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beachcomba
01-01-2005, 01:44 AM
I'm curious about what your subs level is set? I want to know if its common to have a low setting; I know the sub-woofer's level is depended on many things(room dimensions, furniture, placement, source) but maybe everyone can tell me what your subs level is at, and why its at that level.

My sub(a Velodyne CHT-150) is set to just a hair over "2" on the level knob, I find that anything higher becomes too prominent and easy to localize. Any setting lower than 2 is a bit anemic and no presence. My room is about 12'x16' carpeted bassment room with 2 couches and some furniture.

I cant fathom a situation where I would crank the level up to 5 or more, I've tried a few times and a great many things begin vibrating and resonating.

Woochifer
01-01-2005, 09:59 AM
Setting up a sub is more than just plopping it down, plugging it in, and turning it up. There are several different settings that you have to balance out in order to blend it into the rest of your system. The location of the sub will have a dramatic effect on which level setting will sound tolerable to you. This is because the room effects will vary depending on the location. The bass will not sound full and even from all locations, and in fact, most locations in an average room will produce at least one problem frequency where the bass either peaks abnormally high or cancels out. If you have a severe peak, then you will set your sub level to where that peak is tolerable. However, this means that all of the other bass notes will not sound loud enough.

In general, you should set your sub at the same level as your mains by using a SPL meter and a test tone. Don't bother with trying to set it by ear and listening to music or movies as your sources. You need to go with a replicatable and consistent reference, and the SPL meter and test tone give you that. A lot of people on this board recommend setting the sub about 4 db higher because human hearing is less sensitive in the low frequencies. If you set the sub to this level, and find that it's boomy or localized, then you have other room-related setup issues that you need to fix first.

In my room, the reference setting sounded boomy and resonant when I first plugged it in. I measured the in-room frequency response and found that I was getting big peaks at three frequencies. So, I plugged my subwoofer into a parametric equalizer and used that to dial down those peaks. By dialing down the peaks, I was able set the subwoofer level higher without it pounding my head when certain sounds come up. This results in fuller and better balanced bass.

hershon
01-01-2005, 11:44 AM
I wish there was a default setting on the subwoofer. The best answer is of course what sounds best for you. In my case, I hate booming in your face bass type sounds and I like the bass to be there but not to be obtrusive and stay in the background. On my system the sub is affected by the DB level I out it at and also the volume level I put it on on the sub as well as bass db and the cross over. I have my crossover at 120, my sub volume at about 40%, my sub DB at 8 and my bass DB at 4 (my treble, center, l & r front & back speakers are also set at 4).
Setting up a sub is more than just plopping it down, plugging it in, and turning it up. There are several different settings that you have to balance out in order to blend it into the rest of your system. The location of the sub will have a dramatic effect on which level setting will sound tolerable to you. This is because the room effects will vary depending on the location. The bass will not sound full and even from all locations, and in fact, most locations in an average room will produce at least one problem frequency where the bass either peaks abnormally high or cancels out. If you have a severe peak, then you will set your sub level to where that peak is tolerable. However, this means that all of the other bass notes will not sound loud enough.

In general, you should set your sub at the same level as your mains by using a SPL meter and a test tone. Don't bother with trying to set it by ear and listening to music or movies as your sources. You need to go with a replicatable and consistent reference, and the SPL meter and test tone give you that. A lot of people on this board recommend setting the sub about 4 db higher because human hearing is less sensitive in the low frequencies. If you set the sub to this level, and find that it's boomy or localized, then you have other room-related setup issues that you need to fix first.

In my room, the reference setting sounded boomy and resonant when I first plugged it in. I measured the in-room frequency response and found that I was getting big peaks at three frequencies. So, I plugged my subwoofer into a parametric equalizer and used that to dial down those peaks. By dialing down the peaks, I was able set the subwoofer level higher without it pounding my head when certain sounds come up. This results in fuller and better balanced bass.