SVS on TechTV (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Anderson]

Secrets' John E. Johnson did a segment on TechTV's Call For Help this week where he set up a home theater on their set. I was glad to see that the sub he used on the show was the SVS 25-31PCi! I thought it was very cool that John hyped SVS on national television. Leo Laporte and crew seemed to be very impressed, as it shook their control room 30 feet away. I guess now they know what the rest of us SVS owners have known for a while -- SVS is da' shiznit!

 

[SVS-Ron]

Jeremy,

Believe it or not we had notice of the airing, but coming as it did the day after Christmas and us still working thru a crush of e-mail and orders we didn't have time to record it!

According to Dr. John Johnson, there were actually two segments because the first one ran over. After CES we'll probably have something in place so that we link to Secrets and the video.

I did hear the crew at TechTV was fairly astounded with the PCi's performance. Anyone that owns one certainly isn't too suprised ;^)

Ron

 

[Khoa Tran]

i saw the beginning of that episode but i never go to that segment....last time though they setup some b&w 600s but i forgot what kinda sub...

 

[BradD]

The video should be up on hometheaterhifi's website soon.

 

[Jesse Sharrow]

Hey ron are you going to stop by today?

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Great Ron, ... looking forward for the video link!! !

Phil

 

[John_V]

Everyone always talks about how their SVS shakes the room and such. I just got a 20-39 PCi, and after careful calibration with Avia and an SPL meter, the bass is terrific, but there's not much shaking going on.

Could it be because my room is in the basement, and underneath the carpet is a concrete floor?

 

[WayneO]

With a concrete floor, yeah, it's kinda hard to rattle that..... My PB2+ is in my living room(plywood sheets on beams) above my basement and it does shake everything.

 

[Ron Stimpson]

John,

That's exactly the case as Wayne said. There is little flexing a cement floor, and you do lose the tactile waves a typical wood joist floor will have by its nature.

Put the sub in an upstairs room, calibrate it the same, and you'll be shocked at how different the feel of the sub is.

In my last HT, the first row of seats was on cement/carpet, and the second was on a riser of about 8".

We're talking 3' separated the two rows of seats and the subonics were entirely different experiences.

In some cases you can just use 2" firring strips to make a kind of subfloor (no pun intended) with plywood or particle board as the sheeting and then your carpet.

It probably would work well for you, as might some experimentation with your current placement of the sub (you might have response nulls working against you that only a different location for the sub will correct).

Ron

 

[Edward J M]

For quality bass, I'll take a concrete floor over a wooden floor any day. A wooden floor (particularly over an open room below) has boom and uncontrolled resonance that a concrete floor just doesn't. Hell, jump up and down upstairs and you'll see what I mean. Try it in the basement and all you'll get is sore feet.

My old 20-39PC+ now resides at a friend's house and it literally turned his cheapo wood floor (over a basement) into a virtual trampoline (with all kinds of unnatural boom). Two huge concrete pavers (100 pounds total) under the sub decoupled it and presto - much less boom. Just goes to show you the room/floor can ruin the sound of even the best sub.

IMO the sub should pressurize the air, not resonate the floor. If you aren't getting your pants waffled on a concrete floor, just buy more sub.

 

[DaleBesh]

My HT is on a slab floor (and a carpet). But at one time was on a wood floor. I use the same method of 'isolation' or 'enhancement'.
I have an additional patch of carpet laid down first, on top of the existing carpet, if it exists.
Then the sub is placed on top of a square cement block (such as the type used as garden step}. Of course, you can vary the block depending on the size and type of sub you have.
Then I place an identical block on top of the sub, using an old towel in-between to protect the finish.
The one on top is optional. It's a goody fix I admit. But does seem to add some solidity, if you will. Even on a fine M&K subwoofer. The theory being it further adds integrity to the sub's housing.
In any case, I found very little acoustic transmission through a wood floor using this method.

 

[John_V]

Thanks for sharing your setups, it's helpful. I'm satisfied with the sound on the concrete floor, and since I have bass shakers in the couch, I just turn 'em on when I need some thump.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Adding to the comments above, my SVS 25-31PCi is located in the Right Front Corner of my 20' x 30' HT/family room.

The Main HT/family room foundation is solid cement foundation (20' x 20') with oak wood square flooring thru-out into the kitchen.

My SVS 25-31PCi is the only sub that added more sub-sonic tactile feel in that room!

The only consumer power-sub I owned (pre-SVS) coming close, though not as flat or w/power bass line authority from 50 Hz down to 20 Hz (SW15 limit around 28-29 Hz in the Right Room Corner) was my 200w 15" AudioSource SW15! (now @ my vacation house in a smaller room)

FYI: JBL S-Series / SVS: REFERENCED Calibrated using Dolby Digital - "Explore Our World" DVD DD-EX Test Tones:

.... a) Dolby Digital EX HT Speaker Test Tones = 75 dB
.... b) Dolby Digital EX LFE Test Tone = 76 dB AVG (highest RS SPL Meter needle swing = 77 dB / lowest = 75 dB)

Phil

 

[Ronneil Camara]

What will it be in my case since my HT is in the basement and is wall-to-wall carpeted?

Thanks in advance.

Ronneil

 

[Ronneil Camara]

That was incomplete. I mean, how will SVS perform if it's carpeted?

Thanks.

 

[WayneO]

For the sub it shouldn't make much of a difference, it's what's underneath(concrete or wood) it that can make a difference.

 

[Ronneil Camara]

Mine is concrete.

 

[Chris A H]

Here is the link to the video segment.

 

[Scott Kriefall]

Not bad for a quickie HT-related segment on a non-HT show. It's nice to see some exposure for SVS and Aperion Audio. Those Aperion speakers look remarkably similar to the old Paradigm Studio 20 v1s.

The only thing that I cringed at was their reference to using 18 guage speaker wire .

 

[Citizen87645]

The only thing I miss about my pre-SVS sub was that the vent port was in the back and would blow the curtains with the exploding/morphing THX demo. But the SVS' rattling of picture frames more than compensates