BFD Tips and or Tricks...

McLoki · December 2004

I decided to get myself a nice christmas present and purchased a BFD (1124) off the bay for myself.

Now I go to the definitive BFD site to download the instructions for using the PEQ features of it and the site is gone. (www.snapbug.ws/bfd.htm) any ideas for another site or does anyone have the instructions downloaded that they can forward to me?

Thanks for your help,

Michael

gatemplin · December 2004

That sucks, hopefully the site will be back up. Try asking over at HTF to see if someone has a copy of the site. Sonnie Parker is very helpful if you can find his email address, I have forgotten it. I can try and help you out with any specific questions.

The main things to get started are setting the input level with the button on the back (-4dB IIRC), picking the correct "engine" or channel on the front and setting the program to the correct setting which is "PA".

McLoki · December 2004

Well, no pics but I do have the text at least.

I didn't think of it before, but the text is stored in the wayback machine. (for those that have never been there - or don't think everything you type is stored somewhere forever.......)

http://www.waybackmachine.org/

Michael.

Once I get it in, I am sure I will have plenty of questions for you all. - This should at least get me started though

McLoki · December 2004

things are looking up. BFD is in and the original site (www.snapbug.ws/bfd.htm) is back up..... I will let you all know how it turns out.

michael

McLoki · January 2005

here is the before and after chart. I have some pretty large adds and cuts. the second dip would not correct at all. I tried to keep the bandwith as small as possible. I currently have 3 eq's set.
1 - 21.5hz, 5/64 octave, -2 db
2 - 52hz, 3/64 octave, -22 db
3 - 45hz, 1/32 octave, +10db

I know the 3rd is a large increase (forcing double the power) but it is really narrow. I don't know if this matters or not.....

for a first cut, how does this look? (each horizontal is 1 db)

gatemplin · January 2005

Just got back from school, I'll take a closer look at the graph later but I just noticed the +10 dB filter. That is over 8 times the power, not twice (3 dB) and that will be clipped off at high output and will strain the amp.

gatemplin · January 2005

Those depressions are ugly. Two things you can do, move the sub or listening position and build bass traps. You've got some really nice extension in that room and that shouldn't change if you move the sub. If you want to build some traps (really low SAF) let me know and I can give you some links.

McLoki · January 2005

Originally posted by gatemplin
Just got back from school, I'll take a closer look at the graph later but I just noticed the +10 dB filter. That is over 8 times the power, not twice (3 dB) and that will be clipped off at high output and will strain the amp.

I knew that - I don't know what the heck I was thinking. I pulled that filter out - thanks for reminding me. I did try and move the sub around today and it is in the best postion for my room. (by quite a bit...)

I am still playing with the bfd. (it is really pretty easy to use) I will post an updated graph once I get to one I am happy with (or just get tired of messing with it).

Thanks for your help - any off the cuff suggestions - besides moving?

Michael

gatemplin · January 2005

There's not much you can do other than building traps to get rid of nulls. You can try adjusting the phase but I doubt it will help much here. Let's see the new graph when you have time.

McLoki · January 2005

the longer I mess with this the uglier it gets. I doubled the number of tones I was testing to see if the dips got worse or better. - of course they look even worse now.

Keep in mind that while this looks terrible, it really does not sound as bad as it looks. i am going to play with it some more, but this is where i am at so far. (all changes with the BFD are reductions, not additions)

Michael

McLoki · January 2005

OK, got the line much better from 18-38hz (or so) +- about 1.5db.

I did a quick test to see if it would help hooking up my old polk psw-350 (or something like that) sub and it actually helped alot if I put it in180 degree phase to the SVS.

I will play with it more later this week, but I am thinking of hooking it up to the other side of my BFD (right channel) and setting the polk sub to ignore anything below 38hz or so. This seems to correct my huge dips.

Once I get things hooked up I will share the results with you and let you know how far (if at all) it went to helping reduce the nulls in my room.

Michael

gatemplin · January 2005

I will play with it more later this week, but I am thinking of hooking it up to the other side of my BFD (right channel) and setting the polk sub to ignore anything below 38hz or so. This seems to correct my huge dips.

Good idea. I tried this too but I made better gains by changing some stuff around. It may not sound terrible but you are missing a lot of info and you will notice an improvement if you can flatten it out more. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with that Polk sub.

BFD Tips and or Tricks...

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