Brian LaRose
Grip
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2001
- Messages
- 24
I received my new SVS a little over two weeks ago so I thought that I would take the time to give my opinions and overview of what its been like since it arrived. (Sorry, this is long, but it is somewhat humorous)
After picking it up from UPS (see note below), my friend and I set about in unpacking the Sampson amp and subwoofer, post haste. We added the amp to my rack and disconnected the previous two subs that I had in the system. Putting this together was a piece of cake, the directions between the SVS and the amp were easy to follow and we had no problems what-so-ever.
Next, we set about calibrating the sub. Now, up until this point, my wife had been out and had just gotten home. She didn't take part in the set-up, she wanted to let the "boys" have their fun. Don't get me wrong, she loves the HT, but just doesn't care about the set-up part of it. Well, we threw Avia in the DVD player, set the dB to 85 and started calibrating. This was OK, no big deal, all set in no time flat. Haven't heard anything impressive yet, but I figured we would soon once we started playing titles of the demo list at SVS.
First title in, Toy Story 2. I love this opening, huge bass and exciting visuals to go with it. Here was my first mistake, I didn't turn the volume down and left it at 85 dB. The SVS is rocking and so was the house. There was also this popping noise coming from the sub, but it turned out that I had the Sampson turned all the way up. Fixed that by taking it down about 5-10 dB on the amp, and no more popping noises from the sub. Played it again to make sure, again at 85 dB (dumb, dumb, dumb... :frowning: ). Sure enough, no popping noises.
Instead there was this thumping noise coming from somewhere. Turns out it was my wife storming down the stairs to tell me that the "noise" my new toy was generating was "unacceptable". While it had sounded awesome downstairs in our basement, it had apparently caused most of the studs in the house to vibrate as well. She told me to come upstairs and see what it was doing. So I had my friend queue up Toy Story 2 again and quickly hustled upstairs after my wife. Sure enough, the walls are groaning, the dishes are rattling, but that wasn't all. She pointed to our cats that were laying on the hardwood floors. Suddenly during some deep, sustained bass, the cats started slowly move across the floor, although they were laying down and not moving! The sub was vibrating the floors so much it was like watching one of those old table-top football games.
Needless to say that I quickly explained to my wife that the the receiver was set louder than what we normally watched it at and that it wouldn't sound (or vibrate) like this in the future. Did not have a happy spouse that night. She was seriously considering making me return it! She hadn't heard it yet from our HT perspective yet, so the next night I took her to the HT and popped in SW Ep1. She thought the THX-intro was pretty neat ("Did my pant leg just move from that?"), and she liked the Pod racing scene as well. After a few more demos, she saw how much it added, enough that she wasn't going to try to make me send it back. She's OK with it now, though she's not sure how its going to be when my friends and I are watching a movie she has no interest in.
Anyway, since then, I have brought over friends and family and blown them away with this thing. Almost everyone comments on the THX-Intro from Ep 1, and they love the T-Rex scene from Jurassic Park. I love it! For me, it has completed the last of the things that needed to be replaced to give me a HT I'm happy with. (For now
) Sorry for this being so long winded, but I just wanted to share my SVS experience and tell those that are on the fence about getting a SVS, hop on over and get one now! You won't regret it, unless you try to watch movies at 85 dB with your wife upstairs.
Just a little side note on UPS. Both my wife and I work full time. Since this comes UPS ground and it requires a signature, neither of us are ever home to receive these types of packages. This usually means a delay of a day in getting these packages (which seems like an eternity when you are waiting for your SVS!!), because they have to "attempt one delivery" before it can be held at the UPS facility. However, I found a way to avoid this while discussing the issue with UPS. If you specify your local UPS distributing facilities address as the shipping destination (with your name as the receiver) and have the shipper write on the box "hold at distribution center, customer will pick up there", you can avoid the hassle of the yellow slips on your door and having to wait an extra day to get your packages. Just wanted to throw this tip out there since I was unaware of it.
