Adding subwoofer to center channel - Page 2

Originally Posted by lennon_68

That's what's most important, you've tried it both ways and prefer it the way you have it, nothing wrong with that! I'm just not sold, especially not based on the reasons given

Your point was (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) that you wouldn't want to sum them and boost as that will be overpowering, I was just saying that it's not much different than running the one sub signal with LFE+redirected bass but not as hot to avoid the overpowering, bloated sound.

Say you like to run your LFE 6dB hot and are running your subs with bass management on for all speakers so LFE+redirected bass. If there's a special effect on the LFE channel and the same special effect at the same level on the center channel your AVR will sum these for +3dB + your 6dB boost. If you ran separate subs for each channel and only ran the LFE sub 6dB hot but ran the sub for the CC flat then you would get +6dB on the LFE signal and something more like +.5dB from the small addition that the center channel dedicated sub is producing (since it's 6dB lower in level than the LFE sub - so basically it's not contributing much of anything to what you're hearing). If you run all subs off of LFE+redirected bass and only ran them 3.5dB hot the end result would have been the same as running the two separate but now each sub is pushing the same signal so the LFE sub isn't doing all of the heavy lifting while the CC dedicated sub does very little and contributes practically nothing to the resulting effect.

Also if you only run the LFE sub hot and there's a LFE event on only the front or center speakers it will sound like a much smaller event than those that are on the dedicated LFE track in the same movie.

Originally Posted by lennon_68

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish then. You want to add a sub to the center channel signal but don't want to use a crossover to do so? So you're going to run the speaker full range plus use a sub with it? You just need to split off the signal then and use the LP filter on the subwoofer to do that. I must be missing something.

Originally Posted by UofAZ1

I did this very thing with my system with fantastic results. But realize my situation is very unique. I have a very odd shaped room which created some bizarre null voids. If i place my SVS sub in the front of the room bass was lacking in back, if placed in back then bass would be missing up front, and because of the odd room, placement was limited.

So I moved my SVS PB12 NSD/2 to the back of the room nearfield and bought some DefTech BP7001 towers up front (when set to large the bass was too muddy, so I crossed than at 40Hz and the bass tightened right up) Well then a strange thing happened my DefTech LCR2002 which is doing alright couldnt keep up with the bass of the towers so when a plane would cross from left to right it would sound like BBBBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbBBBBBBBB. It's not the sound was too hindered it was the bass extension of the center (crossed at 70Hz) couldnt match the 10" drivers in the towers and handle 40Hz.

So I thought what I could do because I didn't want to toss out or sell at a reduced price my beloved LCR2002 and din't want to buy the uber expensive LCR3000 just to get deeper bass. So my local Utimate Electronics had a sale on Deftech Prosub 800 for 215.00 brand new. and I knew it could stay steady down to 38Hz, so it would easily match my towers crossed at 40Hz, so I bought the Prosub and have it hooked up just to my center. The results were quite surprising, bass was now very fluid, no null voids (in the center) and I was very surprised at how much bass actually is coming directly from the center.

Granted calibrating is very tricky to get that perfect blend, but I now have bass (down to 40Hz) all along the front and since most movies are mixed with bass from 30-100Hz, it does just fine and the sub handles the real low end of all the channels. I have tested many bass heavy movies, U-571, Cloverfield, Transformers and so on and now have that bass effect that I have heard many times in HT systems costing many tens of thousands and I beat out my local cineplex with deep clean bass and since my sub is near field, I also get that "tactile effect".

Now I wouldnt recommend this for everyone, but if you find your bass is lacking when compared to your mains, then a simple sub may help with that deep bass, while leaving the mid range to handle just that. The mid range 100-120Hz and up.

In fact Chet at DT commented that by using the lesser center with the 5.25" drivers instead of the 6.5" drivers that the mid range would be "tighter" and since my center sub handles everything from 40-100Hz and the SVS on anything below 40Hz, I get that clean bass up front and that non directional powerful bass in the back and it creates an overwhelming effect of bass from all over.

I say go for it.