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3M views 37K replies 3K participants last post by  Deaf-Forever 
#1 ·

If this thread already exists, please disregard. I looked, but couldn't find it.


I recently purchased a PB Plus/2, and have been itching to share my experience so far. Here's my 5.1 set-up:


Denon AVR 5803 (Purchased Used)

Panasonic BD-55 Blu-ray Player (Analog 5.1 Outputs)

Samsung 5687 DLP

GR Research A/V3S x 3

GR Research A/V1RS x 2

SVS PB Plus/2

PURE AV Power conditioner


Listening area is 14x17x8 living room with one 8' opening to kitchen/dining area, and one opening to hallway, laminate floor with large area rug, SVS position is RF corner next to ent center (very limited in where I could put it), listening position is center of 14' wall across from TV, Not an ideal HT room, but could be worse.


Settings:


All speakers set to 75 db, with SVS running hot at about 82 db

SVS Gain at 1/4, 20 hz tune (one port plug), used the included 3M rubber feet

LFE pre-out on Denon is -2.0 db


Listening is 90/10 Movies to Music



After more research than I care to get into, I settled on the Velodyne HGS 15x and the SVS PB Plus/2. I actually ordered the Velodyne, but it was discontinued. I had decided on the Velodyne mostly because of the smaller size and the positive experience a relative of mine has had with his. The SVS and the Velodyne seemed to be close in performance based on what I had read, but

the size of the SVS was scaring me off. WAF. She's been very patient with my hobby. After the Velodyne fell through, I decided to order the SVS rather than looking elsewhere for the Velodyne. Got the size past the wife by telling her it was a lot cheaper than the Velo. I'VE NEVER LOOKED BACK!


Support from SVS before, during, and after the sale has been outstanding. It was shipped fast, and arrived on it's own pallet, very well packaged. The manual and set-up were a snap. I have since contacted SVS a couple times with questions and comments, and they always reply quickly and seem very interested in my impression of their product. Not to mention the money I saved by going with the SVS.


It's performance so far has been excellent. I had a Klipsch KSW 15 prior to the SVS, and let me tell you, this thing blows it away, and the Klipsch was no slouch. From the sock explosion in Monsters Inc. to the Tripods in WOTW, I'm lovin my new toy.


Sorry if this was a puff piece, and again, I hope an owners thread doesn't already exist. If so, let me have it, if not, lets hear about your SVS!
 
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#22,803 ·
For anyone who's looking for a black oak sealed sub the outlet store has a SB13-ultra in stock right now for like 1450. I honestly couldn't really tell where the defects were without REALLY looking for them. I can't post a link yet but go to SVS outlet store and check it out if you're interested. They also have a piano PB13-ultra on there with swirly marks and stuff on it.
 
#22,805 ·
what price did it go for in outlet section?
It was like $150 off the normal price. There is a tiny nick around the woofer. I had to really hunt for it to find it. I had to feel for it since i could not see it.
 
#22,806 · (Edited)
Want to shake the house!

How can I test the safe limit of my PB2000?

If I have my volume dial at 60% and set my receiver to +10dBs at 80 volume, will this be damaging to my subwoofer? I really want to see how far it can go but I certainly don't want to put it in danger. If I play a 15hz signal, will my subs bottom out?
 
#22,807 ·
How can I test the safe limit of my PB2000?

If I have my volume dial at 60% and set my receiver to +10dBs at 80 volume, will this be damaging to my subwoofer? I really want to see how far it can go but I certainly don't want to put it in danger. If I play a 15hz signal, will my subs bottom out?
Be very careful in playing pure sine waves at high volumes... there is no better way to destroy your voice coil (and no faster, for that matter)...
 
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#22,808 ·
Be very careful in playing pure sine waves at high volumes... there is no better way to destroy your voice coil (and no faster, for that matter)...

Ok so would be just better to test with a good movie like terminator then. So since the subwoofer is set at 60%, does that mean I probably will be safe to run it not on my AVR? I am assuming they could still function at even 100% on the knob.


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#22,809 ·
Ok so would be just better to test with a good movie like terminator then. So since the subwoofer is set at 60%, does that mean I probably will be safe to run it not on my AVR? I am assuming they could still function at even 100% on the knob.


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No one can tell you where to set your sub and AVR to reach the limit of the sub. Its not that simple.
My advice is be careful if you wanna play with fire.
 
