Lets see YOUR Home Theater:

[alkemyst]

Yes, there is an indisputable difference.
The pair play louder together. It's that simple. Any pair will do the
trick.

You have the mains to back that statement up though

I only recently added a minor sub to my Quartet / Academy / RS2.5 setup. However, I'd go to friends homes that had sometimes OK mains, but total overkill in the sub department.

It's like my car though, I have two Image Dynamics ID10's for the low end. They are definitely not maximum SPL types, but they offer a very nice and balanced bassline with my single set of 6.5" components. Some of the dudes have enough air flow to make your hair move....it's beyond live performance levels.

All that said I did win my father over to pick up a nice set of Chorus II's and an Academy to go with them I tried to sell him on the idea of 3 but he wanted a traditional wall unit. He had a Onkyo 3 in 1 setup with 5 little box speakers

[alkemyst]

IMO, in a room with your dimensions, your efforts/money would be better spent on testing, proper speaker placement, proper seating distances, and acoustic treatments.

QFT..esp with two subs. If you really want to push those limits of depth and the room it's not always going to be a symmetrical layout.

I am trying now to learn how to play with phase as my little cheap sub can go 0-180 variably. If anyone has a how-to on this PM me please I do have an SPL meter and I just downloaded Room EQ Wizard. Just need to find the time to mess around with it I am stuck working on side jobs lately here.

[CECAA850]

Do you have a disc with test tones (sine waves) at different Hz?

[westcott]

I do not recommend equalization use among enthusiasts. There really is no affordable technology with the proper resolution to implement it, despite what vendors claim.

Stick with good testing techniques for speaker/sub placement using an SPL meter and you will garner for more than by any other method of frequency control.

As for phase settings, there's a sure-fire technique for getting a subwoofer in phase with the main speakers. First, reverse the red and black speaker leads going to your left and right speakers. Play a test tone at the crossover frequency (you can find tones on most test CDs) and have someone sit while you adjust the phase control. Turn the phase control until the person in the seat hears the least amount of bass. Return the speaker leads to their correct polarity and the sub is perfectly dialed-in.

By reversing the red and black leads on your speaker, you are putting them out of phase with the sub. When you hear the least bass, the main speakers and the sub are maximally out of phase. When you return the speaker leads to their correct position, the sub and main speakers are maximally in-phase.

It is much easier to dial-in a maximum null than a maximum peak.

[shake777]

Wescott, Your comments are always welcomed. Nic

[Rudy81]

Do you have a disc with test tones (sine waves) at different Hz?

If you were asking me, I have some Stereophile test CD's, but now only use REW (Room EQ Wizard software) to generate whatever frequencies I am interested in.

[CECAA850]

I do not recommend equalization use among enthusiasts. There really is no affordable technology with the proper resolution to implement it, despite what vendors claim.

What about the BFD? Affordable (less than $125.00) and has a 12 band PEQ? Why would you not want to remove peaks in your in room response?

[InVeNtOr]

wescott,

i may have to give that a try. i'll give you a call sometime to get more info.

[jrgreene1968]

What about the BFD? Affordable (less than $125.00) and has a 12 band PEQ? Why would you not want to remove peaks in your in room response?

i wish i could figure out how to use the bfd, and rew..i have read on home theater shack about it till i was blue in the face..it just confuses the hell out of me[:^)]

[CECAA850]

What about the BFD? Affordable (less than $125.00) and has a 12 band PEQ? Why would you not want to remove peaks in your in room response?

i wish i could figure out how to use the bfd, and rew..i have read on home theater shack about it till i was blue in the face..it just confuses the hell out of me

It confused me too till I got one. Once you have it in your hands and start playing with it, it becomes simpler.

[westcott]

Like I said, there is nothing on the market with the resolution required to do proper EQ that the enthusiast can afford, despite mfg claims. (If the equipment can not properly identify the peaks or at what frequencies they occur, and how often they occur - requiring multiple octave sampling - then you are just swatting flies in a Lousiana swamp at breeding time.)

One only creates more problems when implementing EQ than it solves when inadequate equipment is used.

There is no way around doing proper subwoofer and speaker placement testing.

[CECAA850]

I guess we'll agree to disagree[Y]. I'm not aware of any placement techniques that will remove peaks due to the rooms resonant frequencies. Taming peaks can be done with an inexpensive PEQ, an SPL meter and a disc with test tones. Total outlay of less than $200.00 and an afternoons worth of time. I totally agree that placement is VERY important, but there are afordable tweaks that work, that the average enthusiast can employ. I've experienced it first hand. I had a huge peak in my living room at around 50Hz. To correct it, I moved my sub to every corner and wall possible, nothing helped. Bass was unnaturall sounding. Everything at that frequency (gun shots for example) were grossly exaggerated in relation to the rest of the movie soundtrack. EQ'ing made a huge improvement in the overall presentation of the LFE channel and bass in general. YMMV

[shake777]

Great food for thought!

[JasonJCarney]

I wouldn't call any Carada screen "best bang for your buck". Homemade screens can be had for 15% the price and the quality is up there with any Carada screen. I would say (this is a comparison of my brothers Carada screen) my home made screen is a 9.5 to his 10 and it was $40 total compared to his $600.

[JasonJCarney]

sorry about the vagueness of the dog door post. I was commenting on a picture Pronex put up of his HT room. There is asmall cat or dog swinging door in his door.

[alkemyst]

sorry about the vagueness of the dog door post. I was commenting on a picture Pronex put up of his HT room. There is asmall cat or dog swinging door in his door.

Ahh found it. Good idea. I have a 'dedicated' cat room that we use a gate to keep the two dogs out. My wife is going to be one of those crazy old cat ladies one day.

[mr.hidef]

Here is mine..........http://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?member=mr.hidef

[shake777]

I've shown you all these photos because the WAF is working hard to me prevent me from closing up the room with a fourth wall. I'm thinking that's unacceptable acoustically and I'm going to have to use every trick in the book to see that one goes up. She's wonderful other than this aberration. She wants natural light behind the proposed wall so its really not an aberration. Woe is me, I'm going to have to resort to the truth. Thank you for indulging me as this is the only thing standing between me and my own little piece of heaven on earth.

[The Dude]

Whats the total dimension of the room again. I was thinking of putting some glass french doors in the back side up with some nice curtains maybe shot that idea at her.

[shake777]

duder, Thanks for the great suggestion. Totally creative. It's about 18-4 X 16. A very rough estimate of the whole thing is a thousand square. Nic