PSW350 Adjustments

BESKI64

Hi, this is my first Forum question....(I'm a beginner....Don't Laugh)

I'm sure this must have been addressed in the past, and I know a good answer is always to "test it both ways and let my ears decide" but please let me know your opinions about adjusting the PSW350:

(1) The Low Pass Adjustment knob on the back has a range from 90HZ to 160HZ and the Polk Manual says for best results:

....Smaller Main Speakers use Upper Range of Control and for Larger Main Speakers the Lower Range of Control works best.

With my system below, does that mean I turn it all the way to 90HZ ???

(2) The Pase Flip-Switch has a choice of 0 degrees to 180 degrees....when I have somebody flip the switch back and forth for both music and HT, I really don't hear much of a difference!!

Let me know what you think....
Thanks,
Beski

Main: RT800i
Center: CS400i
Sur: F/X 500i
Sub: PSW350
Recv: Sony STR-DE945 (Sorry....I didn't read this forum before I got this !!)

dougg

Recv: Sony STR-DE945 (Sorry....I didn't read this forum before I got this !!) [/B]

I feel your pain I have the same recv. I only paided $200 for it, but I don't think it is even worth that...
Think I am going to have to pull out my old Harmon Kardon 2 channel for music listening.

crewchief68

theres nothing wrong with your Sony, people here seem to think Onkyo and Harmon Karden are hand made, and not assembled in Asia in a huge factory like everything else. There is a certain snobbishness pervasive in these rooms. I'll put my Sony STR DB-940, as it sits now with the mad max speaker arrangement against anything THEY can come up with.
As for the woofer, i have the same, if its not to late....return it to the store and consider the purchase of a real sub. If you're looking for impact during movies i'm afraid you'll be dissapointed. Its only reated down to 38hz so its not going to reproduce the true low end effects found on most movie soundtracks. Between Fight Club and Phantom Menence (both which have bass freqs down to around 10-15hz) its a wonder the thing is even in one piece. Bass in this range is in-audible to human ears, but a real sub-woofer , with enough power will make you 'feel' this bass.
Sadly the 350 won't do it. It most often decends to basically distortion and really detracts from the expierence.
I'll probably move the 350 to the bathroom after the SVS arrives.

OrangeToupee

"I'll probably move the 350 to the bathroom after the SVS arrives."

Great idea! Then between you and your sub, you can produce thunder in stereo.

ntculenuff

thats funne orange:D

johnnyamerika

Originally posted by crewchief68
people here seem to think Onkyo and Harmon Karden are hand made, and not assembled in Asia in a huge factory like everything else. There is a certain snobbishness pervasive in these rooms.

I think you may be misinterpereting what some people may be saying. I'm sure most all people here know Onkyo are mass produced just like Sonys. I difference is in the parts that go in to those recievers. Sony uses shared circuitry between the channels, resulting in lower quality sound. They also rate their power at lower impedance levels and with higher distortion. Companies like Onkyo, Denon, and Marantz have discrete circuitry for each channel. They rate power conservitivley, resulting in an reciever that gives clean, powerful sound to each channel with little distortion. Sony does make an ES series, that is aimed towards high-end audio rather than consumer electronics, just as Pioneer makes an elite. If you're not concerned with having a higher quality of parts or a 'high-end' reciever, than that's ok! I'm glad the Sony is working out for you.

Regarding the 350, I would vouch that it has the power to make you 'feel' the bass. Although it's not the best sub in the world, or even in it's class, it is a damn good one. If you want a sub with the ability to reproduce frequencies of 10-15Hz, well, you may want to consiter shelling out a couple thousand dollars for one. Because almost any sub you buy below the $1000 mark won't do that for you. If you do know of one that is in the 350s price range that can do that, let me know. I need a sub right now and would love a recommendation from anyone! Were I to purchase a sub like that though, I would probably want to have a proportionate reciever to run it, and would probably want to upgrade from my Onkyo.

