My Subwoofer (1 Viewer)

[Wayde_R]

I have a moderately priced sub. Boston Acoustics VR 500 (I paid $500 for years ago). 10inch 100W.

I love it for music but think it could use a bit more power for movies. Usually it's fine though.

There is a performance issue I am having with it. It's a rare but consistent problem ever since I got a Dolby Digital receiver.

When the sub is being hit hard I can hear what sounds like rattling inside the thing. It's as if it's being over driven or it just doesn't like whatever frequency it is trying to reproduce so I get what I guess is just distortion.

It's normally rare like I say, few movies give me that tone if I keep the volume (on the sub) down to a moderate level. But, to my dismay the Star Wars trilogy DVDs use whatever frequency that hurts my sub regularly. So anytime there are spaceships making rumble I get that distortion no matter how low I keep the volume on the sub.

Does anyone notice that the Star Wars Trilogy DVDs are very bass heavy with very low frequencies that might be hard on my sub? Does anyone have any advice for how I might overcome this problem? Could it be something loose inside the sub? Is it just time to buy a new one?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Wayde

 

[Mort Corey]

If you bought it in the days of Dolby Pro Logic receivers, it's probably time for a new unit as it's just not up to the LFE being generated by todays systems. I see you're from Waterloo....kind of appropriate

Mort

 

[Nathan W.]

I had a DCM Sub-712(still have one, different one) that had a rattle in it that I could hear when standing close to it. It turned out to be the connector in the wiring between the internal amp and driver rattling against something on the circuit board. I wrapped a sock around the connector and stifled it.

 

[John Garcia]

If it seems to be frequency dependent, and occurs mostly when there is very low information present, then it is probably that the sub is not up to task. It sounds like it may not be able to reproduce the lowest frequencies, and is causing the driver to bottom out or cause port noise while it is struggling.

 

[Wayde_R]

Thanks for the advice guys. Yes, I think it's just not up to the task. If I had a reference DVD (avia) I could probably narrow it down to the exact frequency my sub stops reproducing and starts distorting on. I am very far from spending 1K for the SVS or the Paradigm I've been salivating over, so I'll have to live with it for now.

Mort, I think you're right. It's definitely a Pro Logic vintage. Are you familiar with Waterloo? How is it appropriate? (sorry, I'm a bit slow this morning).

Thanks again
Wayde

 

[Wayde_R]

In case anybody is interested...

I just replaced the Boston Acoustics VR500 with a Velodyne DPS-12. I'm still in the "testing" phase and have the option to take back the Velodyne.

However I am thoroughly impressed with the Velodyne, it's a monster. It's certainly louder than the VR500 (but I'm also going from a 10inch to a 12inch). That frequency that was giving the VR500 trouble is no trouble at all for the new sub.

In fact, I don't know if some sort of room acoustics plays into this or not but whatever frequency that is it causes my fireplace to shake. There are only few soundtracks that produce that tone. The nuke at the begining of Terminator 3 is one of them. The Velodyne puts that tone out very loud and clear, and then so does my gas fireplace, I can hear parts rattling away back there. I hope I am not going to break the glass in front. The gas fireplace is on the opposite end of the room, in fact the opposite corner so it's about 31 feet away.

to the Velodyne dps-12. But, the VR500 was great for its day. Let me know if anyone wants to buy it in the K-W area.

 

[John Garcia]

Well, sounds like it wasn't room, it was just the sub struggling. Either way, sounds like you got it taken care of

 

[Nathan Stohler]

I had the PV500 for about a week. I ended up bringing it back to Tweeter to trade up for the PV700 because it had a little better extension and it's a 12" sub.

I didn't have a particular problem with the PV500. It probably would've been just fine for my needs, but not getting the 12" sub would've always bothered me.