My take on the VTF-3 MK3

[mystik610]

I had a lot of time to play with the VTF-3 this weekend, and am thoroughly impressed by it!

Compared to the STF-2 that I was running previously, the VTF-3 performs as you expect a sub with a larger driver and more powerful amp would: it gets much louder and can extend deeper without distorting. My living room is a very open space and there aren't a whole lot of walls to shake, but the VTF very adequately pressurizes the air in the room and fills the entire space with very fat, clean sounding bass. The sound quality is at least as good as the STF-2 in the upper LFE frequencies, and its ability to bring out the frequencies below 30hz really gives it more 'oomph'.

I'm running the sub is max extension mode, currently have the gain dialed halfway at 12 o'clock, and the subwoofer level set to +3db on my Onkyo 706. While I'm admittedly running the VTF-3 pretty hot, it has handled everything I throw at it without a hitch. I ran Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Live Free or Die Hard, Wall-E, Transformers, and the 'Amazing Life' THX demo at the highest volume levels I think anyone could tolerate (-15 reference on the 706) and the VTF-3 handled it all with relative ease. In fact, with my current settings, the VTF-3 seems much too loud and I'll probably be turning it down once the novelty of overwhelmingly loud bass wears off.

What's more impressive than the raw power of the sub though is how subtle and musical it can be. After spending yesterday running bass heavy action movie scenes through the VTF-3, I spent today playing some concert blu-rays that I have. Without changing the settings, thae VTF-3 can articulate the musical nuances of the string bass solo in the Michael Buble' 'Caught in the Act' concert. With the Foo Fighters concert both the kick drum and the bass guitar are separately, and clearly audible. With the John Legend concert the bass line is hard and heavy like it should be in a modern R&B song, but its clean and laid back enough to allow the vocals to shine.

The dynamics and the versatility of the sub is what makes it great. For bass heavy home theater scenes, the VTF-3 very dramatically makes its presence known...the amount of air this thing can push from the dual 4 inch ports is kinda scary (it shook the hell out of my couch when I had the ports aimed at it). At the same time, the sub 'disappears' and integrates itself with the rest of the soundstage seamlessly when it should. At times, I found myself checking that it was even on, not because the bass wasn't audible, but because it didn't sound like a subtle bass tone could be articulated so cleanly from a sub that just a few minutes ago was shaking the adjacent windows.

It doesn't take a lot to build a sub that can play real loud and extend real low...just take a big driver, power it with a big amp, and enjoy (I did it plenty of times myself back in my youthful days of tinkering with car audio). To have a sub that is both loud and dramatic AND very accurate and musical without having to adjust settings...thats really something to be impressed by. Thats where the value in the VTF-3 exists.


edit:

Oh and I stopped by Frys today to have a look around and they had Iron Man (which has an LFE track I know very well) playing through a demo using a 15 inch velodyne. While the velodyne hit pretty hard, it sounded boomy as hell compared to the HSU. The velodyne just seemed to rumble excessively, and the bass tones that should have been more laid bad were grossly exaggerated. The velo definitely wasn't worth the $800 price tag IMO.

HSU subs really change your views on what a good LFE track should sound like.

[Pete_Hsu]

Thanks for your impressions mystik!

So you prefer running the subwoofer with one port plugged (bass extension switch set to '1 port open' mode), as opposed to having two ports open (and bass extension switch set to '2 port open' mode)?

I recommend backing down on the sub volume knob a bit, maybe closer to 10 o'clock.

Thank you again, glad you like the sub!

Sincerely,

[skool]

I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying your VTF-3 Mk3. After recommended my friend to get the VTF3 Mk. 3, got it setup and calibrated via MCACC, we were extremely pleased with the sub's abilities to play bass notes cleanly and distinctly. Granted, it was the first time I heard a Hsu sub, it was a great experience that led to me sold off the ed A2-300 and got a VTF-2 Mk. 3.

