Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions SVS EQ Settings etc

As most of you know I have an SVS PC Ultra and Monitor Audio Silver 9i's as mains. The day I got my SVS, I hooked it up and let it go. I have never played with the EQ or the phase etc etc. Main reason is I don't have a lot of know how in terms of the settings.

My question is do any of you have your SVS EQ'd and what do you have your phase set at etc? My sub sounds great now but with a little tweaking I'm sure it can sound even better. They have all these dam adjustments for a reason so I might as well play with them and see but I honestly have no idea where to start?????????????

NeverHappy,

I can't offer an help on your search for a phase suggestion but you did mention the word "EQ". After owning my SVS 20-39 PC+ for almost six months now paired up with my M60's,VP150 and QS8's I have been so overwhelmed at it's performance I could never imagine it getting any better. Well let me be the first to admit I was wrong!

I just picked up a Behringer Feedback Destroyer from http://www.zzounds.com for $120 delivered to my door. After reading thru the setup guide at http://www.snapbug.ws/bfd.htm I hooked that bad boy up and started applying filters. After plotting my numbers into the Excel spreadsheet I was amazed how nasty the curve looked from 16hz to 80hz (where I have my crossover set at).

After applying 11 filters I now have a smooth line across the frequency span. I can't believe how smooth my SVS is now and how much better it blends with my Axioms. My wife even commented on how much better it sounded. That shocked me more than anything was what she said as she doesn't really take any interest in my HT setup.

So if you really want to "EQ" your SVS and bring out it's very best add one of these babies to your setup and be prepared to be amazed.

Regards..
Rick

Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure if I want to spend yet more money in the sub area. I would honestly prefer to work with what I have now. Maybe down the road but I'm already in the dog house with the wife over an amp I bought so I better play nice for a awhile.

you need to get the frequency respond of your room and get it map and see how the curve look on the graph first, you might not need any tweaking at all, but you won't find out till you get the graph. If you don't have a Radio Shack analog SPL meter then the best way to set the phase is getting another person to help you, have him or her set the phase slowly up from 0 to 180 while you sit at your favorite sweet spot, have him or her set the phase to wherever you like best. I was playing with my PB1 last night and for me the best setting is at 0, 90 doesn't sound too bad, but 180 canceled out most of the lower region.

As Demasoni said, I would pick up a handy Rat shack meter and plot out a frequency chart so you can see how your sub is interacting with your room. The PCU comes with an on board EQ that will allow you to tweak one area that you might be having problems with. For example, you run a frequency chart and find that you have a nasty peak at around 50 hz, you can use the built in eq to level out that area to allow for a smoother more natural sounding curve.

Can anyone comment on the Behringer Feedback Destroyer that RickCathey mentions in his post?

Does this differ from a common equalizer?

This might help.

And this.

It's reputed to not be real simple to set up, but is a very effective tool for controlling the frequency response of a subwoofer.

av123.com has a new product coming out in the next few months called RDES (Rocket Digital Equalization System). It's a computer operated subwoofer equalization product, that will allow you to have 4 different equalization curves available at any given time. You could have one for movies, one for music, one for low volume listening, etc. Here is a thread at the av123 forum which will explain a bit about RDES. The screen shots in this thread are prototypes. Here are more current screen shots.

Dick,

Ajax gave you some great reading info about the BFD..

Let me add by saying in a nutshell it gives a lot more EQ'ing control than a common equalizer does. While a common EQ usually only gives you sliders to work with at a limited set of frequency intervals the BFD gives you precise adjustments at EVERY frequency starting at 20Hz and up and will even allow a filter to span width wise from a frequency by using the bandwith setting.

I agree that the setup has a small learning curve but the BFD setup guide at snapbug was a blessing and made setup very painless. After I setup a few filters I got the hang of it in no time and I can now add or change them without even referring back to the manual or guide.

I would have never believed that adding the BFD would make that big a difference in my system but it does and very glad I added it to help my SVS really shine. As many have stated there are very few rooms that are acoustically perfect , especially in the LFE channel, so using the BFD helps tame those ups and downs.

I had as much as a 12db peak using the 1/6 octave test tones and my chart looked like a roller coaster. After applying 11 filters in the BFD my charting line is virtually straight across with maybe a 1db variation..

Regards..
Rick

First item - sincere thanks to RickCathey and Ajax for their responses. The thought & effort that went into thier posts are recognized & appreciated.

My situation is one of transitioning from many years interest in stereo to a new 5 or 6.1 system. Not really into HT (yet), so music is my thing. I'm upgrading one thing at a time. Started by replacing an old Sony receiver with a Marantz 6300, & was really surprised at the immediate difference in sound quality (I expected this to occur as later upgrades happrened). Axiom M3's were the next purchase - more improvement ! My original main speakers are Epicure Model 4's (anybody remember those?), & I'm using them as "surrounds" for the time being.

Latest upgrade - just ordered the new SVS PB10 sub. This will be my first experience with a sub (a sub-virgin? , & I'm really anticipating it ... common reaction for first-timers I suppose .
So that's where I'm coming from re the Feedback Destroyer.
I understand that room responses are the biggest and least controlled factors in our sound systems. I don't have a sound meter yet, so I don't know what my specific situation is, but will be getting one soon. Links you all have provided may answer my next question, but there's a ton of info there & I've only skimmed it so far. But it appears that the Feedback Destroyer addresses only low frequencies.
Is that a hardware limitation, or is it all that's really needed in home systems? Put another way, what about room anomalies at higher frequencies? Isn't there a need for smoothing room response at higher frequencies as well as lower? And can the BFD do that?

- Thanks again for eveyone's help -

Dick,

This comment was posted by a user on another thread.

"The BFD works fine with a sub but not recommended for full range speakers. "

The poster never elaborated any further than that so I don't know if he was speaking from experience or from some other info obtained.

You stated "it appears that the Feedback Destroyer addresses only low frequencies."

According to the frequency chart in the manual that you can download from behringer.com the range of frequencies that can be addressed are from 20Hz to 20kHz so I would think that would pretty much cover the whole spectrum.

If a person wanted to eq their whole setup and being a home theater system has so many speakers involved I would think you would have to put each speaker through an eq circuit somehow.

Since most equalizers only have two channels for input this would mean more than one eq in the setup. One for fronts, one for center and one for the surrounds.

Maybe that's why no one uses eq's much anymore due to the complexity and speaker count of the usual h/t system. Back in the old days of plain stereo we only had two speakers to deal with. Now we have a whole room full!!

Funny how we all think along the same lines as I thought the same thing as you did after getting my BFD for my sub and wondered about using one for the rest of my speakers but never really gave it anymore thought after that. I guess I just had a moment of the "adding more toys urge".

This is just my thoughts of course and I may be way out in left field and someone can set me straight as I am still a semi-rookie at all this anyway and always willing to learn from the more experienced.

Regards..
Rick