erikjohn Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 What up all, Well I got the Svs Dual Ultras and the S1000 last friday night. The Marchland black box is on backorder so I am not sure when they will get it to me. I will start out on a positive note. For HT the SVS will rumble the house big time. The low bass waves that they put out is amazing. At 33hz they almost start blurring your vision. They have a very natural sound for deeeep bass. They drop off a little at 25hz but that is as low as my test tones go and I have not tried them with the plug yet. They continue to shake pretty good up to about 55hz and then start to drop off dramatically. I will say that I was impressed with what they add to the HT expirience. I have yet to hear bass like that for home theater. I am however disappointed with them above 55hz. They just don't have any punch. I was expecting them to really hit but they really only rumble. I have hooked them up several different ways. I started with them in parallel mode as recommended. At first I didn't thnk they were getting enough power. So I pre-outed the sub channels into the main pre-ins and hooked up the ultras to the RX-V1. The 110wpc Yamaha pushed em' harder than the 500wpc Samson, imagine that. Anyway I am back to running them off the Samson in bridged mode(1000 watts into 1 channel). I wired the Ultras in series to get them to the 8ohms that samson required. I think this helped a little. Anyway I am not satisfied with my bass yet. I am starting to think I may have to get the RSW-15 to fill in the void and get some punch for music. I will wait until I get them into the almost finished HT room where I can find better placement for them. Now they are on each side of one Khorn in the corner. I have speakers on top of speakers in my living room so I don't really have alot of options for placement. I am thinking once the HT room is done I will start by putting one on top of each Khorn in the corners and see how that sounds. I will tuck them all the way back into the corner which should help tighten em' up some. I am hoping to have the HT room complete by the end of next week. Anyway I have been in close contact with Tom from SVS and we are working through my questions and concerns. EJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 EJ Two things come to mind when I read this. First - Could your room harmonics be cancelling each other over 50 hz? I do not remember the top end rolloff of the SVS's but I remember (off the top of my head) that it was 100 hz. Thats why I ask this question. Second, are you running your Khorns in Large mode on your HT? My Khorns and Dual Ultras sound great. I run my Khorns large, when I watch concert DVDs, I rarely see the sampson lights flashing. Most of the bass is generated by my Khorns and surrounds (also on Large). I also have listened to music with my SVS and Khorns running. I do not have any loss of bass, 50 hz, that you are experiencing. Hope you work out this problem. Tom is good to work with. Good luck. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornEd Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 EJ, my experience with Klipschorn's and dual Ultras mirrors that of JM. Is there any acoustic anomoly that may be affecting you in your particular listening environment. It just doesn't add up. =HornEd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 ---------------- They continue to shake pretty good up to about 55hz and then start to drop off dramatically. ---------------- I plotted the response of my single Ultra and I can definately tell you the upper end doesn't roll off around 55hz in my room. ---------------- The 110wpc Yamaha pushed em' harder than the 500wpc Samson, imagine that. ---------------- Some people(including myself) with Yamaha receiver/Samson amp combo suffer from an impedance matching problem, when you receive the Marchand box, I bet your mind will change. Before the introduction of the Marchand box, SVS recommended me to buy a RCA mini amplifier from Radio Shack. I think the model of it was the SA-1 or something like that. It cost me $40 bucks, it could be a temporary solution until the Marchand box comes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikjohn Posted January 9, 2003 Author Share Posted January 9, 2003 Thnaks for the comments guys. I am really looking for any and all input that you can give. Yeh it really didn't make alot of sense to me either. It is possible that room harmonsic could be bad. I mean I have stuff stacked all over the place, it is a very congested area. The thing I don't totally understand is the impedence thing. Is it that the gain put out from my Yamaha LFE isn't enough for the Samson, or is is something else? They work well for very deep bass but just dont have the kind of punch I would expect. Can someone please explain the impedence matching and what effect it can have. Does it cause certain frequencies that pass through the LFE to be lesser? I am sure that the locations that the SVS are in now are not ideal. Oh yea, all speakers are set to large and bass is on both for front speakers and subs. It also kinda sucks because only one of my Khorns is in a corner right now so I am not getting everything from them. Does anyone know if theoretically I should expect any gain in output(db) by wiring the subs in series and bridging the Samson as opposed to running the Samson in parallel and having one SVS on each channel. I will probably be running them like this when I get the Marchland box to utilize the phasing so I can really dial them in. Any additional comments are welcomed. I will definitely know more once the Marchland box comes in and the HT room is complete so I can move them around to find the best locations for them