#22,810 ·
Ok so would be just better to test with a good movie like terminator then. So since the subwoofer is set at 60%, does that mean I probably will be safe to run it not on my AVR? I am assuming they could still function at even 100% on the knob.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
When pumping a pure sine wave through the VC, it tends to heat up really fast, leading to failure (different from pushing the sub too hard towards bottoming out). In the case of a movie, most of the LFE is a mixed signal, and will not tax the VC in the same way. As for "How hard can I push the sub before it bottoms out?" I can say that the limiter does a geat job at protecting the driver, though it is not quite bullet proof. I think that more depends on your room size, distance from MLP, etc than the actual settings on the sub (for example, Ed Mullen recommends that the Ultra driver be run at 100% gain to get the most from it). There are many people here who know far more than I that hopefully will chime in (and correct my erroneous understanding)...:)
 
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#22,811 ·
15 panels (+4) "sounds" like making a dead room. :D
What size room is that? And I assume the panels are 2'x4'
And how did you arrive at what panels you need where in the room? REW? or any other pro tool?
As a follow up to this, if there is anybody out there thinking about doing acoustic treatments, I highly recommend that before doing so you get yourself a measurement mic (UMIK from Cross Spectrum Labs is the way to go) learn how to use REW. Treating blindly is going to be difficult, plus being able to see the difference will really emphasis how much room treatments actually improve the theater.

I blew both my woofer and amp at the same time.. Had to have it all replaced on my PB13U...
I'm curious how you did that? Were you driving it abnormally hard? Were SINE waves involved? As others have said, the limiters are not full proof, but they are pretty close for normal use.
 
#22,812 ·
As a follow up to this, if there is anybody out there thinking about doing acoustic treatments, I highly recommend that before doing so you get yourself a measurement mic (UMIK from Cross Spectrum Labs is the way to go) learn how to use REW. Treating blindly is going to be difficult, plus being able to see the difference will really emphasis how much room treatments actually improve the theater.







I'm curious how you did that? Were you driving it abnormally hard? Were SINE waves involved? As others have said, the limiters are not full proof, but they are pretty close for normal use.

My daughters 22 years birthday. 4hrs straight hardcore dubstep at very high volumes. Fried the woofer and the woofer breaking destroyed the amp.


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#22,813 ·
When pumping a pure sine wave through the VC, it tends to heat up really fast, leading to failure (different from pushing the sub too hard towards bottoming out). In the case of a movie, most of the LFE is a mixed signal, and will not tax the VC in the same way. As for "How hard can I push the sub before it bottoms out?" I can say that the limiter does a geat job at protecting the driver, though it is not quite bullet proof. I think that more depends on your room size, distance from MLP, etc than the actual settings on the sub (for example, Ed Mullen recommends that the Ultra driver be run at 100% gain to get the most from it). There are many people here who know far more than I that hopefully will chime in (and correct my erroneous understanding)...:)

Thanks for the advice guys. Will test out the movie at the max +12dB and see what happens. I'm sure it won't be too bad if I don't go past 60 on the knob.


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#22,814 ·
Thanks for the advice guys. Will test out the movie at the max +12dB and see what happens. I'm sure it won't be too bad if I don't go past 60 on the knob.


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Just as a matter of speaking I wouldn't ever suggest driving anything in your system past reference volume. I'm not sure what 60 on your AVR responds to, but if you have an option of changing volume to relative, you should be careful driving anything past 0db.
 
#22,815 ·
I am sure this has been discussed in this thread but its so huge that hard to pinpoint, so hope you all don't mind.

20x11x8 ft, about 1800 cubic ft room (one car garage conversion) theater, 95% (or more) movies. Go for a SVS PB-1000 or SVS PB-2000? :)

Have a retailer in my area with open box on both, $425 and $695 respectively. Price is not a big issue between the two (after all I hope to use it for 10 years).
 
#22,816 ·
Thanks for the advice guys. Will test out the movie at the max +12dB and see what happens. I'm sure it won't be too bad if I don't go past 60 on the knob.


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Please hold off on testing your sub at +12 in your AVR's subwoofer trim level. That would not be a good idea. What kind of AVR do you have, and where did it set your trim level? SVS's advice nowadays is to set the gain level on your sub high enough that you get a good negative trim level in your AVR. Your mention of a max trim of +12 sounds like a Denon or Marantz AVR. If so, and you have Audyssey, you want to turn your sub gain up high enough to get to about -10 or -11 post calibration. From there, you can turn it up 10 to 12db in the AVR with no problem. The danger of over-driving the sub would only come into play if you were going to be above about -10 on your MV. But better safe than sorry. So, go into positive numbers (+2 or +3, for instance) near -10MV slowly and cautiously, if at all. Here is a quote from Ed Mullen of SVS from the Audyssey FAQ:

"The reason for doing it this way is that the higher the sub volume is set, the lower will be the output level of the AVR line driver. That gives more headroom in the AVR line driver and more headroom in the input stage of the sub amp. The downside is that this also lowers the signal to noise ratio, but there tends to be very little noise with a sub anyway. By and large you're best off to have the sub amp volume relatively high and the AVR sub out volume relatively low."

Regards,
Mike
 
#22,817 ·
#22,818 ·
20x11x8 ft, about 1800 cubic ft room (one car garage conversion) theater, 95% (or more) movies. Go for a SVS PB-1000 or SVS PB-2000? :)

I've got dual PB-2000's in a 15x11x8/10 (vaulted) - about 1500 cft if my math is correct. Go big or go home I say...get the PB-2000! And then add another one at some point. Two is better than one. :)
 
#22,820 ·
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