If you call knowledgable people who wish to share their information in a forum of which the theme is to help eductate 'snobbish', then I greatly appologize for sharing what I know with you.

john

johnnyamerika

Hi Beski, welcome to the forum!

1) Your crossover on the 350 actually ducks down to 60Hz. Since you have the 800i's, which can reproduce fairly low bass tones, you can set the Low Pass on the 350 to the lower side of the spectrum. You will want to set your center and mains to small, even though they have the ability to hit low frequencies, because the sub will do that better than they will. You want the sub to pick up the frequency right where the 800s leave off, so you will need to adjust and calibrate by ear (and if you want by SPL meter). But play around, and see what sounds best to you. Also try plugging the 350 into the 'unfiltered' jack on the back of the sub, if you are wiring through pre-outs. If you're doing speaker level wiring that's good, Polk recommends that 1st.

2) Phase as far as I know, is based on the position of the woofer in accordance to your room. A sound wave has peaks and lows. Switching the phase flips those peaks and lows, sending the same signal slightly different. Usually if you have the sub in the front corner of your listening area, phase set to 0 will be fine. It is a listening preference, and if you can't hear any difference you are ok

later,
john

pensacola

One good way to check for correct phase is with pink noise. If you don't have a noise generator, there are test CDs out there with it. Stereophile has a couple different test CDs, and they each have phase tests on them, along with pink noise.

If your speakers are out of phase, some of the bass frequencies will cancel-out, so it should be fairly obvious.

It would seem to me that a steady test-tone or pink noise would be better for checking for this than music. Just a thought.

Eddie624

Hmm so because u really like a certain brand of equipment then u are snobbish. I suppose everyone in here is pretty snobbish then since we all seem to like POLK. I have the psw350 and am quite happy with it. I cant really play it very loud anyway seeing as i live in a apartment and the neighbors would be a little pissed if i did.

danger boy

i have the PSW350 too. and I have to say.. that with my small room and RT800i's set to LARGE..(all other speakers set to SMALL) they combined with the 350 sub provide plenty of good bass.
sure it's not the same as a $1500 Velodyne or some other over priced sub.. but if you set up all your speakers with a SPL you'll notice a good amount of bass with the 350.
I guess the big debate here is how much bass from your sub do you really need? I tend to think if in every scene in a movie if all you hear is thundering bass... then that is to much. Frankly, to much bass does fatigue my ears after about an hour or so. I'm very happy with the bass the RT800i's deliver too. I'm amazed just how much sound comes out of such a small package.
P.S. if you can afford a Velodyne, more power to you.. i'm not knocking them or any other sub... just they seem to be overpriced for just providing bass. What about HSU subs??? I hear they are even better then the Velodynes. Discuss.

johnnyamerika

juice has two Hsu's...I can hear him running to meet that post-challenge right now

dougg

Originally posted by crewchief68
I'll put my Sony STR DB-940, as it sits now with the mad max speaker arrangement against anything THEY can come up with.

I guess you haven't listened to anything better. If we were talking about the Sony ES line it would be a different story. But you are comparing a BMW to a Toyota, when we should be comparing a BWM to a Lexus.

The receiver I was referring to is the DE line witch is more like a Hyundai.

barney69

hehe funny analogy dougg:)

juice21

Originally posted by danger boy
What about HSU subs??? I hear they are even better then the Velodynes. Discuss.

well, recently upgrading to 2 HSU'a, i guess i should comment here. when first looking into getting subs, i was looking at both polk and velodyne. IMO, the velodyne's seemed to have a significant 'ummph' over the polks (no offense to any psw owners). i was pretty sure when i was ready to upgrade i was definitely going with velodyne. hearing all the hype in articles and on the web about the HSU vtf-2, i figured i'd give them a shot. i was not dissapointed. these subs put out serious bass for the $. they reach down to 25hrz. and sound tight! you can read some more of my thoughts on these subs here: HSU's