Video Asylum

RE: 2 Subs better than one?

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In Reply to: RE: 2 Subs better than one? posted by David Aiken on November 24, 2009 at 18:25:32

Thanks for your reply. I will try one sub first then go from there. I just got a Velodyne VMS 8 sub in a 12x11 foot room, with Merlin TSM speakers, do you think this will sound good, i have not set it up yet. Thanks for any info.

Follow Ups:

RE: 2 Subs better than one? - dbphd 18:53:40 12/01/09 (0)
I've been impressed by the Merlin TSM speakers and I have a Velodyne HGS-15 and a HGS-10 in two of my systems, the HGS-15 under the control of an SMS-1 sub manager. I think you should realize excellent sound and imaging.

I'd start with your single sub placed a bit out from the corner next to one of your Merlins. The center of the cone of the sub might be 18" - 24" from the rear and side walls. Use a SLM (a Rat Shack will do well) with white or pink noise to match the levels of your speakers, having first set the crossover no higher than 80 Hz. Then listen carefully. You don't want to be able to identify the sub as a separate source of sound. It should provide LF extension unobtrusively.

If you don't have a processor with something like Audyssey, you might check out the used market for a Velodyne SMS-1. Both use a microphone and spectral analysis to equalize the spectrum; the SMS-1 is limited to the LF range, but that's where room modes are crucial.

db
RE: 2 Subs better than one? - David Aiken 00:33:24 11/25/09 (0)
I have no experience with Velodyne subs or Merlin speakers, never having heard either.

You've got a small room and you may well end up exciting room modes that aren't a problem with the Merlins, either because they're at lower frequencies or because the level of the music at that frequency will be noticeably higher with the sub so you may well need to consider some bass trapping as well.

Apart from that, my experience with a REL taught me that how well things sound depends a lot on how good a job of setup you do. Subs are sensitive to placement, as sensitive as speakers are, so you need to work on placement if you want to get the best results. If possible try to avoid having the sub any further away from the speakers, even a little bit closer since the electronic circuitry in the sub actually causes a small time delay. If the combined delay due to greater distance than the speakers and the electronic delay are long enough in total, you can blunt the impact of bass transients.

David Aiken

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