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swgiust
05-06-2005, 05:37 AM
Man, got my new SVS PB12-Ultra/2 on Wednesday. Got it set up kinda late. Got to run a few quick test DVD's. Then had to go to bed. Get home Thursday, ready to get down to
business. Put in a DVD and wait.... What? Is that the famous bass that is so low you
can't hear it.... NO, it's no bass at all. Nothing. Dead. Double checked cables, receiver
settings, hooked up old sub, all ok. Man I am bummed. Waiting for a call from tech support right now.

Ok, on the plus side. This sub is beautiful. The fit and finish are spectacular. Furniture
grade for sure. It's as big as a small couch though. What I did get to hear was impressive.
Definately different than what I have been used to.

I'll keep everyone informed how this one plays out.....

shokhead
05-06-2005, 05:45 AM
Man, got my new SVS PB12-Ultra/2 on Wednesday. Got it set up kinda late. Got to run a few quick test DVD's. Then had to go to bed. Get home Thursday, ready to get down to
business. Put in a DVD and wait.... What? Is that the famous bass that is so low you
can't hear it.... NO, it's no bass at all. Nothing. Dead. Double checked cables, receiver
settings, hooked up old sub, all ok. Man I am bummed. Waiting for a call from tech support right now.

Ok, on the plus side. This sub is beautiful. The fit and finish are spectacular. Furniture
grade for sure. It's as big as a small couch though. What I did get to hear was impressive.
Definately different than what I have been used to.

I'll keep everyone informed how this one plays out.....

Dont hear that happen very often. They will take car of it.

Worf101
05-06-2005, 05:50 AM
There's NOTHING and I mean NOTHING I hare more than electronic equipment that doesn't work right out the box. DOA's are a deal breaker for me with a particular company unless they really go overboard and make it right....

Da Worfster :(

kexodusc
05-06-2005, 06:01 AM
No sound at all?

That happened to me...turns out I didn't plug the power cable into the bottom of the sub...:rolleyes:

Man, that's a bummer, and rare for any sub. Not much that can go wrong. Wonder if a lead is just not quite connected or something?

Sir Terrence the Terrible
05-06-2005, 10:03 AM
There's NOTHING and I mean NOTHING I hare more than electronic equipment that doesn't work right out the box. DOA's are a deal breaker for me with a particular company unless they really go overboard and make it right....

Da Worfster :(

He doesn't have anything to worry about. Ron and Tom will fix him up quickly, I understand their customer service is the bomb.

Eric Z
05-06-2005, 12:20 PM
wow, spending that kind of money on a sub and the darn thing is doa! hopefully everything we hear about their customer service is true. let us know if they do anything special for you.

Geoffcin
05-06-2005, 04:36 PM
Man, got my new SVS PB12-Ultra/2 on Wednesday. Got it set up kinda late. Got to run a few quick test DVD's. Then had to go to bed. Get home Thursday, ready to get down to
business. Put in a DVD and wait.... What? Is that the famous bass that is so low you
can't hear it.... NO, it's no bass at all. Nothing. Dead. Double checked cables, receiver
settings, hooked up old sub, all ok. Man I am bummed. Waiting for a call from tech support right now.

Ok, on the plus side. This sub is beautiful. The fit and finish are spectacular. Furniture
grade for sure. It's as big as a small couch though. What I did get to hear was impressive.
Definately different than what I have been used to.

I'll keep everyone informed how this one plays out.....

Especially if it was working the night before. If something fried you would have known it.

swgiust
05-11-2005, 11:14 AM
Got my new amp in today and got it installed. Sub is now working. Looks like the
black lead had fallen off.

SVS was good about getting the amp out. The install was much more of a project
than I expected. Knowing what I know now, I should of sent the unit back. To many
chances to screw something up.

I'll try and sit down tonight and get the eq all dialed in.

kexodusc
05-11-2005, 11:23 AM
Got my new amp in today and got it installed. Sub is now working. Looks like the
black lead had fallen off.

