LPF of LFE .....yes!!!!!
Like the title says ...LPF of LFE (for the .1 channel that is) and I'm loving it!!
I forget what thread I was reading a week or so ago in the bass section, but I came across a brief discussion of setting the LPF on the LFE channel at different Hz instead of the normal default of 120Hz.
IIRC, @Marc Alexander or @mthomas47 was saying they liked a 100hz setting, splitting the difference between 80 and 120hz.
So it got me thinking, why in the heck haven't I ever tried this!? I think I've mentioned on here before that I'm an avid demo'er. Meaning I use my system a lot for demoing various movie clips. I do this almost daily if I can fit it in. I've got lots of lossless MKV's Blu Rays on an external USB 5 TB drive making it very fast and easy to skip around to whatever part of a movie that I want.
I watch a lot of full movies as well (mainly at night) but since this demoing is pretty much how I get my bass fix on a regular basis, I'm always looking for ways to maximize the experience, at least for TR and Slam (while still feeling real & natural) for these brief 30-40 minute sessions at pretty sane master volume levels (usually around -6 to -15mv depending on the movie clip and my mood) to hopefully not kill my ears over time.
Probably like most of you HT bass lovers around here, I love and crave that tactile, visceral, hard hitting bass that you can seriously feel. In the past when I wanted more of it, I used to find myself overly bumping my sub trims to the point of it becoming to boomy and ear assaulting, listening louder than was comfortable, or both just to get more slam. I've had to find ways to try to get the best of both worlds. So over the last couple of years I've tried just about everything I can think of to maximize the bass in my system for this, involving FF subs + multiple NF subs right behind me + Crowsons and Buttkicker LFE's. I've tried numerous tweaks like different curves with PEQ for the FF and NF each on there own and combined as a whole through DSP with a miniDSP, how much each contribute in different areas, different crossover settings and even the phase trick to purposely run out of phase a little bit at certain frequencies to increase TR and Slam while minimizing SPL, Optimum Time alignment between TT/MA's and subs with the help of VibSensor, etc.
So I can't believe I've never tried messing with the LPF in the LFE channel until now! I think it's safe to say I most definitely like the setting lower than the default at 120hz. I've tried everything in between 80-120hz and have pretty much settled on 90hz, also where I have all my crossovers set. To my ears it's a fair amount more cleaner sounding (some movies more than others). Other than when I used to sometimes bump my sub trims way to much trying to get more slam, I've never really thought my system ever sounded bloated/muddy/mushy or whatever you want to call it, even with still running my subs pretty hot, But oh man ...I think the bass definitely feels and sounds cleaner, tighter and punchier now, while at the same time being able to run my sub trims about 1db higher, which = more TR and Slam while sounding cleaner 1db might not sound like a lot, but it does help maximize TR and Slam while keeping that equilibrium just right and not sounding to bass heavy compared to the rest of the frequencies. Especially when your running the subs pretty hot. Depending on the clip, I'll usually run them anywhere from 10-20db+ over the speakers (no DEQ). I find that some movies just need a bit different sub trim levels to totally maximize the experience. Since my external MKV file system is not to fancy, I just make a note of the sub trim levels used for that particular movie in the file name. That way when I revisit all my favs, it's perfectly set to my liking or if I make any bass tweaks, it's usually pretty easy to hear and feel what I've done and the way it effects various clips that I'm real familiar with.
So anyway, you may or may not care about all this crap, but I'm so excited I had to tell somebody about it, might as well be to my AVS forum friends right!? haha If I tell my wife about it she usually just rolls her eyes. Occasionally though she'll humor me and listen for a little while LOL
Where do most of you guys set your LPF of LFE at? Do you ever find that 80hz is a tad to lean sounding or 120hz can be a bit to much? I've read in a few threads (now that I'm more aware of this) that sometimes much over 80hz in the LFE channel can tend to be a bit mushy sounding. I think I've seen where Mark Seaton and a few others have mentioned this.
