VTF sound test CD (track 1)

[jephdood]

That first track is dangerous, and I hope I didn't damage anything in my fairly new VTF-3 MKII. I DID see the warning Sasha placed above in his track listing thread, but only after I played the first track. D'oh.

The strings at the beginning are very quiet and so I turned up the volume. Then all of a sudden I hear this horrid repeated clicking sound coming from inside and hurried over to it and felt a rush of air coming out the port hole. I mean a LOT of air.. could have used it for a hair dryer. I didn't hear a thing other than the clicking noise.

Is everything okay? I put in a more mild music CD just afterwards and everything SEEMS to be alright.. but hopefully no damage was done during the time that track was playing. Was clicking like a madman, and that can't be good, whatever it was.

I can only imagine how many other people are blasting this track, potentially hurting their new subs. Eesh.

-Jeff

[Ddavidson]

That track really can be tricky until you get to know it. Not only is it deep but its got some real power when it comes up to full amptitude. You can quite easily find yourself lulled into a false sense of security before it comes on so hard you find yourself clipping the amp and bottoming the driver. The Hsu driver is all quality and so can handle quite a bit of abuse, but of course repeatitive bottoming will limit the drivers life so avoiding that is the best policy. Not to mention thats at a pretty high level so loosing a little volume is not going to hurt and sound a whole lot nicer.

The VTF-3 Mk2 and STF-3 dont need much gain to drive them. The sensitivity of the Bash amps setup means your only using the bottom 1/4 of the subs volume pot in most situations.

Ddavidson

[Influence]

jephdood,

Once you got the volume dialed in right, did you notice that the deep organ notes produce a "staccato" effect with the bass, where you actually hear the air driving the pipe organ shooting out in rapid blasts? I had posted this same question a while back and no one else with a MKII VTF-3 replied. I believe that this organ material should do this, but want to make sure that someone else is hearing the same sounds (at sane volume level, i.e. under 90dB. Let me know

[jephdood]

Honestly, I'm afraid to put that disc in again. :)

[Influence]

Really, it is safe to play that song. Just keep your sub output at the receiver level flat (0dB), and keep the volume knob on the sub only slightly higher than nominal (which you will probably find is where the volume level "should" be if you balance your sub to your main speakers). I think I have mine at the equivalent of a 7:30-8:00 position. Also, don't crank the volume on your receiver/pre-pro until you are sure that

That track reproduces some amazing bass at around 18Hz. It is truly awe-inspiring, but trust me, your sub CAN handle it at a sane volume level.

[Influence]

Forgive me, that is insane 16hz bass. I still don't believe how much output the VTF-3MkII has at this depth. Simply fantastic.

[cschang]

.....trust me, your sub CAN handle it at a sane volume level

Yeah...but can his house?

[r3Wind]

Yeah...but can his house?

I popped that in when I was first setting up my VTF3 MKII, I figured I'd start with the volume on the sub, "Oh, I don't know, I guess around half way up and I'll go from there..."

I seriously thought I was going to lose my front window on that one...

[jephdood]

Well then I wonder why I clipped the amp so much. I had the volume at about 11 o'clock I believe. I don't remember how high I had the receiver turned up, but it was only enough so I could hear the strings better at the beginning of the track. I'll have to check how my receiver is set for LFE later tonight. Cuz I didn't hear a thing other than the horrible clicking. That woofer must have been slamming against the Gramma platform it's currently sitting on to have been pushing that much air. Scary.

Maybe I'll try it again tomorrow.

[Influence]

Woah! 11:00!!! I had mine at about 10:00 in a 23x19 room and I felt my head pressurizing. The walls were flexing, the panels in the crappy drop ceiling were snowing. My fiancee' thought an ogre was rampaging through the house. . .

then the neighbors came knocking on my door.

then I realized that I was running almost 15dB hot on the sub volume.

[lonnypeck]

Running the Sub alittle HOT is not a bad thing... I personally like it about 5-6 dB (avg) higher than the balanced 5 HT speakers! The dynamic range is the BOMB (keep'n it clean)! 2 channel on the other hand, flat clean response is GOOD! I can't imagine LBS (Listening before the SUB)

[cschang]

I just got a new pre/pro and tried to calibrate the system by ear because I was lazy. I got the speakers pretty close, but the sub I had about 6dB too hot.

I run flat for music, about 4-5dB hot for HT.

[jbliz]

I can't wait to give that track a listen tonight. I just got the test cd yesterday and all I listened to were the bass test tones. I have a question on that though. Should my VTF-3 be able to play the 16 Hz tone? It can't, it just started farting (for lack of a better description). It played 20Hz and up just fine though.

[cschang]

John....I replied in the thread you started about this.