Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo For HSU owners, speaker levels...

I have an HSU VTF-2 w/the M3Ti's.
My question concerns volume adj. of the sub. HSU sends out a disc with the purchase of one of there subwoofers. I have used the disc to adjust the freq. cutoff (tracks 9-21) which feature warble tones between 16hz. and 250hz.
I was wondering if I use track's 22-23 which have a downward linear sweep from 200-80hz(T-22) and 80-10hz.(T-23)
it would give me a better level adj. than the music I have been using. The problem with the music is that I am not sure exactly how far down the lows go. When I use the SPL with my music, the volume knob is up to 3:00, and it seems to be very bass heavy...any comments would be greatly appreciated.

wow...you have your VTF-2 volume knob at 3 o'clock???!!!

I've never had mine past 9-10.

That is why I am questioning my methods for volume setup.
My ears say around 9:30/10:00, the SPL says around 3:00 and to me it just sounds to bass heavy.

Have you set the levels of all your speakers (including the sub) using pink noise test tones? That's how I set mine, and using a SPL meter, the Hsu is set between 9-10. I used my Rotel's internal pink noise generator, I didn't use the Hsu disc. Many people use the Avia setup disc as well.

As I am just 2 channel I have no generator, but I think the tones on the HSU disc are considered pink noise.

I'm certainly no expert, but here's my $.02 - I agree with spiff, 3:00 sounds awful high. Not sure the size of your room or the amp. I can't take my VTF-2 past 10:00, maybe 11:00 without some distortion. Is your sub output level reduced significantly on the receiver?

I tried those test tones with the HSU disk, but really didn't get anywhere. The AVIA test disk really helped me because it showed the exact frequency of the sound on the tv as sweep went from high to low. I'm sure some more knowledgeable folks can chime in here, but my room has some pretty severe bass humps that would jump 20dB at certain frequencies. Maybe the music you're using is heavy in a range that activates some room nodes you have which exaggerates the bass.

John,

Have you correctly set the SPL meter to "C" curve? If the meter is set to "A" curve, it will grossly under-measure the bass sound (resulting in a gross over-calibration of the sub).

Thanks guys, did ALOT of calibrating last night. Instead of using music to set my volume level I used low bass test tones and now my level is set to around 9:00. But I will say this ,even with the volume up to 3:00 I do not think I was getting alot of distortion, just loads of low dynamic bass. These HSU subs are tremendous. I also think that I am not real use to clean low bass, due to other subs I have owned (cheapos)