Subcenter2009
Active Member
Optimising Bass in your Home Theater
Home Theater Setup..:yahoo:
Location: Dry, Dust free environment. Enclosed cabinet with lots of room around receiver for air circulation. Keep covered with a towel or thick cloth when not in use to prevent dust.
Power supply: I use a 2Kva Electronic Servo Stabilizer by Maxine with 7-20 wiring since I had tubelights flickering whenever I switched on the Amp or TV when I was using a 1Kva power conditioner.
Connections: Component Video, Progressive scan.
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V 450
Speakers: Wharfedale Zaldek 2000 fronts 250 w, Zaldek Center 125 w, Bose 161 side surrounds 100 w, Torvin rear surrounds 80 w/c, Wharfedale SW-150 9 series subwoofer, 150 W 1x10, Reginald dual channel subwoofer 2x8 50-50 at rear of room.
TV: LG30 series 42LCD HD ready.
DVD player: LG DS 8421P (5 years old)
I made sure all the speakers were connected in phase.. though one can never be 100% sure they are. Because they were bought from different manufacturers (which is not recommended.)
Using an SPL meter, which is better than bare ears when it comes to measuring loudness, I played back pink noise on all my channels one by one.
After making sure that all the channels are equally loud, I, having a 20x10 ft room fed in the data pertaining to the distance to the listening position from the various speakers.
I have used here, a way to get the most Bass out of my system:
In setup, I have set as follows: Front L/R: small. Center speaker: Small. Surround L/R:Small. Surround Back: Small. Since my surround backs( the Torvins ) are wired in series as this is a 6.1 setup being upconverted, I had to boost level for that channel. Pl: note that all channels are set to small in my setup. The toggle to choose between Front and Subwoofer for bass is reset to SWFR only. The crossover frequency is set to 90 Hz (80 Hz is too easy on the subwoofer.) I am doing this because my front L/Rs are extremely Bass capable. If you are using sats, then please try 120Hz as the crossover cutoff. The Crossovers of the Subs are way open to the full to prevent double filtering as most of the sound will be below 90Hz. (120 Hz for sats). Please note that setting lowpass cutoffs do not mean that exactly all the information below the point will be diverted. It is more like a curve.
Please leave the receiver on STRAIGHT with all DSPs off but with 2.1 channel output.
Now, the method of the madness: Using any one of the setup discs available, Like AVIA or Digital Video Essentials, or in my case, The APP Soundcheck 2 setup CD, Play back a 100 Hz or 90Hz tone on the loop track mode..
The thing to note here is that when we adjust the distance to the subwoofer in setup, we are actually adjusting the delay.
It, being a gradual cutoff, please listen to the change in level of bass. The distance indicator need not be noted as what we want is for the 2 Fronts and the sub to fire in Phase. It usually varies by 10 feet max. A good SPL meter will show the increase in Bass level when Subwoofer distance is adjusted. The AVR should be playing bass optimally now. Note the values for future references.
I am sure many of you have better methods of Optimising Bass in your systems.
Please do share with us freely your experiences in maintaining your Theater.
Regards,
Subcenter2009[/I]
Home Theater Setup..:yahoo:
Location: Dry, Dust free environment. Enclosed cabinet with lots of room around receiver for air circulation. Keep covered with a towel or thick cloth when not in use to prevent dust.
Power supply: I use a 2Kva Electronic Servo Stabilizer by Maxine with 7-20 wiring since I had tubelights flickering whenever I switched on the Amp or TV when I was using a 1Kva power conditioner.
Connections: Component Video, Progressive scan.
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V 450
Speakers: Wharfedale Zaldek 2000 fronts 250 w, Zaldek Center 125 w, Bose 161 side surrounds 100 w, Torvin rear surrounds 80 w/c, Wharfedale SW-150 9 series subwoofer, 150 W 1x10, Reginald dual channel subwoofer 2x8 50-50 at rear of room.
TV: LG30 series 42LCD HD ready.
DVD player: LG DS 8421P (5 years old)
I made sure all the speakers were connected in phase.. though one can never be 100% sure they are. Because they were bought from different manufacturers (which is not recommended.)
Using an SPL meter, which is better than bare ears when it comes to measuring loudness, I played back pink noise on all my channels one by one.
After making sure that all the channels are equally loud, I, having a 20x10 ft room fed in the data pertaining to the distance to the listening position from the various speakers.
I have used here, a way to get the most Bass out of my system:
In setup, I have set as follows: Front L/R: small. Center speaker: Small. Surround L/R:Small. Surround Back: Small. Since my surround backs( the Torvins ) are wired in series as this is a 6.1 setup being upconverted, I had to boost level for that channel. Pl: note that all channels are set to small in my setup. The toggle to choose between Front and Subwoofer for bass is reset to SWFR only. The crossover frequency is set to 90 Hz (80 Hz is too easy on the subwoofer.) I am doing this because my front L/Rs are extremely Bass capable. If you are using sats, then please try 120Hz as the crossover cutoff. The Crossovers of the Subs are way open to the full to prevent double filtering as most of the sound will be below 90Hz. (120 Hz for sats). Please note that setting lowpass cutoffs do not mean that exactly all the information below the point will be diverted. It is more like a curve.
Please leave the receiver on STRAIGHT with all DSPs off but with 2.1 channel output.
Now, the method of the madness: Using any one of the setup discs available, Like AVIA or Digital Video Essentials, or in my case, The APP Soundcheck 2 setup CD, Play back a 100 Hz or 90Hz tone on the loop track mode..
The thing to note here is that when we adjust the distance to the subwoofer in setup, we are actually adjusting the delay.
It, being a gradual cutoff, please listen to the change in level of bass. The distance indicator need not be noted as what we want is for the 2 Fronts and the sub to fire in Phase. It usually varies by 10 feet max. A good SPL meter will show the increase in Bass level when Subwoofer distance is adjusted. The AVR should be playing bass optimally now. Note the values for future references.
I am sure many of you have better methods of Optimising Bass in your systems.
Please do share with us freely your experiences in maintaining your Theater.
Regards,
Subcenter2009[/I]