OFFICIAL Hsu MBM-12 thread - Page 4

The very best BD audio tracks are:

30 Days of Night
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
300
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
AC/DC: Live at Donington
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Assembly (UK Import)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Beowulf: Director's Cut (UK Import)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Big Fish
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Black Hawk Down
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Blade Runner (Complete Collector's Ed.)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Blade Runner (Ultimate Collector's Ed.)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Blood Diamond
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Cars
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Cast Away
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Celine Dion: A New Day... Live in Las Vegas
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Chicago
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Chris Botti Live with Orchestra and Special Guests
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Cloverfield
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Crank
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
The Day After Tomorrow
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Face/Off (UK Import)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Ghost Rider
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Hairspray (2007)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
I Am Legend
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
I, Robot
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Immortal Beloved
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Incubus: Alive at Red Rocks
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Initial D
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Layer Cake
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Legends of Jazz Showcase
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Letters from Iwo Jima
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Live Free or Die Hard
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Pearl Harbor
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
The Orphanage
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Pan's Labyrinth
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
The Patriot (Extended Cut)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Rambo
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Ratatouille
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Rush Hour 3
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Spider-Man 3
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Spider-Man: The High-Definition Trilogy
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Stealth
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Stomp the Yard
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Surf's Up
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Underworld
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
War
Audio Grade: 5 STARS
Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Concert
Audio Grade: 5 STARS

Guys,
Thanks for all the suggestions...all those movies have great bass...I was looking for ones that excel in the 50-80or90hz range...I guess I'll be rewatching a bunch of movies... Bill

It does become addictive!

Bill

i set the crossover to 100hz on my MBM and ive noticed that is it EXTREMELY localizable at certain lower volumes...was hoping for a giant increase in wow factor like some had said they got but the higher the crossover the more i notice where the sub is at in my room...oh well...80hz worked just great anyhow!

I noticed the same thing with mine. There was more bass, but easier to localize. I think the higher crossover setting is more for set-ups where the MBM (usually 2 or more) is located next to the main speakers.

Correcto.
The higher settings are indeed for use with dual MBMs. 80Hzor less ir recommended to avoid localization.

I currently have 1 MBM and 1 VTF3-MK3 and to balance them I send test tone from AVR turning one sub off, measure active sub then turn it off and turn on the other to balance SPL and once both are turned on I lower or raise the SW channel level on the AVR to match the SPL of my mains, center and rears.

I am about to receive a second MBM and wanted opionons on how to balance the 2 MBM and 3 3.

Here is what I plan to do.

Turn off true sub and balance the gain on both MBMs (turn 1 off, measure, turn 1 back on and repeat with 2nd MBM). Then match the True sub to the SPL of the 2 MBMs on and with all 3 turned on lower or raise the SW channel level on the AVR to match the SPL of my mains, center and rears.

Thoughts?

You need to PM bsoko2.

Great suggestion, I will give him a couple of days to pop in and answer otherwise I will PM him.

Thanks,

Yes, this is the correct way to do it. Then play some bass and see if your ears like it, then adjust by the AVR sub tone control.

Bill

Thanks Bill !

I figured you might be spending a lot of time in the DIY forum lately and would give you some time to look at the MBM thread.

You seem to be the resident dual MBM owner expert these days, and for good reason.

One correction to add: watch the crossover between the true sub/subs and the MBM's. I found that my true sub crossover had to be set at 45hz in order to get rid of some horrible reverb from the bass at 50hz due to subs adding TOO much mid. So always set your crossover to suit yourself. I used the HDDVD movie "Miami Vice" and the first scene where the boats are entering the harbor. Ths bass quitar riff tells the story if the crossover is right for you. It took me 6 hours of experimenting to finally get it right with 2 MBM's, 2 3.3's, and 1 15" Dayton sub. When you get it right, the audio from your system will be awesome!

Bill

Kewl, thanks and I will watch for that. More subs, more choices to try and manage.

I made 2 changes to the 3 3 (behind LP) last night that made a huge difference, like you I lowered the 3 3 xo to 45hz and set the phase to 180.

With MBM next to front left main and 3 3 behind LP with AVR xo set to 110hz this is the best my system has sounded so far.

Can't wait to add the second MBM to the right main tonight provided it arrives.

