Quiet_Hollow Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 If anyone has been following the Garage sale section they'll see that, after nearly a year, I successfully sold my tapped horn subwoofer. I knew I'd be reeling-in the system's performance by three years or so, back to the point where I didn't have a component horn subwoofer, and I figured with the trusty DEQ I'd put the spurs to La Scalas for now to make up for the difference. For a few days, that worked great. [Y] Then the day arrived when the GF dropped in our latest Netflix movie and....no sound. [*-)] No bitstream allowed through the DEQ? Shoot, I forgot! So I go into the BD player menu and switch output to PCM Stereo downmix. Still, no dice. Ugh! [8o|] I pulled the plug on the DEQ and sulked for a while. We weren't going to be swapping optical cables every time we went from movies to music. In the absence of the beloved towering sub-bass factory, or without basic EQ, the system simply can't get E-vil sounding. So, In a vain attempt to be resourceful, I dug out my old YST-SW150 from storage again. I figured I can at least put the AS-EQ1 back to work giving us some much needed reinforcement in the lower octave or so. An el-cheapo, 14 year-old powered subwoofer coupled to a high-dollar, state-of-the-art digital signal processor. Who would've thunk? The GF and I ran through level matching and sweeping the system with the DSP.... ~whew~ Brace your self. [^o)] The report card from Audyssey had me laughing. Check it out. It's missing the entire sub-bass octave. Not just some...ALL of it. I wish I had a copy of the report from the tapped horn to compare against. That had a nice flat line right down to 18Hz. Granted, this wasn't meant to be a shoot-out to pit the scrappy 'ol Yamaha up against the big horns. But how often does one get the chance to experience a throwback like this? Even with the DSP assisting in delivering all its got to give, the performance disparity between the two technologies was / is humurous at best. And that's only the frequency response. What a difference! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 There IS no replacement for displacement. I've tried my RF-7's without a sub for HT and it's just not the same. Music? sure, HT...... gotta have a good sub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Yeah, and there's some placement issues in there too...mainly the listening position. The "sub" is actually somewhat okay to 30 then -10 dB at 20 in native form. Certainly nothing to write home to mamma about. But my front wall is ~14ft out from and the ceiling at ~10ft above where I sit, so in-room the 20 to 30 Hz region takes it right in the nut sack by a few. This thing doesn't afford any headroom to EQ through some of the room nulls like the big kahuna could. Santuko vs. moon axe... [li] We'll see. If the placement committee approves my request, I might be able to squeeze some better numbers out of it. One big positive is that it's a twin driver servo sub, so unless I'm right on top of the grill running at mach10, distortion levels are low enough to afford difficulty picking it out, even from only a foot or two away.[Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 So I moved it out of the corner to see if I could get any improved response. I ended up parking it real close to the left-back side of the couch to stay in the SPL "window" I was running before. As so many folks before me with La Scala's can attest to, I just could not get this thing sounding any good by using the traditional set-up methodology. So I busted out the DEQ and took a sample of what my mains were accomplishing if I let them run full range. As to be expected in-room, they started rolling off ~40Hz. So what I did to work around this was, instead of high passing the mains at 80Hz, I ran them full range and cranked the sub low-pass down as low as it would go to 40Hz in order to hand-off with them down deep (30 Hz would've worked even better). Because the sub's SPL response down there is so paltry, I had to increase the gain on the plate amp a good chunk to bring things back to what my ears were used to. It's a compromise as the Panny has to work a little harder now and there's a minor bump in response around 40 Hz, but I'm at least able to feel movie effects and electronic synth bass notes with some sense of authority again. For comparison, I actually found the response plots of the tapped horn I sold. BIG difference! I'd forgotten just how low that thing could dig! [:|] The response chart of the end result with the scrappy Yamaha is posted below. The new placement got rid of that suck-out in the below 20 Hz region, shifted things a little around by 30 Hz, and smoothed it up a touch on top. Still nothing major in terms o improvement in outright extension. As is evident, this thing is busting it's balls to take the place of the 'ol tapped horn sub. The nice thing is, because of the DSP it's a snap (15 minutes tops) to see these changes and dial things in repeatably now. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 With the recent addition of a Tuba HT subwoofer, it is once again time to park the trusty 'ol Yamaha. The system is back to "full-tilt" capability. [6] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_benjammin Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbox Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Thats one nicely finished Tuba you go there mister. is there a build thread for it? I have the plans, but have not tried it out yet. What made you make this vs one which was wider? i heard wider was better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Thats one nicely finished Tuba you go there mister. is there a build thread for it? Yes, it's covered over at the BF website. Build: http://www.billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=18463 Deployment: http://www.billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=18545 What made you make this vs one which was wider? i heard wider was better? I was planning on two, narrow (easier to move) cabinets. I got shorted with wood, but pressed on with building a single. Wider is better, but it's not like the narrow versions are simply mute. The slim cabs can definitely bring down the house. Taking into account in-room maximum SPL requirements, all the math pointed to one box still covering my desires within limits. It performs utterly fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elitedemo Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 looks sharp, you do these yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbox Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Cool thread man, i really need to just get off my butt and build one. maybe this winter. Dayton Dirver i think i read? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Beautiful finish. I have been kicking around what to finish mine in. They are still raw birch. Since mine are in a shop, gloss black might not be the best thing. Some of that bed liner might be a little smarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 looks sharp, you do these yourself? Thanks! Sure do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Beautiful finish. I have been kicking around what to finish mine in. They are still raw birch. Since mine are in a shop, gloss black might not be the best thing. Some of that bed liner might be a little smarter. Thanks bro. I can echo what many others have said before in that it takes very little work to get great results using Duratex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Cool thread man, i really need to just get off my butt and build one. maybe this winter. Dayton Dirver i think i read? I hear that. Took me a while to get around to building this one. [H] Dayton FTW. Hope to see a thread about it when you make with the sawdust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Beautiful finish. I have been kicking around what to finish mine in. They are still raw birch. Since mine are in a shop, gloss black might not be the best thing. Some of that bed liner might be a little smarter. Thanks bro. I can echo what many others have said before in that it takes very little work to get great results using Duratex. I've used Duratex on a couple speakers I built. Good stuff alright! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 10, 2012 Author Share Posted September 10, 2012 Here's a video of it in action: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Sounds just like my little computer speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivanhurd Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 ^^^Sounds a little better than mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted September 14, 2012 Author Share Posted September 14, 2012 Sounds just like my little computer speakers. And this photo of Cindy Crawford looks just like the LCD pixels of your computer screen.... [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 Schwing!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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