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BASH
April 11th, 2004, 3:58 PM
Hello all,
My question concerns subwoofer set-up and phase. I have an HSU-VTF2 sub and a pair of Axiom M22’s for stereo only listening. In the VTF-2 manual it suggest to play some material with bass and to set the phase wherever it gives the most output. On my system this is at the 180 degree setting. Recently I have purchased a set-up disc and a
Rad Shack digital SPL meter, and then printed a copy of the corrections for the meter off of HSU’s site to properly set up my system.
I mean, why spend all this dough and not do it right, right?
After taking NUMEROUS readings, moving everything everywhere, the best I could get my settings were
20Hz-77.5dB,
25Hz-79,
31Hz-82,
40Hz-89,
50Hz-72,
63Hz-83,
80Hz-80.5,
100Hz-82.5.
I realize I have a room node around 35Hz, and a suck-out around 52Hz, but I felt that I should be able to get better readings. So once again I get everything ready to take a few more readings and try to improve on my past endeavors, when I get the bright idea to switch the phase to 0 and see what happens. Within 3 readings I was able to come up with
20Hz-83.5,
25Hz-82,
31Hz-82,
40Hz-81.5,
50Hz-77.5,
63Hz-80.5,
80Hz-80.5,
100Hz-85.
My reference level was 80dB for all readings
My question is, will running the sub @ 0, degrade or “muddy” the sound, one note bass, even though it flattens the overall response?
Sorry this is long, and thanks guys.

Dudley
April 11th, 2004, 5:28 PM
The short answer is no. Changing the phase should not muddy the sound. I don't think the switch would have been put on the sub if it would muddy the sound.

What size is your room - flat (basically) to 20 Hz is pretty darn good.

BASH
April 12th, 2004, 8:18 AM
Dudley,
Thanks for your response. The reason I thought it might hurt was when I initially set up the sub, the 180 setting was stronger and appeared to have more presence than the 0 setting. My room is 12x14x7.5, and what really blew me away was the readings at 20 and 25Hz. Guess I should break out my disc and see just how low this BEAST will go.

DNelms
April 14th, 2004, 9:11 PM
Bash-

What is the test disc you are using for your set up. I have found a DVD audio disc from chesky that has a good subwoofer phase test. This disc enabled me to set the phase on my old 10V with very good results.

Also, where did you get the corrections for the test meter?

Thanks -

Dave

BASH
April 15th, 2004, 4:48 AM
Hi Dave, I use the Carsound.com test disc #cd-101. It has frequency tones starting at 10Hz-track 10, 11 Hz-track 11 and so on to 98Hz-track 98. I have been asked the question about the corrections twice, but am unable to find them again on this site. But if my memory serves me right, I think it was a HSU site from Australia. Maybe Sasha can help?

"...blow the house down"

BASH
April 15th, 2004, 5:05 AM
dave,
here you go, http://members.iinet.net.au/~colinf/hsuset.html.
Go to the the INFO menu, then click on set-up.
10 Hz +20 dB
12.5 Hz +16.5 dB
16 Hz +11.5 dB
20 Hz +7.5 dB
25 Hz +5 dB
31.5 Hz +3 dB
40 Hz +2.5 dB
50 Hz +1.5 dB
63 Hz +1.5 dB
80 Hz +1.5 dB
100 Hz +2 dB
125 Hz +0.5 dB
160 Hz -0.5 dB
200 Hz -0.5 dB
250 Hz +0.5 dB
315 Hz -0.5 dB
400 Hz 0 dB
500 Hz -0.5 dB
630 Hz 0 dB
800 Hz 0 dB
1 k 0 dB
1.25 k 0 dB
1.6 k -0.5 dB
2 k -1.5 dB
2.5 k -1.5 dB
3.15 k -1.5 dB
4 k -2 dB
5 k -2 dB
6.3 k -2 dB
8 k -2 dB
10 k -1 dB
12.5 k +0.5 dB
16 k 0 dB
20 k +1 dB