so I don't have any cancelling problems. Thanks, EJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted January 9, 2003 Share Posted January 9, 2003 Some consumer receivers can't produce enough voltage to drive a pro amp. Also set all speakers to small and send the LFE to the sub only, not both. This is what SVS recommends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erdric Posted January 9, 2003 Share Posted January 9, 2003 FabFrankie beat me to the punch. He's correct about the consumer/pro amp mismatch. This is what the box fixes. As for the roll off, it's got to be room harmonics. I've only got a 20-39PCi and there is zero drop off at 55hz. Around 65 I get a quick drop but then it shoots right back up (doing LFE sweeps with the RS SPL meter). Your twin Ultras should blow my setup away so I'm sure something isn't right. BTW, you should run the speakers as small. It took me awhile to convince myself this was the right thing to do with the mains but it made a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted January 9, 2003 Share Posted January 9, 2003 EJ, Have you tried different locations for the subs and or listening position? It makes such a huge difference, especially in smaller rooms. Of course with cornerhorns, you are usually limited in set-up options, which btw, is probably my biggest complaint about "backless" (ha) cornerhorns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted January 9, 2003 Share Posted January 9, 2003 Hey EJ, I have the Dual Ultra and Samson 1000 set up just like you and Ed and some of the rest of our buddies here. I don't think you'll have a problem. Everyone has given you good advice and I think your worries will be put to rest once you have the yammy's signal jacked up with the SVS "Black Box". It seems to be a well documented fix for many owners of yamaha receivers using samson amps in this set up. Don't sweat it.Just make some room for the sonic boom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikjohn Posted January 15, 2003 Author Share Posted January 15, 2003 Update I received the Marchland box. First I will say that before the box came I set the front sprekers to -10db and adjusted the rest of the speakers accordingly so I could increase the output to the sub. This gave me the gain I was looking for but I still wanted more mid bass. I suspect a big part of my poroblem is location. No biggy as I will get it figured out. Anyway the black box is hooked up and I set the mains back to normal. I also tried setting the mains to small but really didn't notice any benifits. I thought that it really sounbded better set to large. Anyway I can't properly test anything until I get the setup into the larger room. I am hoping to do this this weekend. Oh yea, yesterday I ordered the RSW-15 from acousticsounddesign.com. They are on back order in black but should ship first part of next week. It should fill the void that I am looking for if placement doesn't do it. Anyway the way I see it once I move everything into a room that is 25x30 the extra that it will offer isn't going to hurt. I really want it to tighten things up for music listening. I am anxious to hear both Khorns in corners. Even with just one in a corner I hardley even need a sub for music but we'll see. I am hoping not to buy anymore stuff for a while. I am going to enjoiy what I have. I will end on this note. I love the SVS for movies. Wow they add so much, the sound they put out is invisible as it just blends in so nice with everything. They sound very realistic to me. EJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug C Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 I agree with others, it sounds like a cancelation problem. I have twin Ultras and an 18" Velodyne. When you have multiple subs in various room locations it can be a real challenge to get the proper phase settings. It is virtually impossible unless you have the ability to set the phase for each sub separately. Also you really need a variable phase control as opposed to a simple 0 or 180 degree toggle switch. The simplest approach initially may be for you to co-locate the Ultras. This way at least you will not have to worry about the subs canceling one another. then you can work on finding the right phase between the subs and mains and see how it works. Another problem you have to consider is the possibility of room induced peaks. I have a nasty +16 dB peak in a narrow band around 36hz. If I tried to increase sub volume to fill the bass range above this the result would be very boomy in the 36hz region. Once I installed a parametric equalizer prior to the subs and notched out the peak I was able to double sub volume to fill the upper bass region with no boom. To really tweak the low frequencies you need a sound meter, good low frequency test tone CD and lots of time. I'm fortunate that my B&K preamp has a test tone generator providing tones in 2hz increments. Increments much bigger than this in the 20-100hz range will not tell the whole story. The best low frequency test tone CD I've seen can be found at http://basszone.stryke.com/testcd.html Another problem with some rooms is that it is virturally impossible to excite the air in some areas of the room (especially the center areas). So you may have to consider this when selecting your seating position. I know in my room moving the seating position a couple of feet is the difference between no bass and good bass. I have a couple of null areas in my room that can not be excited even with all three subs going. These black holes just gobble up anything you throw at them. Good Luck Doug C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 I have an RSW-15 and they kick arse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.