Subwoofer setup guide for Beginners newbies

[hardcore_gamer99]

Ok so i also have UNTREATED NORMAL BEDROOM, Not everyone can afford dedicated soundproof room. And then You buy ported subwoofer for movies which you should NOT in untreated room. But ported one has more SPL in low end which movies have. Well if you have made the mistake and you took demo in treated room on any shop thinking it would sound same in your untreated room? I did not make this mistake, I just bought it and i had to travel 80 kms for demo so was not worth it. This is very first step which:
1. Subwoofer crawl, Put the subwoofer at ear height while we are in sitting position typically it will be 42 inches from floor. Play your best movie which has deep bass I like twister 4k opening scene and spectre 4k opening scene, I like this one when building collapse happens it shakes my chest to the core at -15dbfs without any distortion. Try to find the best position on front wall between left and right front speakers. When you are done with your ears, put the subwoofer back on the floor at that same position.
2. Now make sure Auddessey and dirac whatever you use is off, Here we need to find natural room curve how room is interacting with subwoofer . Now coming to umik1 mic position try to avoid exact half of room width, For example my room has width of 129 inches/2= 64.5 just avoid this make umik1 3 inches more towards left or right whatever is easy for you. Now length of room is 156 inches Divide it by any prime no. to avoid standing waves or whatever you call it. For my MLP from back wall i have put my umik1 at 31.2 inches which is 156/5( Thats how you find best MLP). Here you put your subwoofer inside your chair, subwoofer front cone must be 31.2 from backwall. perform subwoofer crawl after this.
3. Now run room eq wizard, Now before running dirac, we need to find which phase setting has THE MOST SPL AND MORE LINEAR at speaker crossover e.g. i have 80hz so i found best today, Attaching images below. if you want different crossover you need to set 90hz first in AVR then run Rew with different phases i tried: 0/15/25/35/45/55/65/75/80/90/110/125/145/165/180 and guess what i found 145 and 165 which have most spl at 80hz and more linear than other phases. This phase can also help with localisation issues, For me 145 or 165 degree with blend well with my Dali opticon 2 mk2 Rest will be done by Dirac bass control. I have pushed my subwoofer back on front wall as graph in rew was somewhat similar, so not worth pushing it back and forth again n again. I am studying more steps will get back later for more. See at 78hz 35 degree phase has massive null while 145 and 165 degree phases have controlled null at 78hz, This is what you are looking for. Have a nice day and if you like it, Hit LIKE BUTTON.

 

[sandeepmohan]

I don't think there is right or wrong in terms of sub woofer choice. You want more bass, get ported. Generally better for home theater where bass volume is paramount. If you want cleaner bass, or something thats essentially acting as "bass fill", get a sealed unit. Tighter bass, though less of it. For music, this is plenty enough.

You need to go down the umik route ONLY if your room isn't behaving or doing what it should, or, if the Auto setup you have isn't able to get the sound right. It is very rare that Auto setup fails. It will get you there by almost 90%, the rest you can tweak by hand. Its not a lot of work.

More than anything else, the result of a setup must be given time to bed it. Your hearing needs to adapt, you need to understand the changes you made. So what may initially sound off, may sound right another time.

I did not bother with sub woofer crawl. I placed it inside and beside the right front speaker, ran Audyssey and then tweaked the settings a little bit to fine tune.

More than anything else, read your subwoofer manual before setting up. Understand what the controls behind your sub woofer does. The cross over setting behind the sub woofer is technically by passed when its running through an AV receiver or any device that has its own bass management. You use the cross over dial only when you don't have LFE input (...as in when you use High Level inputs)

There is no right or wrong for the phase setting. Listen at 0 degrees, flip the switch to 180 degrees and listen again. One or the other will sound better.

 

[hardcore_gamer99]

I don't think there is right or wrong in terms of sub woofer choice. You want more bass, get ported. Generally better for home theater where bass volume is paramount. If you want cleaner bass, or something thats essentially acting as "bass fill", get a sealed unit. Tighter bass, though less of it. For music, this is plenty enough.