Your comments about finding yourself "checking that it was even on, not because the bass wasn't audible..." is what an integrated system with a real sub is all about. In fact, if properly calibrated and tuned, you should hear bass sound primarily from your speakers and not able to localize the bass from the sub.

Anyway, you may want to listen to Pete's advice. You're running your sub way too hot. If you push your sub to -10 or -5 on your avr, you will clip the sub too much. Ideally, you should able to push your sub to 0 on your avr before it starts to clip. You may want to try to run in Maximum Output mode to see if you keep your gain dial around 10 o'clock and sub level on your receiver 0 or below. That would probably be best in the long run.

[mystik610]

Thanks for your impressions mystik!

So you prefer running the subwoofer with one port plugged (bass extension switch set to '1 port open' mode), as opposed to having two ports open (and bass extension switch set to '2 port open' mode)?

I recommend backing down on the sub volume knob a bit, maybe closer to 10 o'clock.

Thank you again, glad you like the sub!

Sincerely,

I was actually running it in max output mode on Saturday, but decided it was way too loud from my listening position when I started tinkering again on Sunday. The Onkyo's pink noise was reading at 96 DB from the closest listening position lol. I'm also enjoying the 'feel' of the lower extensions now. I definitely need to get a turbo one day...I think even with the turbo, the VTF-3 will be able to hide discretely behind the couch. I had some people over yesterday, and no one even noticed the VTF-3 was there....until they hear it come on of course =).

I eventually backed the sub down to 10 o'clock last night when the wife got home from work and we started watching TV at normal volumes. The VTF-3 was unnecessarily loud at normal listening levels.

Oh and thanks for the placement advice the other day. I originally had it firing backwards per your advice, and while it sounded great there, it was firing directly towards my master bedroom and shaking the room (my 11 month old sleeps there). I eventually ended up shifting my couches a few inches forward, giving the ports enough room to fire behind the couch (instead of into to the couch) when facing the front of the room. Measuring with an SPL, the response levels were pretty close between the two placements. This is also more WAF and baby friendly, as the ports and the controls are out of my wifes sight, and out of my son's reach. I still put tape over the controls just in case though.

[mystik610]

I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying your VTF-3 Mk3. After recommended my friend to get the VTF3 Mk. 3, got it setup and calibrated via MCACC, we were extremely pleased with the sub's abilities to play bass notes cleanly and distinctly. Granted, it was the first time I heard a Hsu sub, it was a great experience that led to me sold off the ed A2-300 and got a VTF-2 Mk. 3.

Your comments about finding yourself "checking that it was even on, not because the bass wasn't audible..." is what an integrated system with a real sub is all about. In fact, if properly calibrated and tuned, you should hear bass sound primarily from your speakers and not able to localize the bass from the sub.

Anyway, you may want to listen to Pete's advice. You're running your sub way too hot. If you push your sub to -10 or -5 on your avr, you will clip the sub too much. Ideally, you should able to push your sub to 0 on your avr before it starts to clip. You may want to try to run in Maximum Output mode to see if you keep your gain dial around 10 o'clock and sub level on your receiver 0 or below. That would probably be best in the long run.

Yeah the sub integrates itself well with my RTi8's and I couldn't localize where the bass was coming from. I'm sure the Audyssey filters from the Onkyo 706 helped quite a bit too, as the subs timing matched the mains perfectly. Had I not known what the crossover frequencies on my mains were, I would have thought they were coming from the front soundstage. Very impressive, especially with a near field placement with the sub sitting about 16 feet away from the mains.

I eventually turned the gain on the sub down....the output levels were much too high for normal listening levels, and was fatiguing to listen to for prolonged periods of time.

[skool]

Yes, I think it was fatiguing due to you running it too hot. Once you set the gain at 10 o'clock, let Audyssey calibrate it and then leave it alone. The Hsu VTF-3 Mk3 is very flat, and thus you won't hear big bass in soundtracks unless there's big bass. You'll be surprise by the differences in bass level between different soundtracks. Enjoy your Hsu!