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How bass should be heard or felt

post #1 of 9
8/22/12 at 6:49am
Thread Starter 
Is there a difference between bass that echoes in your ear and chest pounding? This might be a dumb question but I ask because when watching movies my wife and I hear the impact more like an echo vs chest. (She complains that the echo is annoying lol) I own the HSU VTF3 MK4. Is the echo normal or are we supose to feel it in the chest?
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post #2 of 9
8/22/12 at 7:10am
Bass that "echoes" makes me think you're experiencing "boomy" bass. IMO, your sub is either being overdriven or - to use my very best, weak pseudo-technical jargon biggrin.gif - is exciting room modes / generating harmonics.

- Is your sub in a corner? If 'yes', try a different location such as, say, along a wall (or some other location, preferably one determined by a sub crawl).
- Has it been calibrated to your system? If 'no', calibrate it.
- If the sub has been calibrated, are you then running it "hot"? If 'yes', by how much, and what happens if you run the sub at its calibrated level?
Edited by eljaycanuck - 8/22/12 at 7:16am
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post #3 of 9
8/22/12 at 7:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by eljaycanuck View Post

Bass that "echoes" makes me think you're experiencing "boomy" bass. IMO, your sub is either being overdriven or - to use my best weak pseudo-technical jargon biggrin.gif - is exciting room modes / generating harmonics.
- Is your sub in a corner? (If 'yes', try a different location such as, say, along a wall.)
- Has it been calibrated to your system? (If 'no', calibrate it.)
- Are you running it "hot"? (If 'yes', by how much? And maybe try turning it down.)

My sub is in a corner because that is were I had the best SPL reading. Yes it has been calibrated with Audyssey and not running hot. It is at 9 or 10 oclock on the knob and Audyssey has it set at 0.
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post #4 of 9
8/22/12 at 7:20am
I thought this seemed familiar: How not to localize the Sub
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post #5 of 9
8/22/12 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by eljaycanuck View Post

I thought this seemed familiar: How not to localize the Sub


Yes similar however I want to know how it should sound. Should it echo or just feel it in the chest? I do not get boomy bass just like in an action scene you hear the rumble but it echoes at times. Hard to explain!
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post #6 of 9
8/22/12 at 1:48pm
Sounds like a crossover is too high? I had the M.K2.3 the little brother of the MK4 and it was TIGHT and VERY powerful. In my other rooms i would FEEL rumbles just like when you are in a the lobby of a good theater. From far away you should feel and hear the rumble just like DISTANT thunder...try moving the sub 2 to 2 1/2 feet away from the front wall and 1 foot from the side wall. My new HSU VTF-15 sounds different the more i move it. Do you have an amp with Audyessy to calibrate the sub? That would make it much easier to tailor almost perfect sound and feel in your room. My sub sounds best on its side a few feet away from the wall...you might have too much gain in your room in a certain frequency. The MK 2.3 would make me feel the bass in the back of my chair and feet...alot lot like a buttkicker! The chest part only comes if you crank it up enough to pressurize the room...which i think is nuts!

Now, with the VTF-15 even at low levels my ears feel the pressure and the tight bass also gives me a kick in the pants! If you have the new mk 4 the tightest bass will be with EQ one port open and Q of 0.3.

The 0.7 will give you a fatter sound or more boomy....i use this setting when watching UFC and wrestling..when using this looser setting i can feel the ring ropes vibrate and the body slams hit hard..but for music it is crap..ha ha. Remember, if you have the variable tuning you actually have 5 subs in one! You need to experiment with the sub to hear what you want. Let me put it for you this way. For me at least, some sealed subs are way too quiet and of course some ported subs are too boomy
with the tuning you can have the best of all worlds with the sealed, one port open and two port open modes with the Q control. You can also post in the HSU threads and Dr, Hsu will be more than glad to help! Even though you have the MK4 you can post in the 15 thread. He has been there every day!

One more thing, if your room is kind of empty " not that much furniture and no carpet" it may need wall treatments to help with the controlling of higher frequencies. Clap your hands in the room...if the sound hangs around instead of stopping on a dime then the echo could also be the higher frequencies lingering.
Edited by matrixj3 - 8/22/12 at 2:00pm
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post #7 of 9
8/23/12 at 8:41am
One other thing to consider is that when you feel the "punch in the chest" from a sub its a different fequency of sound than the rumbling and feeling in furniture or the floor. The punch in the chest is mid bass frequency where as the other stuff is the LF and ULF bass. I believe that the VTF-15H has more of that mid bass slam than the VTF3 MK4.

But as to how bass should sound and feel.... Well in theory all the frequencies should be reproduced in a ruler flat line, but of course that basically never happens in a home.... So the real question is how do you want your bass to sound/feel??? More mid bass slam or more ULF or flat?
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post #8 of 9
8/24/12 at 10:18pm
Both. If you find your heart racing, the kids hiding and the wife can't look away...its just right.
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post #9 of 9
1/9/13 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by matrixj3 View Post

Sounds like a crossover is too high? I had the M.K2.3 the little brother of the MK4 and it was TIGHT and VERY powerful. In my other rooms i would FEEL rumbles just like when you are in a the lobby of a good theater. From far away you should feel and hear the rumble just like DISTANT thunder...try moving the sub 2 to 2 1/2 feet away from the front wall and 1 foot from the side wall. My new HSU VTF-15 sounds different the more i move it. Do you have an amp with Audyessy to calibrate the sub? That would make it much easier to tailor almost perfect sound and feel in your room. My sub sounds best on its side a few feet away from the wall...you might have too much gain in your room in a certain frequency. The MK 2.3 would make me feel the bass in the back of my chair and feet...alot lot like a buttkicker! The chest part only comes if you crank it up enough to pressurize the room...which i think is nuts!
Now, with the VTF-15 even at low levels my ears feel the pressure and the tight bass also gives me a kick in the pants! If you have the new mk 4 the tightest bass will be with EQ one port open and Q of 0.3.
The 0.7 will give you a fatter sound or more boomy....i use this setting when watching UFC and wrestling..when using this looser setting i can feel the ring ropes vibrate and the body slams hit hard..but for music it is crap..ha ha. Remember, if you have the variable tuning you actually have 5 subs in one! You need to experiment with the sub to hear what you want. Let me put it for you this way. For me at least, some sealed subs are way too quiet and of course some ported subs are too boomy
with the tuning you can have the best of all worlds with the sealed, one port open and two port open modes with the Q control. You can also post in the HSU threads and Dr, Hsu will be more than glad to help! Even though you have the MK4 you can post in the 15 thread. He has been there every day!
One more thing, if your room is kind of empty " not that much furniture and no carpet" it may need wall treatments to help with the controlling of higher frequencies. Clap your hands in the room...if the sound hangs around instead of stopping on a dime then the echo could also be the higher frequencies lingering.

I thought Dr Hsu has always said to do 2 ports open for movies?
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