You need to go down the umik route ONLY if your room isn't behaving or doing what it should, or, if the Auto setup you have isn't able to get the sound right. It is very rare that Auto setup fails. It will get you there by almost 90%, the rest you can tweak by hand. Its not a lot of work.

More than anything else, the result of a setup must be given time to bed it. Your hearing needs to adapt, you need to understand the changes you made. So what may initially sound off, may sound right another time.

I did not bother with sub woofer crawl. I placed it inside and beside the right front speaker, ran Audyssey and then tweaked the settings a little bit to fine tune.

More than anything else, read your subwoofer manual before setting up. Understand what the controls behind your sub woofer does. The cross over setting behind the sub woofer is technically by passed when its running through an AV receiver or any device that has its own bass management. You use the cross over dial only when you don't have LFE input (...as in when you use High Level inputs)

There is no right or wrong for the phase setting. Listen at 0 degrees, flip the switch to 180 degrees and listen again. One or the other will sound better.

You cant put sub randomly on front anywhere. If nulls are due to room no room correction can do anything. Lfe is always off in svs app as managed by avr also i found 145 165 phase bettet than 180 for 80hz speaker crossover as the bass will blend well with speakers. Must not feel bass is coming from right if sub is on right

 

[sandeepmohan]

You cant put sub randomly on front anywhere. If nulls are due to room no room correction can do anything. Lfe is always off in svs app as managed by avr also i found 145 165 phase bettet than 180 for 80hz speaker crossover as the bass will blend well with speakers. Must not feel bass is coming from right if sub is on right

Sometimes you just know your room (Cause you've had speakers in there before. The sub woofer is an addition), which is why I placed the sub woofer beside the right front speaker. Yes, it was a random placement and guess what, it worked in the end.

I am not familiar with the SVS App though its a bit bizarre that LFE is set to Off on the App. Isn't that the primary input or are you using High Level inputs?

I don't feel nor hear any bass localization from the sub woofer. In a blind fold test, you wouldn't be able to tell that a sub woofer is playing.

 

[hardcore_gamer99]

Sometimes you just know your room (Cause you've had speakers in there before. The sub woofer is an addition), which is why I placed the sub woofer beside the right front speaker. Yes, it was a random placement and guess what, it worked in the end.

I am not familiar with the SVS App though its a bit bizarre that LFE is set to Off on the App. Isn't that the primary input or are you using High Level inputs?

I don't feel nor hear any bass localization from the sub woofer. In a blind fold test, you wouldn't be able to tell that a sub woofer is playing.

Lfe is off in app and managed by avr which is 120hz default. LPF . in deep bass, dont have localization issue but in hindi music cds localization still there

 

[hardcore_gamer99]

Sometimes you just know your room (Cause you've had speakers in there before. The sub woofer is an addition), which is why I placed the sub woofer beside the right front speaker. Yes, it was a random placement and guess what, it worked in the end.

I am not familiar with the SVS App though its a bit bizarre that LFE is set to Off on the App. Isn't that the primary input or are you using High Level inputs?

I don't feel nor hear any bass localization from the sub woofer. In a blind fold test, you wouldn't be able to tell that a sub woofer is playing.

Lfe is off in app and managed by avr which is 120hz default. LPF . in deep bass, dont have localization issue but in hindi music cds localization still there

 

[hardcore_gamer99]

after setting 145 phase in svs app then ran dirac, Unfortunately SPL is less in spectre opening scene even at -15dbfs. Need to try more phases, but with dirac live only and no bass control i choose and increased distance in avr for subwoofer to 4ms and there was massive null at 78 hz and it got way better

 

[sandeepmohan]

Lfe is off in app and managed by avr which is 120hz default. LPF . in deep bass, dont have localization issue but in hindi music cds localization still there

That seems to be a really high point.
What is the frequency response of your front main speakers?

 

[hardcore_gamer99]

That seems to be a really high point.
What is the frequency response of your front main speakers?

80

 

[ajuvignesh]

since you're building a new Home theatre room, you can opt for JBL's pro 18 inch subwoofers driven by crown amps. These might not go low like your svs did but punches hard.