SVS was good about getting the amp out. The install was much more of a project
than I expected. Knowing what I know now, I should of sent the unit back. To many
chances to screw something up.

I'll try and sit down tonight and get the eq all dialed in.

Glad to year things are up and running?

Curious, what were some of the difficulties in swapping amps? Torx screws? Tight seal? Subs are generally pretty straight forward, and difficult to damage anything. Unless you poke a screwdriver through a woofer. I assume the woofer used spring clips.

You should have snapped us some pics of the inside of that baby! :D

If it was just a loose black lead, does that mean the original amp is fine? Did they let you keep it?

swgiust
05-11-2005, 12:03 PM
The first problem is that this sub is huge. It weighs in at 190lbs. Anything that
has to do with moving it is a project. The wires from the amp are not long enough that
you can simply pull the amp and replace. You have to turn the sub completley over,remove the base plate (6 screws) then remove about 10 screws to one of the woofers, tip the sub on it's side and remove that woofer, turn it back upside down, remove the other 10 screws and woofer. Then you can replace the amp. The whole thing then gets done in reverse. The wires are just barely long enough to get everything back together. Also the woofers are HEAVY. You don't just move them around. I don't want to sound like a wimp,
this wasn't a project I couldn't handle, it's just an awful lot on a brand new $2k sub.

Possible problems: you could damage a woofer, you could connect + to - or worse.

shokhead
05-11-2005, 12:08 PM
What was your impressions of the quality and workmanship of stuff most of us wont see?

swgiust
05-11-2005, 12:38 PM
Not having anything to compare to, I'd say overall quality was good. The box was internally braced, as well as the long port tubes. The wire from the speakers to the amp
was of very heavy guage. The box was insulated. If this was a box you were going to stand on every day, it probably wouldn't last forever, but for a sub, it should. The base
plate was bolted to the box, while the woofers were just wood screwed into the bottom
of the box. Again, 10 wood screws into 1" mdf, shouldn't go anywhere.

My real impression will be when I get to really hear this beast. I haven't had time to
really play it at all. I will be going home early today, and do the eq thing. One thing I did
notice right away, I have lots of things in my room that vibrate or rattle. Fixing that will
take longer than tuning the sub.

kexodusc
05-11-2005, 12:57 PM
That sounds much like any other sub out there. 1" MDF is a good choice, especially with more than one woofer. I just built my 15" sub with some of that. Less cabinet resonance issues, but heavy as hell.
Short cable leads is good...you don't want them loose and potentially causing lead slap as the inside of a sub can become quite turbulent. Bracing is good too.
What did they use for fill, basic polyfill?

You'd be surprised how tough cabinets are...I made my bookshelfs with 3/4" mdf and they'll support my weight indefinitely. A big sub like that has a lot of force at the baffle and needs to be structurally sound.

Since you're a pro at this now, you shouldn't have any problem building your own sub next time around :D

ptalar
05-15-2005, 07:16 AM
Well, how does the Ultra sound?

swgiust
05-16-2005, 05:44 AM
I intend to do a more complete "review" of the PB12-Ultra/2 once I have heard it somemore. I really have only watched one movie, National Treasure since I got it. Of course I have run a buch on demos, Ice Age, Das Boot, Day after Tomorrow, ect.
To early to tell. The longer I have listened the happier I become. I don't know if break in
is a huge factor, but it seems to sound better everyday. The sub does things that I just have not heard in any other theater Iv'e been in. There is deep bass in a lot of movies that
many people are just not hearing or fealing. Run your system with the sub off, then turn
it on, that's the kind of difference I am getting. One nice supprise was the better sound
from the rest of my system. I was getting so much mid bass, that it muddied the higher
end. My speakers are much crisper and cleaner than I have ever heard them. I have set
the eq to my own settings, but I am also going to e-mail SVS and see where they say to
set it.

