HT Upgrade: Wet Bar, AT Screen, Fireplace.

[CECAA850]

They've come a long way since the Styrofoam ball filled ones from the 70's. Ever see one of those bust open??? What a mess!

[WakeJunkie]

Started playing with REW a bit and really like how easy it is to do sweeps.

Using my RadioShack SPL meter for the mic and using the calibration files on Hometheatershack.com.

This was taken from the beanbag. Definitely the best seat in the house acoustically as well as comfort.

This is the baseline taken with no Bass traps in the room. Room was dead quiet when testing. Even turned off the projector so no fan sound. SPL would not pick up any readings on its lowest level.

Edited August 4, 2014 by WakeJunkie

[CECAA850]

9 to 40 Hz looks great.

The dip centered at 55Hz will be problematic though. That's the area of mid bass slam where you get the tactile feel of someone hitting you in the chest. Have you played with different crossover points yet? Have you run a sweep with your mains hooked up? That will tell the tale. You may want to run a sweep without your IB and have a look at it also.

[WakeJunkie]

In the legend you will see a name or name - PC or FB. That is identifying where the bass trap was located for the test. PC next to popcorn machine, FB next to foosball table. No suffix then that was the test with no treatment.

Edited August 4, 2014 by WakeJunkie

[WakeJunkie]

9 to 40 Hz looks great.

The dip centered at 55Hz will be problematic though. That's the area of mid bass slam where you get the tactile feel of someone hitting you in the chest. Have you played with different crossover points yet? Have you run a sweep with your mains hooked up? That will tell the tale. You may want to run a sweep without your IB and have a look at it also.

All the REW sweeps were with the mains hooked up. The problem is that the subs are turned up higher than the mains. I hear everyone say you should have a flat response all the way across, but frankly that doesn't sound good to me, my wife, or any of my friends. If I set the sub to the same dB level as the mains they are very underwhelming and that has been the case for all subs I have ever had. I am running about 10dB hot on the sub so the mains really can't help with the lows very much. After doing these test I thought about what you said before about changing the crossover and moved it from 80 to 120hz and that helped some with the dip at 80Hz. The dip is still there so I may be dealing with a null at that point also. Mains were still set to "large" and are basically full range.

Also, the 5hz peak appears to be a result of positive reinforcement. It drops when traps are in place.

[WakeJunkie]

The bass trap I am testing with is not finished, but acoustically should be the same.

18" on the short sides of the triangle.

Edited August 4, 2014 by WakeJunkie

[CECAA850]

If you're mostly concerned about the bean bag listening position, I like the foose ball location for the trap the best.

[WakeJunkie]

REW project file:

http://www.soleproductions.com/Shaun/AVS/SPL Test Full.mdat

I was only looking at the "All SPL" tab.

I am new to REW and open to advice from any experts.

[CECAA850]

9 to 40 Hz looks great.

The dip centered at 55Hz will be problematic though. That's the area of mid bass slam where you get the tactile feel of someone hitting you in the chest. Have you played with different crossover points yet? Have you run a sweep with your mains hooked up? That will tell the tale. You may want to run a sweep without your IB and have a look at it also.

All the REW sweeps were with the mains hooked up. The problem is that the subs are turned up higher than the mains. I hear everyone say you should have a flat response all the way across, but frankly that doesn't sound good to me, my wife, or any of my friends. If I set the sub to the same dB level as the mains they are very underwhelming and that has been the case for all subs I have ever had. I am running about 10dB hot on the sub so the mains really can't help with the lows very much. After doing these test I thought about what you said before about changing the crossover and moved it from 80 to 120hz and that helped some with the dip at 80Hz. The dip is still there so I may be dealing with a null at that point also. Mains were still set to "large" and are basically full range.

Also, the 5hz peak appears to be a result of positive reinforcement. It drops when traps are in place.

I've never heard a system that sounded right when the subs were level matched with the mains. Normally 6 to 10 dB hot is about right.

[CECAA850]

You said that all the sweeps were done with the mains hooked up. The reason I didn't think they were was due to the severs drop off at 80 Hz which I assumed was your crossover point. If they're hooked up I would think you've got some major cancellation going on between your mains and your sub. Swap the wires at your sub amp and run another sweep just for grins. If you're running bridged or just one channel, just swap the positive and negative wires at the amp.

[WakeJunkie]

If you're mostly concerned about the bean bag listening position, I like the foose ball location for the trap the best.

I agree. The beanbag is primary, but I really want to fix the Center seat since that is where anybody coming over to check out the system will tend to sit.

I may have to retest the center seat. The foosball spot seemed to be the worst for it. It helped with the dip at 57Hz. I don't know how it would be possible, but it had a huge dip at 33Hz. It had a dip already, but it was much worse with the trap than without. Problem is I really only have two corners I can put traps in. For the Center seat the trap by the popcorn machine had no effect above 20Hz at all.

[CECAA850]

Any chance you could run 2 traps?

I'd still like to see a sweep with the drivers polarity reversed. You don't have phase adjustment with a pro amp but there's still a couple things you can do. One is to reverse polarity. The other is to play with your distance setting in the subwoofer bass management menu. Increasing or decreasing the sub distance with your avr is similar to adjusting the phase knob on a plate amp.

[WakeJunkie]

Any chance you could run 2 traps?

I'd still like to see a sweep with the drivers polarity reversed. You don't have phase adjustment with a pro amp but there's still a couple things you can do. One is to reverse polarity. The other is to play with your distance setting in the subwoofer bass management menu. Increasing or decreasing the sub distance with your avr is similar to adjusting the phase knob on a plate amp.

I don't have enough material to run 2 full floor to ceiling traps without using up what I saved for a few 2" high frequency panels.

Even using that I don't think it would be enough.

I have never tried the distance change. I will do some test and see what I can come up with.

[CECAA850]

Try reversing polarity first.

[WakeJunkie]

Try reversing polarity first.

At the speaker terminals?

[CECAA850]

At the amp.

[NBPK402]

At the amp.

Why would it make a difference whether it was at the speaker terminals or the amp?

[CECAA850]

You'd only have to swap 2 wires instead of 4.

[CECAA850]

I thought about your severe drop off at your crossover point while I was walking at lunch today. Is this a sweep with your sub set 10dB hot or flat. If it's flat, change the wires at the amp and run another sweep. If it's hot, drop your sub amp 10 dB and run the sweep again. I always run everything flat when EQing and adjusting phase and once everything is how I like it, I'll start messing with the gains. The gains are the last thing you should tweak once phase and room issues have been addressed.

[Heritage_Head]

If you run an auto test your avr should tell you if your out of phase. My guess it will show out of phase