Good! This is something I feel that they should have put in the instructions about the 45 hz crossover instead of 50 hz. If you look at the MBM chart http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...-mbm-12-a.html at 45hz and compare to the 3.3 MO chart http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...um-output.html you see that they crossover at about 45hz and that is the best place for it.

Bill

Bill, I take your word on the charts, I just know it sounds best and thank you for the suggestion. I was thinking in the wrong direction that if the MBMs are up front with a higher AVR xo that I should be able to raise the 3 3 xo to say 60 or 70 but that did not provide the desired result. 45hz seems to do the trick.

I am suprised how well the one MBM sounds upfront, it is near a corner and under the lowest slope of the ceiling. The second MBM will not be so lucky, not as close to a corner and under the highest slope of the ceiling.

Should know more in the next 6 hours provided it arrives as Fedex states.

Again, Thank you for the suggestions

So you are saying that the MBM sounds better, or has better output set to 45Hz instead of 50Hz?

For me it sounds better and the output is cleaner. No distortion due to too much bass at 45 - 50 hz. This is why everybody needs to play with the crossover between the true sub and the MBM for a cleaner sound and not just set it at 50hz as the instructions say.

Bill

I am talking about the sub crossover and not the LFE crossover at the reciever.

Bill

I have a question regarding the spiked feet that come with the MBM-12. HSU also supplied rubber feet for hardwood floors. I took the spiked feet off and just put the rubber feet on the MBM. Is this ok or should I keep the spiked feet on and just place the rubber feet underneath the spike ones?

I re-ran REW last night on just my MBM and mine begins to roll off at about 55Hz in my room, so I increased the xover on my HO's to 55Hz from 50Hz.

The weird thing is even with my xover at 55Hz on my HO's I don't get real roll off until about 80Hz. I also had to play with the level of my MBM, it was apparantly 6db higher than my HO's so when I ran REW and set the level at 75db on my spl meter the HO's were coming in at 6db lower than the MBM across their FR. I had good output to about 55Hz then a big drop from 55hz to about 20hz then it leveled off until 14Hz.

After testing for about 1 hour I was finally able to get everybody playing nice together

Me too, but in the end 45hz is best in the end as you mentioned. I tried 40, 50,55,60,65 and 70 as well on the 3 3.

Here is a graph of my room with the MBMs upfront and the 3 3 behind listening position. I do not have REW just a SPL meter and the HSU freq CD.

NO external eq or wall treatments (LRHT).

Are you level matched to 75 or 85db?

NIce graph by the way

more like 80db

Cool, especially since you aren't using any EQ or treatment

I have a question:

I have both the VTF-3 MK3 and an MBM-12 in my living room. When I read your advice to set the true sub to 45HZ instead of 50HZ, I took it. I also moved my 3.3 from behind the sofa where it was with the MBM, and placed it in the right front corner of the room, firing into the wall.

Since doing this, it seems as if the output of my subs have DOUBLED overnight. My question is: Now my true sub has been popping during really strongLFE scenes...what is the cause of this???

Settings: Onkyo AV reciever XOed at 80HZ.
3.3: XOed at 45HZ
MBM: to 150HZ

may be bottoming the sub....have you calibrated the output?

How do you do that?

Setup RS meter in your listening position at ear height(I use a tripod), turn on AVR test tone.
Turn up volume on AVR until your meter is reading 70 or 80 db (depending on which you choose you want to be at 0 on the meter as it more acurate). Then step through each speaker including sub changing line level db up or down until each speaker is at the test tone db level you are using.

Start with sub gain being at 9:00 or 10:00 oclock. In the end I try to achieve speaker balance with the sub line level being at about -5db so you may have to lower or raise the sub gain to achieve this.


Now you are ready to plot your bass room responsiveness. I use the poor man simple man approach. Radio Shack analog SPL meter, Excel with Radio Shack compensation built in and the HSU frequency CD.

There are much more sophisticated approachs like REW, SMS-1 and others.

Radio Shack Compensation spread sheets are on the AVS forum under the subwoofer forum.

If you can not find one let me know in PM and I will send you mine.

By no means the most accurate approach but good enough for me.

I may go to REW sometime in the future but with 4 months of doing this I am very happy with the results so far.