I intended for this to be a quick short post but got a bit carried away as usual
Like the title says ...LPF of LFE (for the .1 channel that is) and I'm loving it!!
I forget what thread I was reading a week or so ago in the bass section, but I came across a brief discussion of setting the LPF on the LFE channel at different Hz instead of the normal default of 120Hz.
IIRC, @Marc Alexander or @mthomas47 was saying they liked a 100hz setting, splitting the difference between 80 and 120hz.
So it got me thinking, why in the heck haven't I ever tried this!? I think I've mentioned on here before that I'm an avid demo'er. Meaning I use my system a lot for demoing various movie clips. I do this almost daily if I can fit it in. I've got lots of lossless MKV's Blu Rays on an external USB 5 TB drive making it very fast and easy to skip around to whatever part of a movie that I want.
I watch a lot of full movies as well (mainly at night) but since this demoing is pretty much how I get my bass fix on a regular basis, I'm always looking for ways to maximize the experience, at least for TR and Slam (while still feeling real & natural) for these brief 30-40 minute sessions at pretty sane master volume levels (usually around -6 to -15mv depending on the movie clip and my mood) to hopefully not kill my ears over time.
Probably like most of you HT bass lovers around here, I love and crave that tactile, visceral, hard hitting bass that you can seriously feel. In the past when I wanted more of it, I used to find myself overly bumping my sub trims to the point of it becoming to boomy and ear assaulting, listening louder than was comfortable, or both just to get more slam. I've had to find ways to try to get the best of both worlds. So over the last couple of years I've tried just about everything I can think of to maximize the bass in my system for this, involving FF subs + multiple NF subs right behind me + Crowsons and Buttkicker LFE's. I've tried numerous tweaks like different curves with PEQ for the FF and NF each on there own and combined as a whole through DSP with a miniDSP, how much each contribute in different areas, different crossover settings and even the phase trick to purposely run out of phase a little bit at certain frequencies to increase TR and Slam while minimizing SPL, Optimum Time alignment between TT/MA's and subs with the help of VibSensor, etc.
So I can't believe I've never tried messing with the LPF in the LFE channel until now! I think it's safe to say I most definitely like the setting lower than the default at 120hz. I've tried everything in between 80-120hz and have pretty much settled on 90hz, also where I have all my crossovers set. To my ears it's a fair amount more cleaner sounding (some movies more than others). Other than when I used to sometimes bump my sub trims way to much trying to get more slam, I've never really thought my system ever sounded bloated/muddy/mushy or whatever you want to call it, even with still running my subs pretty hot, But oh man ...I think the bass definitely feels and sounds cleaner, tighter and punchier now, while at the same time being able to run my sub trims about 1db higher, which = more TR and Slam while sounding cleaner 1db might not sound like a lot, but it does help maximize TR and Slam while keeping that equilibrium just right and not sounding to bass heavy compared to the rest of the frequencies. Especially when your running the subs pretty hot. Depending on the clip, I'll usually run them anywhere from 10-20db+ over the speakers (no DEQ). I find that some movies just need a bit different sub trim levels to totally maximize the experience. Since my external MKV file system is not to fancy, I just make a note of the sub trim levels used for that particular movie in the file name. That way when I revisit all my favs, it's perfectly set to my liking or if I make any bass tweaks, it's usually pretty easy to hear and feel what I've done and the way it effects various clips that I'm real familiar with.
So anyway, you may or may not care about all this crap, but I'm so excited I had to tell somebody about it, might as well be to my AVS forum friends right!? haha If I tell my wife about it she usually just rolls her eyes. Occasionally though she'll humor me and listen for a little while LOL
Where do most of you guys set your LPF of LFE at? Do you ever find that 80hz is a tad to lean sounding or 120hz can be a bit to much? I've read in a few threads (now that I'm more aware of this) that sometimes much over 80hz in the LFE channel can tend to be a bit mushy sounding. I think I've seen where Mark Seaton and a few others have mentioned this.
I intended for this to be a quick short post but got a bit carried away as usual