9x9x9 29lb Bundle of Joy

[MickeyVee]

Well, I finally broke down a purchased a subwoffer. My new little bundle of joy is the Sunfire True Subwoofer Super Junior.

My listening room is about 10x17 in a 500sq ft condo so placement options are limited and I wanted someting small and unobtrusive that could nicley fill in the low end for my Clarity's.

I took home a Grotto about 18 months ago and was frustrated by the setup as I could not get it to seamlessy integrate so I ended up taking it back. I'm having a little more luck with the Sunfire but but am not happy with the consitancy across different musical and movie sources. My Rotel reciever is setup as follows: Sub crossover at 60 Hz, mains set to Small so as to redirect frequencies below the crossover to the sub. The Large setting is just awful. On the Sub, crossover around 65 Hz (which according the the manual is optimal), Phase is just past the 0 mark and gain at 0db or just slightly less. (one of the side benefits to the sub is that the Rotel runs cooler and I seem to be getting better dynamics for the Clarity's)

Test Music & Movies:
Mannheim Steamroller - Tocatta from Fresh Aire III. I think this track will push the limits of any system. The bass is simply awesome and the setup seems to work wonderfully. This is mys system 'reference showoff' track.
Donald Fagan - Morph the Cat - Thought this would be a woderful track with the sub but it is way too boomy. Just can't seem to get it right.
Steely Dan - Aja - one of my favourite albums/CD's. The sub brings out much more life than I have previously experienced.
The Fifth Element - SuperBit - can't seem to get it right with this move. Will need to experiment more.
War of the Worlds - nice.

So, my question is will I ever get this thing tuned to my liking across all sources or am I destined to tweak forever. I have DVE that provides me with all the test tones I'll ever need as well as the Radio Shack digital SPL meter. I used this as a starting point and am now tweaking to my taste.

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks all!

 

[DTB300]

So, my question is will I ever get this thing tuned to my liking across all sources or am I destined to tweak forever.

My opinion on this is: Maybe. Depends on what you are looking for in terms or response or sound. With the differences that can come from source to source, it can make it difficult to find a happy setting.

Options? You can constantly tweak the settings for each source, or consider something else to go along with the sub like a SMS-1 or similar unit that gives you remote control for sub volume and its settings.

Dan

 

[socialxray]

You do know that they Radio Shack does not measure bass frequencies correctly, right? Just in case here is the link for the corrections. http://www.svsound.com/questions-faqs-rscomp.cfm

 

[MickeyVee]

You do know that they Radio Shack does not measure bass frequencies correctly, right? Just in case here is the link for the corrections. http://www.svsound.com/questions-faqs-rscomp.cfm

Thanks! This did help make more sense of my readings and subsequently I found a relatively decent position and settings for the sub. So I left the settings and position untouched for a couple of days and went through a number of movies and different music sources. It started to sound OK and began to blend relatively well with my Claritys.
Then, on the weekend, about a week after the first setup, my ears perked and wow, everyting seemed to have come together nicely. Not sure what happened.. maybe they needed a break in but I noticed a very nice improvement without any additional tweaking.
The setup is not perfect as I have a dip at about 50hz that I can't correct but I can live with it given the better bottom end. I do see an SMS-1 somehwere in the future.