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By now I hope I have not worn out my welcome, but wanted to share some additional insight we have on the SW12.
Since these are more observations and not questions I started a new thread.
I have never heard bass like this before. It is an amazing piece of equipment.
I would suggest that you not pass judgement on this unit based upon it's price until you hear it. One cavet, it has to be set up right.
The first time I tried it I thought "where the beef". I was expecting it to do more than it was doing. This was due to my ignorance and not having it set up and tweaked properly.
For those of you who think, as I previously did, that there is not that much data below 100hz and that tweaking a sub (s) is a waste of time, don't think this way. As it truns out both of these ideas I previously had were wrong. There is something that happens to either music or movies with this sub that make a tremendous difference.
I do not understand how this happens, but I really don't care. I know what I hear. Plus, my wife, who does not have the "eyes glaze over at the mention of hime theater syndrome" also hears it.
Both of these things, as it truns out, are important. That is, where you put it and tweaking it once you have teh right spot.
Yes, it's a hassle to move a piece of equipment that weights 130 pounds. But, it's worth it.
We now have the two Velodyne's in the rear corners of the room. Thanks to Steve, TV , Mark and Jerry, the one in the right rear is a bit more forward than the one in the left. This gets them to put out the same amount of data and roughly the same level.
I calibrated each Velodyne by itself in the system (MC1) and without the Aerial SW12 in the system. Once I felt we had a "good" location and the levels were right I put the SW12 in line with the front mains. That is I set the low pass filter on the SW12 to 70 and also set the high pass filter to 70. I took the interconnects out of the MC1 for the front left and right channels directly into the SW12. using the HP Output from the SW12 I took another set of interconnects into the amp for the front left and right. i then calibrated the front left and right to 75 db with internal pink noise.
Then I played some movies. The Fifth Element is just amazing with this setup. What blows me away is the combination of very deep signals that are playing and I can also hear everything else at the same time. For example, when the priest is talking with the professor at the beginning of the movie I now hear the echo that is in that building as they talk. They continue to talk and you hear the space ship landing. You can hear the dialog while you are hearing the space ship landing. That is new for us. Amazing.
We played some music. Rock first (Eagles, Hell Freezes Over LD). The first track begins with the combination of a bass drum, kick drum and large bongos. You can distinctly hear all three. When Don Henley starts to sing you can still pick out each of these three drums but also clearly hear the vocals.
Next we played some jazz (Dianna Krall). The acoustic bass here goes all the way down. You can clearly hear the deep notes while she is singing. In fact, you can hear the bow working the strings even on the low notes and still not miss any nuance of her voice.
We then watched the full movie of Twister. We are now hearing things we did not hear before. A friend emailed me with the question "Do you think your sound now overpowers your video". In other words he was asking if the sound was not matching the level of the movie, I think both in quality and in level.
Quite the opposite. Now, the sound is more accurate. Not louder, just better. I still control the volume, so the sound is there. Now, when a storm blows I hear it distinctly all the way down and still do not miss all of the other things that are in what we are listening to. Not louder, more accurate.
At first I was listening for the loud boom one has become acoustomed to in so many subs. After a few listens I realized I was not hearing the boom, I was hearing what the artist put there. WHen that dawned on me I was amazed at what I had been missing.
Incidently, I did notice that I can now listen to things louder without any strain on my hearing, should I choose to do so. But again what is so impressive is I don't have to crank up the volume to get the low notes. They play back at every level accurately.
So, as you can image I ordered another SW12 last night. Do not think I am crazy until you seriously audtion this subs like we did.
Nice work Mike Kelly. Hope you sell a ton of them.
Chuck
Since these are more observations and not questions I started a new thread.
I have never heard bass like this before. It is an amazing piece of equipment.
I would suggest that you not pass judgement on this unit based upon it's price until you hear it. One cavet, it has to be set up right.
The first time I tried it I thought "where the beef". I was expecting it to do more than it was doing. This was due to my ignorance and not having it set up and tweaked properly.
For those of you who think, as I previously did, that there is not that much data below 100hz and that tweaking a sub (s) is a waste of time, don't think this way. As it truns out both of these ideas I previously had were wrong. There is something that happens to either music or movies with this sub that make a tremendous difference.
I do not understand how this happens, but I really don't care. I know what I hear. Plus, my wife, who does not have the "eyes glaze over at the mention of hime theater syndrome" also hears it.
Both of these things, as it truns out, are important. That is, where you put it and tweaking it once you have teh right spot.
Yes, it's a hassle to move a piece of equipment that weights 130 pounds. But, it's worth it.
We now have the two Velodyne's in the rear corners of the room. Thanks to Steve, TV , Mark and Jerry, the one in the right rear is a bit more forward than the one in the left. This gets them to put out the same amount of data and roughly the same level.
I calibrated each Velodyne by itself in the system (MC1) and without the Aerial SW12 in the system. Once I felt we had a "good" location and the levels were right I put the SW12 in line with the front mains. That is I set the low pass filter on the SW12 to 70 and also set the high pass filter to 70. I took the interconnects out of the MC1 for the front left and right channels directly into the SW12. using the HP Output from the SW12 I took another set of interconnects into the amp for the front left and right. i then calibrated the front left and right to 75 db with internal pink noise.
Then I played some movies. The Fifth Element is just amazing with this setup. What blows me away is the combination of very deep signals that are playing and I can also hear everything else at the same time. For example, when the priest is talking with the professor at the beginning of the movie I now hear the echo that is in that building as they talk. They continue to talk and you hear the space ship landing. You can hear the dialog while you are hearing the space ship landing. That is new for us. Amazing.
We played some music. Rock first (Eagles, Hell Freezes Over LD). The first track begins with the combination of a bass drum, kick drum and large bongos. You can distinctly hear all three. When Don Henley starts to sing you can still pick out each of these three drums but also clearly hear the vocals.
Next we played some jazz (Dianna Krall). The acoustic bass here goes all the way down. You can clearly hear the deep notes while she is singing. In fact, you can hear the bow working the strings even on the low notes and still not miss any nuance of her voice.
We then watched the full movie of Twister. We are now hearing things we did not hear before. A friend emailed me with the question "Do you think your sound now overpowers your video". In other words he was asking if the sound was not matching the level of the movie, I think both in quality and in level.
Quite the opposite. Now, the sound is more accurate. Not louder, just better. I still control the volume, so the sound is there. Now, when a storm blows I hear it distinctly all the way down and still do not miss all of the other things that are in what we are listening to. Not louder, more accurate.
At first I was listening for the loud boom one has become acoustomed to in so many subs. After a few listens I realized I was not hearing the boom, I was hearing what the artist put there. WHen that dawned on me I was amazed at what I had been missing.
Incidently, I did notice that I can now listen to things louder without any strain on my hearing, should I choose to do so. But again what is so impressive is I don't have to crank up the volume to get the low notes. They play back at every level accurately.
So, as you can image I ordered another SW12 last night. Do not think I am crazy until you seriously audtion this subs like we did.
Nice work Mike Kelly. Hope you sell a ton of them.
Chuck
