Official SVS Owners/Support Thread. - Page 247

Just had the Chinese delivery guy/engineer dropping off the sub.

In my current setup i am daisy chaining a JBL sub with my PB13-U which works perfectly.

Unfortunately there was a loud hum connecting the PB12. We tried several different setup directly with to the amp, both subs to the amp with a Y-wire. But the hum continued.
Directly connected to the amp with a very high quality wire the hum was less but with the setup I need the hum was present & loud, so unfortunately they brought the SVS back so no double setup for me :-(

But I'd rather not have 2 SVS' if they can't work together.

Just strange that my old JBL to a fraction of the price has no hum.

?????

Maybe a ground issue? you didn't say if you tried using one of those cheater plugs to float the ground on the pb12.

Damn! I didn't try that. I need the guy to come back so we can try and see if that does the trick.

Indeed your description sounds like a ground loop. Ground loops are frequent and almost inevitable in some situations.

However with a 400W-RMS amp I'm not sure I'd goo the cheater plug way. It would likely work, but would constitute a safety hazard.

Another thing to try is to make sure all your subs + receiver are plugged on the same outlet.

They are way too far apart to be plugged at the same outlet.

I'm getting one of these Monster power purifiers HTS1600. I can get one for around 80 bucks here delivered.

They Chinese SVS guy tells me that will eliminate the problem. So after I get that they will come by with the sub again and then we try again again.

If they're not even on the same breaker circuit, that makes the situation even worse. I hope the filter will work well.

In my case I never had a problem with hums until I introduced the BFD between the sub and receiver. Seems like a classic problem. For now I keep it on a cheater plug but in my next home theater re-arrangement, I'll try keeping receiver, sub and BFD on the same outlet.

If you're technically inclined, Wikipedia's writeup on the topic is great. I never understood what ground loops really are until I read that.

Makes me wonder how I dodged that particular bullet: I have my PC13's plugged into a dedicated 20A circuit, with everything else plugged into a regular household circuit (15A)..???

Well ground loops are not guaranteed either

In audio the worst thing to do for ground loops is to have an active (powered) element between a line-level source (e.g. your receiver) and an amp (e.g. your sub amplifier). This would typically be a processor such as an equalizer.

Other causes of ground loops are mainly dependent upon how your house was wired. And sheer luck I guess.

My Sunfire True signature sub would hum. Never heard a peep from my new PB12 NSD.

It hummed because it didn't know the words.

*chuckle*


The hum may also be caused by the sub's amp. I thought my SB12 wasn't humming but when it's on with nothing playing, you can hear a faint hum if you put your ear close to the driver. Even if you have no ground loop and your sub cable is shielded, it can still pick up EM interference at very low levels and the amp boosts that too barely audible levels.

okay so after discussing with SVS China the following has been agreed.

When they delivered the sub they tried to connect it to my system in several different ways.. After alot of head scratching and head shaking they ended up taking back the sub and tested it. One of the guy even turned the sub all the way down and asked me to listen that the hum was gone.. well hellur of course cause it was pretty much turned off... Actually when the sub was on and volume was almost all the way up the hum was so high that you could see the woofer vibrating....

They have now emailed me back that the sub works in their show room and has no hum. So they do really think that its a power problem or ground problem. So now I have bought 2 power conditioners, 1 Chinese version and one Monster version which has quite a long delivery date for it.
When I get these delivered they will come out again and try the sub to see if the power conditioner will reduce the hum....

Sigh, I just want a sub that works..........

Also, try running a power extension cable to your sub(s) so everything is plugged into one location by your receiver/processor and audio/TV gear - just to test the ground loop theory. Just a part of the troubleshooting process to isolate where the niose is coming from.

do you guys turn off your subwoofer or you just put it in auto mode? Is it normal to hear a tiny popping sound from the sub from off mode? thanks

I leave it on auto -- much easier to operate this way. And yest you may hear a small pop when it detects the input and switches on.

In other news...

I tried that dubstep thing this morning with my SB12.

I leave my SB12nsd's on. They take too long to wake up compared to my Bash PB12plus

I leave my SVS PB12 NSD on auto. I never hear a thump from the SVS. My Sunfire True signature would make a loud thump.

I just leave it on

Same here. Leave my Ultra on.

I leave my PC12-NSD DSP set to Auto--no problems waking at 80Hz, or 60Hz. It sometimes goes to sleep at 60Hz during some music playback at very low levels (-50 to -65 main volume).

I leave my PC12 on.

Same. Leave my sb12 on

Hey Guys,
First post here. I have a 16-46PCi which I have had since 2004. I'm not sure how it happened, but the driver recently blew out. I contacted SVS for a replacement part. They indicated that the replacement driver is the 12" NSD, so I went ahead and ordered one. I wanted to use this an excuse to upgrade the driver - from what SVS CS told me, the NSD driver is an upgrade over what I had previously. I asked if I could try the one of the other 12" drivers but learned the NSD is the only one which will fit.

Does anyone here have experience with this upgrade before? The procedure is simple, but I'm thinking more in terms of performance - does anyone know what I can expect in terms of sound? Pretty similar to my non-blown 16-46, or do you think I should be able to notice a difference?

Thanks for your time,
Paul

The new NSD woofer has lower distortion, higher thermal power handling capability, and about 2 dB more max output. While it won't be a night/day difference over your non-blown 16-46 with the original woofer, you'll probably be able to tell the subwoofer has had a tune-up.

Hi Ed,
Thanks - I guess I could have just asked you in that email thread! I do still want to see if anyone else out there has a similar 'hybrid' 16-46PCi/NSD.

I was also thinking about a true upgrade in the next year or so, I wonder if this will negatively impact resale?

Cheers,
Paul

Leave my on...

I just noticed on SVS's website that there's a dual SB12-NSD combo for 1149.00 (+50.00 for piano black finish). Is that new? If that's so, I wonder if recent SB12 buyers are entitled to upgrade to the combo for the price difference...

Paul,

I have two original 2039-CS subs from about the same period as your 1646, which I've upgraded years ago from the original 12" driver to the new, at that time, "ISD" driver. There was a significantly noticeable improvement in my subs, I can only imagine the additional refinement of the current NSD driver over the ISD driver, let alone the original 12" driver.

Enjoy the new driver! :-)

Regards,

Dan

I noticed the dual SB12-NSD combo came out last week.
I also wondered if owners of the SB12-NSD who purchased within a year could pay the $500 and get a second one?

I think you would have better luck calling them with that one. Sometimes companies do things for folks but don't necessarily want it broadcasted to everyone.