Yes, the difference with and without the EQ is night and day. My SMS replaces a BFD which I was using for about a year. I would never go back to using a subwoofer without an EQ of some sort. In my opinion, a sub EQ is a must have.

I don't want to be the one to pee on anyone's parade, but I wonder if I'm missing something here or, as usual, it's just my room.

Recap for newbies: As many others have heard ad nauseam, I had been trying to solve the severe bass issues in my small, square room. I have a BFD that I have tested, but gave up when I realized that I was getting drastically different "before" readings from one seat position to the next. In other words, I gave up on an EQ-based solution because any adjustments I made to one seat just threw the next one further out of whack.

For those of you who are having success with the SMS-1, have you metered before and after in several seat positions? Originally were your nulls and peaks not that different from one seat to the next? Are you just getting a decently-flat reading in one seat position only or are you finding EQ to be successful across a larger seating area? Can I ask many. many more questions?

Equalization will not fully solve the problem of even frequency response across a broad area in an HT room. Room acoustics and proper speaker/sub phase are major factors to consider first. Multiple subs and acoustical treatments carefully positioned are far more effective at smoothing nodes. Still, an SMS-1 as icing on the cake is useful in further flattening response across the seats but it is unrealistic to expect a tabletop like curve. My SMS-1 is on order and I will be using it as the final tweak after postioning and getting the phasing right on my 2 600s and 2 500s next week.

In a single sub configuration the equalizer will help but across a narrower area, the sweet spot. Several people have taken the approach of measuring curves across the various seats and then averaging to get a better response across several seats rather than the best response in one seat. That seems to be a better implementation in any event whether one is using single or multiple subs, unless of course only the sweet spot really matters.

Given the size of my room (small), I haven't had to worry about my frequency response in multiple locations. I have a love seat in my room and the graphs don't change much in the two or three possible seating locations.

My room is primarily used for audio...thus, the small room works for me. When I listen to music, it is always a solo affair. Thus, I optimized my system for the sweet spot only. Yes, we do watch movies in there also, just not nearly as much listening to music (probably 80% music, 20% movies).

As you've pointed out, I suspect EQing a large room is a whole different ball game.

David

>>Can I ask many. many more questions?

Have you tried putting the EP350 on the coffee table yet ?

In reply to:

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Have you tried putting the EP350 on the coffee table yet ?

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No, not on, but in place of. Didn't work! At some point after the Holidays, I'm going to check out some treatment options or, at the very least, hold a pillow behind my head.

Make sure you have the qs8's fully supported by soup cans too. Improves the spaciousness quite a bit.

Actually the soup cans have been chaged out to what I forget, but the soup was lunch.

>>Have you tried putting the EP350 on the coffee table yet ?
>>No, not on, but in place of. Didn't work!

Hmmm. If you have a few minutes over the holidays it wouldn't hurt to dig into this some more. I didn't have time to crunch enough numbers last time you were testing but maybe once the holiday rush dies down...

>>Actually the soup cans have been chaged out to what I forget, but the soup was lunch.

Some slightly dented cans of Green Giant Mexicorn. I went through a mouse infestation a few years ago and the mice learned to avoid the traps, so in desperation I started throwing canned food at them (inspired by Crocodile Dundee ) with surprising success.

My terriers were useless. We had indoctrinated them not to eat the family's pet rodents, so every time they saw a mouse I guess the hundred repetitions of "no, mustn't eat Tigger" flashed through their minds. On the other hand, any squirrel that gets within 100 feet of the house is either very fast or very dead.

Thanks for the pics mrbooboy.

Mine is definitely not as stable as I move my master volume up and down. In fact, my curves look dramatically different. I am still not sure if the problem is the SMS, the Axiom sub or my wacky room.