...) 95 db, or half the headroom, is 10. 105db, or the full headroom, is 100. If you are rumbling along at 20hz and it takes 2 watts for the sub to create 20hz...while your center takes 1 watt to create 1khz... 85db is 2. 95db is 20. 105db is 200. Now do you see why you bought so much sub?

 

[Ryan West]

Got it down to -1db but the volume knob is on like 1.75 and with the volume on the receiver turned up to -20dB the bass is hardly there... I can't get good bass now unless I turn the Bass level in the receiver to 10.dB Sounds great there.. Is this bad?? If I turn the volume to -4 db it's pumping hard vibrating the walls etc but it doesn't sound like it's distorting any.

 

[schan1269]

Most people aren't used to "reference bass". If you measured it with a SPL meter, you'd probably be shocked how much bass there really is. Like it was alluded to, if you think there isn't enough bass, bump it up a tad. But leave the level in the AVR itself alone now...unless you need to watch at night and not disturb anybody. You also can't gauge the subwoofer against the rest of what you are hearing...cause you have no idea how it was mixed. Watch a movie like Tron:Legacy and you'll probably have more bass than you have while watching TV.

 

[Robert_J]

I agree with Sam on the the headroom. The more you have, the less distortion you have. My receiver is rated at around 100w/channel. My sub uses an amp that is rated at 2,500w. I can't use all of that power. I've tried but chickened out for fear of damaging pictures, dishes and my wife's nick-nacks that were bouncing all over the house.

 

[Ryan West]

Well I got my sub level down to -1dB in Audyssey.. I had to put the gain on the sub all most all the way turned down, it's at about 2.. Is my bass impressive now, NO.. No wall shaking seat vibrating bass now. To get it back to even being close to impressive I have to run it at least at 10dB through audyssey.. I even tried moving the sub into the corner..

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Ryan West
To get it back to even being close to impressive I have to run it at least at 10dB through audyssey.. I even tried moving the sub into the corner..

I think you may have missed what Sam suggested. The key here is that you want Audyssey "tweaking" the speaker (and sub) levels as little as possible. Do what you must so that the speaker adjust levels on the AVR are reasonably close to 0 (within that +/- 3dB range).
Clearly, when you did this, the results weren't what you wanted (which is not uncommon - just about all of us punch up the subwoofer a little bit). At this point, you should dial up the gain on the subwoofer itself, not within the AVR menu. This will have the same end result of increasing the levels in the AVR to +10dB or whatever, but it's a "safer" approach because the subwoofer has "room to spare" in amplifying the signal without any danger of clipping. In other words, if the AVR is attentuating or intensifying the subwoofer signal to near its (the AVR's) limits, then any sudden bursts of strong LFE may push the signal sent from the AVR to the subwoofer into the clipping range and you risk damage to the sub or hearing distortion.

 

[Ryan West]

Ugggh lol.. I was told exactly the opposite over at AVR in the outlaw sub owners thread.. They say "once you get the Audyssey to set the Sub Trim as close to 0bd (in my case I got it to -1dB) then so not touch the gain on the sub again and use the receiver to adjust it.. lol..

 

[Ryan West]

so I left the Sub Level to -1dB and bumped up the Gain... back to thumping now... very nice. I hope Im doing this right lol.. I guess as long as the sub isnt distorting or bottoming out it is ok right?

 

[schan1269]

Like I said earlier... Most people are accustomed to "bloated bass". When they hear a system set "reference"(which is what Aud/YPAO/MCACC etc do)... The initial reaction is... "Where did my bass go?" I'm currently reviewing the SVS 13Ultra. I have it set up where it makes it presence known...but isn't ubnoxious. And trust me, you could set the 13Ultra to be more than obnoxious.

 

[Ryan West]

Here's a peek at my install, the front half anyways.. It looks cool with the grills off but unfortunately they don't stay off..

 

[schan1269]

If you are worried about the dust covers(the center "raised" part of the woofer)... You could always buy replacement inverted dust covers...That "shouldn't" void the warranty... Just an example...as I have no idea the size of the dust cap. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-piece-WOOFER-SPEAKER-Plastic-DOME-DUST-CAP-40mm-/281039940606?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416f492bfe

 

[Ryan West]

Well, just worried about the whole speaker itself lol. Kids like to poke speakers lol..

 

[Jim Mcc]

WOW, those are low. I could see the door knob is about level with the center of the speaker. My kids are all grown now, but I never would have had my speakers that low. Hell, they're gone now and I mounted mine higher on a shelf.

 

[schan1269]

That looks to be about the same tweeter height as if a Primus tower was sitting there. The tweeter is about dead center top/bottom of the screen. If you had bought the Def Tech 3, the tweeters would be in the same spot.

 

[gene c]

What you really have to worry about is the tweeter. It seems to be made out of a plastic type material and once it's been "dimpled" it can't be pulled back out like a soft dome can. It doesn't affect the sound but it looks bad. I friends child pushed in a tweeter on a Dynaudio I have (with the grill on!) but I was able to pull it back out with the sticky stuff on the back of a Post-It note. That's what I like about the Infinity Beta series. They have metal grills that you could throw a baseball at and not damage them. I really don't care for the grill's on the newer (xx3) series with the way it folds over the top of the speaker. I much prefer the original one's. But if they sound nice, who cares what the grills look like.

 

[Ryan West]

I think they will provide good enough protection unless someone takes a knife to them and if that happens we have bigger issues than the speakers lol.