For those in the market I can make the following sugestions, look at the Plus2 as well.
In the wood grains, it is the exact same cabinet, and the exact same amp. Only the
drivers are different. For a savings of about $ 800.00.

ptalar
05-17-2005, 04:10 PM
I sense your not happy with it. I was curious to hear from somebody who actually had one since my neighbor is ready to buy a plus/2 and I had told him about the ultra for consideration.

Doesn't SVS have a 30 day return policy? Maybe you should try another Ultra.

Phil

shokhead
05-17-2005, 04:40 PM
I think quite afew buy one step up to many an SVS,they will blow your doors off. I have a pretty good size room thats opens to others and my 20-39pci is plenty.

swgiust
05-18-2005, 05:39 AM
Phil, you are not totally wrong. Overall I must say that I am happy with my purchase.
The issue with the amp certainly has soured me a little bit. I think the main issue is
the bass is different than I'm used to. Is it better?, well I think so. What is it really supposed to sound like? That's the hard part.

Part of my problem, I think, is that the Infinity towers that I have really do produce a good
sounding bass. Sure it didn't go into the low 20's, but with the RABOS eq I was able
to get a very flat response. I guess my point is that I do hear improvement in my lower
bass. I hear things that I have never heard before. But the improvement was not huge.
It was good, just not a 3 to a 10. More like a 7 to a 10. Get it?

I sent in my sound level readings to SVS and they did get right back to me. They suggested the settings for the eq and some movement in the sub. I have a dip at
45hz. and a peak at 66hz.

This is and will continue to be a work in progress and I will try to keep all informed.

ptalar
05-18-2005, 06:15 AM
Phil, you are not totally wrong. Overall I must say that I am happy with my purchase.
The issue with the amp certainly has soured me a little bit. I think the main issue is
the bass is different than I'm used to. Is it better?, well I think so. What is it really supposed to sound like? That's the hard part.

Part of my problem, I think, is that the Infinity towers that I have really do produce a good
sounding bass. Sure it didn't go into the low 20's, but with the RABOS eq I was able
to get a very flat response. I guess my point is that I do hear improvement in my lower
bass. I hear things that I have never heard before. But the improvement was not huge.
It was good, just not a 3 to a 10. More like a 7 to a 10. Get it?

I sent in my sound level readings to SVS and they did get right back to me. They suggested the settings for the eq and some movement in the sub. I have a dip at
45hz. and a peak at 66hz.

This is and will continue to be a work in progress and I will try to keep all informed.

Its all relative depending on where you start and what you have as equipment. For me it was a quantum leap since I had a single 12" Klipsch sub. I never really tried to max out the woofers on my Bose 701 Series II towers (they also have a built in amp for low frequency), but they seemed potent. I had bought the sub before I bought the towers. So I never really tested my towers for low frequency. Maybe I would of felt the same as you if I did.

On another subject I bought the BFD and I did not know that SVS can help you with sub equalization. SVS sent me an email recommending the BFD for my plus/2 since I did not buy it with an eq originally. See Tom V.s quote below. Actually they sort of thought buying an after market eq was a better way to go then the factory EQ. You had more filters actually 12 bands per channel than the one band the factory eq has. But I understand that you usually don't need more than 7 bands for a sub. I am in the process of learning how to tune my sub. Trial and error. I will let you know how the BFD works out and if it actually improves my HT sound. I don't expect it to be a quantum leap.

SVS Tom V. "Actually, by adding on a separate parametric you can gain a lot more flexibility than the single band unit built into some of our designs. The RANE PE17 is a very nice EQ. 5 bands, but a little pricy. The Behringer Feedback Destroyer has 24 bands(!) and you can usually find it for $99-119 though. That would be a GREAT add on unit. "

swgiust
05-18-2005, 01:09 PM
Sent in my sound level meter readings to svs today. Interesting thing came of it.
Once the numbers are corrected, I have almost a 15db drop at 45hz. Thats where
alot of mid bass stuff is going on. I am going to try moving my sub tonight.