mis matching subwoofers a bad idea?

Pons

Hi everybody (Dr Nick voice),

I just purchased the PSW 505 sub replacing my older Energy AS90 sub.

I have a couple questions.

1- how long is the break in period? I have the RTi A9 towers and the 505 sub gets drown out by the A9's at high volume which is why I replaced my energy sub cause I figured it was not powerful enough. After how many hours will it be safe to turn the gain on the sub amp up higher? Right now it's at about 50%.

2- Would it be a bad idea to run both my energy as90 sub with the 505? Considering they're different brands, power levels etc would is sound bad? And is it better to split the signal or daisy chain?

Equipment list
Sony str-da2400 es receiver (using as a pre/pro)
Sony ta-n77 es amp 270 wpc rms powering the Rti-A9's
Sony ta-n55 es amp 150 wpc rms 300 mono powering the Csi-A6
Sony ta-n55 es amp 150 wpc rms powering a pair of Energy C500
Polk Audio psw505 300 watts rms 460 peak
Sony Bd S350
Monster power mk2

Specs on the as90
12" woofer
Intergrated class A/B Amplifier 90 watts rms 360 peak
50Hz-150Hz
Frequency response 28hz-150Hz +0/-3 dB
100m V Line 4 volts-35 volts
mono or strereo line level RCA phono jacks
stereo speaker terminals

megasat16

Pons wrote: »

1- how long is the break in period? I have the RTi A9 towers and the 505 sub gets drown out by the A9's at high volume which is why I replaced my energy sub cause I figured it was not powerful enough. After how many hours will it be safe to turn the gain on the sub amp up higher? Right now it's at about 50%.

It takes about 40-100 hours for a sub to be fully broken in. 50% volume is too high for any sub and you'll hear lots of distortion and sub bottoming out (noise due to mechanical hitting of the subwoofer voice coil). I would not used my subwoofers with more than 30% volume or add another sub. 70% of volume is a reserve for bass heavy movies and it'll reach that limit during very loud bass.

2- Would it be a bad idea to run both my energy as90 sub with the 505? Considering they're different brands, power levels etc would is sound bad? And is it better to split the signal or daisy chain?

It usually is a bad idea to run different subs from different brands. You should use two identical subs for seamless integration but if you know how to tune two different subs individually or know what you are doing. Otherwise, two subs from different brands do not work very well together.

You can use Y-cable for LFE channel or you can daisy chain them too if the subs has LFE input and output connectors.

kawizx9r

Hey Pons, just wanted to further comment on the idea of two different subwoofers.

If you want seamless integration, it's best you have two identical subwoofers with phases properly set if you're going to have one in each corner or stacked/etc.

However, it is not a bad idea to run two subwoofers of different manufacturer's. I ran a Polk PSW10 as a midbass driver and a Velodyne CHT-12 as the lower bass driver and it worked beautifully. I had full bodied, heart thumping bass at higher SPL's as opposed to just running the Velo or the Polk. It all depends how you run your setup.

By the way, Welcome to Club Polk!

-Freddy

wingnut4772

Yes. It's a bad idea.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

Have you set the sub output level correctly on the AVR? When i first hooked mine up i was at a loss wondering why my sub was "flat" After i played around with the remote for a bit i came acroos the speaker level setting's, adjusted and went from there

TECHNOKID

I don't agree, when it comes to sub you can mix and match without too many issues. Your main concern should be placement, simply Y out the LFE to each subwoofer, try top placement as it is usually what works best. You do not have anything to loose (remove if you do not like) but everything to gain (use the 2 subs as described if you like). Personnally, I prefer 1 subwoofer with sufficient power for the room than 2 smaller separates and that goes for matching brands also.

Pons

Thank you everyone for the advice, I re-read the manuals and did some more tuning and it's made a huge difference. I had compression set high, and the sub was set at 0 db's so I turned off the compression, raised the dB level on the sub output and lowered the gain the sub amp. All is well now. Iggy Pop never sounded better :P

Kind regards
Pons

sTiLlLeArNiNg

Nice! I like to run the crossover at half on the rear of my sub and i set the cut off freq at like 60hz for the AVR, A9's set to large and then i simply adjust the volume + DSP mode when need be, Seem's to be working well so far I also have the AVR sub level set to the highest available....

Also i run the sub in "stereo" mode as opposed to LFE, am i right in saying that? I have the IC cable from the AVR plugged into a Y then into the L + R input's on the sub as oppsed to directly connected to the LFE input, seem's to sound better this way