"Clutchbrake" or someone else in Little Rock

[curtis]

How high of volume? Do you have an SPL meter?

As for the VTF-2, that could be a placement issue.

-curtis

[azanon]

Nah I dont have a meter so I could only use generic terms to describe the volume level. Yeah i have a radio shack 1 mile from my house, but i just decided to save 50 bucks and use the test tones to balance the speakers. And believe me, the sub test tone is well below the others. If i actually set it to equal volume, can you say BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! When the song ended 3 seconds ago, and your furniture is still shaking....... you might have a booming problem.

I've tried the VTF-2 in two basic locations in my room, adjacent to my TV on my entertainment shelf, and on my carpeted floor adjacent to the couch. It actually sounds better on the shelf (less vibration, and harder to locate the sound). When i put it adjacent to the couch, i can definitely hear where the sound is coming from. So much for omnidirectional bass! Or maybe i just have superman ears. Granted, i think my Sony's internal crossover is 100hz which could stand to be lower.

Even if one of you guys dont wanna bother bringing over your receiver, i'd be happy enough just getting a second opinion on my current setup, and sound. Maybe i'm just being a grouch and unrealistic.

[curtis]

Judging without a meter is a very difficult task.

Since a sub outputs a low freq test tone, it naturally "sounds" lower in volume to the human ear, but in all actuallity it is not. Most that set the sub level by ear set it much too loud.

-curtis

[azanon]

Yeah ive got it turned downed to what i perceive as a balanced level. I guess I was just a little dismayed when i visited one of my friends house this past weekend and he has a pair of old Sony towers (probably 2, 6 1/2 inch woofers, one tweeter, 250 for the pair) in the front and cheap jbl sub in the back (granted 12" sub), and his had a very "full" deep sound, but it wasn't unpleasant at high levels like mine is. He heard mine too and remarked that mine had excellent mids (but what he wasnt saying though implying was that he thinks he has me beat on fullness and bass). Frankly, i'm not sure if i dont agree with him.

Now to be fair, the room he has his speakers in is VERY small as well as mostly closed off; cubed shaped room whereas my living room is at least 5 times the size of his room with a wide opening to the adjacent, and also large kitchen.

(edit) He also had a cheap equalizer hooked up. I did notice that when he turned it off, his setup sounded pretty bad, clearly worse than mine. But i hear so little about equilizers, that i'm just assuming that maybe something wrong with his receiver. Surely equilizers arnt normally necessary for good sound, though clearly it is in his case.

[azanon]

"Yeah ive got it turned downed to what i perceive as a balanced level."

Sorry didnt explain that fully. I meant I set it by actually listening to music while adjusting the volume on the back of the sub, as opposed to using the test tones for it.

[ClutchBrake]

I'll check AVS now. Sometime in the next week or so would be a perfect time to do this. I've built a new A/V rack and will have to disassemble my system to move all my equipment. Be glad to help you out.

[azanon]

Next week's good for me too. I have all day Monday, Friday, and the weekend open atm. Just give me a call per the #'s i gave you in the pm.

[Cliff_L]

Hey, I'm here in Little Rock too, however I don't have THAT nice of a receiver like ClutchBrake does. I'm just running a measly Pioneer VSX-409. :( You're welcome to try it out if you want to try something different.

I honestly think the room makes a huge difference in how speakers sound. Comparing speakers in a tiny room (like your friend's) vs. your room (which is 5x larger) isn't even remotely equal. That's not even a fair comparison in my book.

I do have an SPL meter I can get my hands on if you want to use that. In fact, I just built a new home entertainment center so I need to recalibrate my speakers anyway. Let me know if that's something you want to consider.

[azanon]

I'll consider that for sure Cliff. I have clutchbrake lined up to visit me this weekend, so I can get his opinion on things. Maybe we can hook up that receiver of his too, if necessary.

[JohnnyCasaba]

I also experimented with the position of my VTF-2 next to the couch, and while I liked the extra rumble felt for movies, just like you I found it was way to easy to locate where the bass was coming from. As has already been covered, you really need the SPL meter to properly calibrate the sub.

[azanon]

Thanks for coming over yesterday Clutchbrake!

I think he's help my situation out a lot and I look forward to enjoying my setup "post" adjustments. He balanced my speakers using an SPL meter and test disk. I was surprised to find that I did have the sub set too high relative to the other speakers and after his adjustments, it seems to be well balanced and not boomy. My surrounds were also way too low relative to the fronts. We also found that I was hindering the sound quality by having the dynamic range compressor on per a few tests toggling it on and off. I think the "static" issue might either be in my mind, or maybe i'm just listening to a few bad recordings as clutchbrake didn't notice anything out of the ordinary yesterday.

Azanon

[curtis]

Can we all say "We told you!!"? [:D] I am glad things seem to be working out for the better.

-curtis