Thanks again to the SVS guys!
Brian
After picking it up from UPS (see note below), my friend and I set about in unpacking the Sampson amp and subwoofer, post haste. We added the amp to my rack and disconnected the previous two subs that I had in the system. Putting this together was a piece of cake, the directions between the SVS and the amp were easy to follow and we had no problems what-so-ever.
Next, we set about calibrating the sub. Now, up until this point, my wife had been out and had just gotten home. She didn't take part in the set-up, she wanted to let the "boys" have their fun. Don't get me wrong, she loves the HT, but just doesn't care about the set-up part of it. Well, we threw Avia in the DVD player, set the dB to 85 and started calibrating. This was OK, no big deal, all set in no time flat. Haven't heard anything impressive yet, but I figured we would soon once we started playing titles of the demo list at SVS.
First title in, Toy Story 2. I love this opening, huge bass and exciting visuals to go with it. Here was my first mistake, I didn't turn the volume down and left it at 85 dB. The SVS is rocking and so was the house. There was also this popping noise coming from the sub, but it turned out that I had the Sampson turned all the way up. Fixed that by taking it down about 5-10 dB on the amp, and no more popping noises from the sub. Played it again to make sure, again at 85 dB (dumb, dumb, dumb... :frowning: ). Sure enough, no popping noises.
Instead there was this thumping noise coming from somewhere. Turns out it was my wife storming down the stairs to tell me that the "noise" my new toy was generating was "unacceptable". While it had sounded awesome downstairs in our basement, it had apparently caused most of the studs in the house to vibrate as well. She told me to come upstairs and see what it was doing. So I had my friend queue up Toy Story 2 again and quickly hustled upstairs after my wife. Sure enough, the walls are groaning, the dishes are rattling, but that wasn't all. She pointed to our cats that were laying on the hardwood floors. Suddenly during some deep, sustained bass, the cats started slowly move across the floor, although they were laying down and not moving! The sub was vibrating the floors so much it was like watching one of those old table-top football games.
Needless to say that I quickly explained to my wife that the the receiver was set louder than what we normally watched it at and that it wouldn't sound (or vibrate) like this in the future. Did not have a happy spouse that night. She was seriously considering making me return it! She hadn't heard it yet from our HT perspective yet, so the next night I took her to the HT and popped in SW Ep1. She thought the THX-intro was pretty neat ("Did my pant leg just move from that?"), and she liked the Pod racing scene as well. After a few more demos, she saw how much it added, enough that she wasn't going to try to make me send it back. She's OK with it now, though she's not sure how its going to be when my friends and I are watching a movie she has no interest in.
Anyway, since then, I have brought over friends and family and blown them away with this thing. Almost everyone comments on the THX-Intro from Ep 1, and they love the T-Rex scene from Jurassic Park. I love it! For me, it has completed the last of the things that needed to be replaced to give me a HT I'm happy with. (For now
) Sorry for this being so long winded, but I just wanted to share my SVS experience and tell those that are on the fence about getting a SVS, hop on over and get one now! You won't regret it, unless you try to watch movies at 85 dB with your wife upstairs. Just a little side note on UPS. Both my wife and I work full time. Since this comes UPS ground and it requires a signature, neither of us are ever home to receive these types of packages. This usually means a delay of a day in getting these packages (which seems like an eternity when you are waiting for your SVS!!), because they have to "attempt one delivery" before it can be held at the UPS facility. However, I found a way to avoid this while discussing the issue with UPS. If you specify your local UPS distributing facilities address as the shipping destination (with your name as the receiver) and have the shipper write on the box "hold at distribution center, customer will pick up there", you can avoid the hassle of the yellow slips on your door and having to wait an extra day to get your packages. Just wanted to throw this tip out there since I was unaware of it.
Thanks again to the SVS guys!
Brian
