PB-12/plus Experience ~ A True Novice’s Confessions

Holydoc

** Also posted in the Home Theatre Spot Forum since they helped me tremendously with selecting this subwoofer**

I thought that you might enjoy this story of a Novice learning about Home Theatre and especially the new PB-12/Plus Subwoofer from SVS. I also thought that the guys from SVS would get a chuckle out of a true novice encounter. Let me stress that I am a true novice. How novice will become very apparent as you read this encounter.

The subwoofer itself is huge! It is by far the largest piece of cherry wood furniture in my house now. I call it furniture because it is larger than my end tables on each side of my couch. On top of that, it has more switches, dials, and connections on the back of it as my television. It also came with foam hole inserts, a manual, and an Avia DVD that I purchased. So there I was with this 100+lb box staring intimidating at me. Only thing that kept me going at this point was the thought of Stephen at SVS telling me that I would be “BLOWN AWAY” by this sub.

So I hauled out my old sub (you can easily carry the old sub on your shoulder) and pushed the SVS into position for hookup (thank God for carpets!). The first thing I did, though I am a guy and normally would not, was to start reading the manual that came with it. I did great right up until I got to the PEQ feature. At that point, my mind started drifting off to “Finding Nemo” and the submarine and dreaded Darla scene. I decided it was time to connect.

Turned all power off my stereo. Plugged in the SVS. Hooked my old subwoofer cable to the right input jack of the SVS (why you have a right and left input jack and instructions that state it does not matter which you connect, is way beyond me!). Turned the volume of the SVS to the second hash mark on the gain as instructed by the manual. BTW, the Gain is the volume dial in stereo talk. Turned on the power to the SVS. Turned on my trusty SPL meter I bought from Radio Shack and started the test tones of my receiver to calibrate the SVS for NEMO.

Total disappointment in the test tone. All my speakers (7.1 system) were calibrated nicely to 80db, but when the test tone hit the subwoofer, I could barely hear it. This 100+lb monster was humming like a mouse. So I started increasing the level control of the subwoofer built into my stereo. When I reached +8db, the SVS was finally playing at 80db. Seemed a bit high to me, but I blew it off as my inexperience in understanding the power that this beast would need.

So what would any red-blooded American male do after feeling that all was calibrated and ready to go? Crank up the Home Theatre and rock with “Finding Nemo”. Since I wanted to really “feel” the sub on its first time out of the box, I selected the “Into the Abyss” scene (submarine slide) and cranked it up.

Well the submarine started sliding, bass filled the room, my heart started pounding, and then the SVS made this terrible Clack…Clack…Clack noise. I ran to the stereo power and quickly shut every thing down. Now what I have done? How could a $999 sub not handle this? This monster should shake the walls down with no strain.

So after my heart started pounding and I returned to my senses, I decided I would read some more reviews of this sub by professionals (I say more because I had read just about every thing I could find already, but now I understood more). The review that I read first was:

Edward JM review of PB12/Plus

As I read this review, what hit me first was when Edward mentioned that his stereo setting for his sub was at the -5db range for his testing. I remembered mine was at the +8db range. Then I remembered that the SVS manual had set to set your stereo at -5db initially as well. Reading further in the review above, Ed explains that by keeping your stereo in the -5db range, you eliminate the opportunity for distortion caused by your stereo signal. Maybe I was causing distortion to be sent to the sub at high levels. So I recalibrated by turning the GAIN on the SVS up until I reached 80db and left the stereo set to -5db.

More confident now but not enough to chance another “Clack”, I continued to read Ed’s review. The very next thing he talks about is “Frequency Response and Tuning Configurations”. He stresses that if the SVS has no ports plugged, then the Subsonic filter should be set to no less than 25Hz. The Subsonic What?? Wait! I did not remember reading about that.

I checked behind the SVS and sure enough there was a dial labeled “Subsonic Filter” and it was set to 12Hz! Why was this not in the SVS manual? I obviously was bottoming out the speaker. I snatched the manual and looked through it again.

Ok, so I thought the manual stopped after the discussion on the PEQ. How was I to know that it continued on after that to discuss the Subsonic Filter? Well…uh….anyway. Plain as day, the SVS manual stated that with no ports blocked the SS should be set to 20hz, 1 port blocked 16hz, and 2 ports blocked 12Hz. Opps.

So what did I learn? I learned that I am a total newbie at home stereo, manuals are met to be read from cover to cover, and manufacturers like to set things so that they can see how novice we really are. *smile*

So to end this story, I calibrated to 85db with Avia, downloaded test tones of frequencies from 16hz to 160hz to set the PEQ (no setting was necessary in my room), ended up plugging one tube and setting the SVS at 16Hz for chest shaking base, and bounced around the room in glee as this subwoofer shook the house with “Finding Nemo” with the force of an earthquake. This subwoofer is wonderful!

Thanks again to the guys at SVS for recommending the perfect Subwoofer for me, and all the wonderful people on this forum for making the brand selection an easy choice.

Shizelbs

Thats a great read. Thanks for your thoughts. I will be in your boat in a few months myself.

PolknPepsi

Glad you finally got things straightened out and it does pay to read that manual first. ( I usually throw instructions away too). The dreaded clack I have not heard.......thank goodness.... :eek:

aaharvel

Great writeup HolyDoc.

fireshoes

BTW, for the newbies here, the review by Edward JM they referred to is Dr. Spec here at Club Polk. He doesn't come around much anymore, but if you do a search on his posts you can find out loads about subwoofers!

And Dr. Spec, if you happen to see this, I saw this article the other day I thought you might enjoy.

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/s/h_fea_elk_NM_Harber_05.html

Dr. Spec

I first spotted this at HTSPOT and definitely needed to pop over to Club Polk (still one of the coolest forums on the net), and say I'm glad you got your problems worked out.

I can't tell you how many times initial disappointment is the result of set-up error and not a poor performing subwoofer. It's a happy ending and I'm glad you like the product.

I'm actually reviewing that particular unit right now for Secrets (the previous review you hotlinked was for the Plus/2). It's really a good performer and I think the 16 Hz tune is probably the best overall combination of output and extension for this particular unit.

If you really want to pound, then run it with all ports open (use the 20 Hz filter setting). You will give up a bit of the very deepest stuff but you will gain 3-5 dB of clean output in the 20-25 Hz region in return.

Enjoy your new sub!

Dr. Spec

fireshoes wrote:

And Dr. Spec, if you happen to see this, I saw this article the other day I thought you might enjoy.

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/s/h_fea_elk_NM_Harber_05.html

That's an amazing bull! Talk about a tough time field dressing and hogging that thing out of there.

I'll stick to whitetails, thank you. The early archery season is only 3 weeks away - I'm pretty jacked.

Thanks for the link!

Regards,

Ed