Subwoofer tweaks

I have a pair of Martin/Logan Depth i that I’ve had in my system 15 years? Before these I had a pair of Grottos. I’ve tried big brass cones from Mapleshade, Sub-Dudes, etc....settled on Stillpoints SS w/hard hats. What little resonances that are produced by a 3 opposing driver setup that cancels out vibration....are dissipated nicely with this setup. I’m on a suspended wood floor.

@mitch2  DOH! 

On the other hand decoupling my subwoofers a few years ago was a tweak that I found well worth sharing with -3dB subwoofer users.  

Also, I continue to recommend Velodyne's early, now twenty-two year old Digital Drive dedicated multi parameter six preset subwoofer firmware and build more than holds its own over most of today's offerings. 

Rythmik F-25's owner here. While I have tried and heard many a sub throughout my audio journey, here are some observations/thoughts I wouldn't mind sharing with you this afternoon. 

I prefer front firing, sealed subs.

Adjustments to the mains, as well as to the room are critical. 

Raise the height of the subs for optimal impact/ system performance.

Having subs in stereo is much better than just having one sub.

Isolation control is very beneficial. 

Never, ever underestimate the impact of IC's and PC's that go to the sub(s). 

There is no replacement for displacement.

Low excursion drivers seem to offer tighter visceral impact (not Boom).

IMO, direct servo subs are the most accurate for 2 channel listening. YMMV.

For front firing subs, they must be placed with the same precision as the mains. I am referring to toe in on this one. Not just haphazardly placed. Precision is key here. 

These are just my observations. If you want to argue, I will ignore you. That said, if you would like to discuss? I'd be more than happy to engage in a cordial conversation.

Tom 

 

@mitch2 Hahahahahahaha!!!! Well all part of the Encyclopedia Audiogalactica!!

Also try some weight on top of the unit, Tames resonance. 

@secretguy - you responded to @9rw’s post from 18 years ago, better late than never, I guess

@cmach   My two DD -12 Plus rest on birch plywood dolly's with extra-soft casters. The dolly's are topped with four inch layers of dense latex foam and approximately three inch layer of closed cell old Morey Boogie board foam. 

I needed to rerun the Auto EQ and slight manual preset tweaks to maintain desired frequency parameters.

The decoupling greatly reduced the extra low frequency transmission throughout our dwelling while actually providing a more desirable presentation. I'd say elevating the units may have played a roll in the presentation itself. 

Having owned a DD-18, I recall the manual didn't convey the importance of room positioning.  

The manual made mention of walking around room with the mic and noting the greatest frequency spike while viewing the graphic display during the Sweep Tones, (page 23?).

With the DD Plus the subwoofer crawl is step one out of the box. Proper room positioning requires far less use of processing parameters and noticeably better synchronization with the room and the main speakers. Your DD is still a great unit.

@9rw It's like when you get mayonnaise on your watch,

You didnt mention what kind of floor your sub is on but in my room, on a suspended hardwood floor, I found that decoupling with Sorbothane half sphere footers was a huge improvement. Also adding weight on top of my Sub (REL T/7X) in terms of a 15lb slab of marble with thick felt between them seemed to help too. Faster, tighter, cleaner. 

Hello, I also have the Auralex SubDude under my MK 70s (push/pull) in a frame house. I've been bouncing around the idea to top off the cabinets with 5/4 granite & see if there's any improvement. I'll be back! 

Dbphd. You are absolutely right. SubDude is one of the most effective ways to isolate sub from the floor and as you mention all ready smooths out response.
Right on "D".
M.

Auralex SubDude is a winner for me. By isolating the sub from the floor, it smooths and extends the response. I use them with my Velodyne HGS-15 and HGS-10. Really a big improvement for not much money.

db

Isolation platform from Auralex. Cheap.

Have fun keeping up with Dgarretson. I wish I had more time to do some of this stuff.

Tim

Member Dgarretson reports serious improvements in his Velodyne by replacing the diode bridges. Take a look at his system.

I too noticed an improvement when I placed three medium-sized cones under the sub. The cones were resting on a piece of granite block. Slow plodding bass was gone and the speed and definition were significantly improved.

This was compared to the sub directly on a carpet floor.

I was surprised you can support the sub with "a pair" of brass spikes? I thought we need a minimum of three?

Stehno: Please explain how you measure time smear in cables. Do you have a white paper that you can share? I'm sure a lot of Audiogon members would be very interested in learning more about this. Thanks!

Place the sub on a granite block & another on top of the sub maybe cut to the size of the sub. This will certainly impore tightness & definition.

I've had excellent experiences with Star Sound's Audio Points on my custom racking systems. In fact, not too long ago, I became a dealer for them.

You might also try experimenting with ics for your sub. All ics generate time smear to either a very small or great degree which leads to ill-defined and sloppy bass (and other things for main speakers). My limited experience tells me the vast majority of scs and ics generate great degrees of time smear and you'll never know it until you try one with less time smear.

Audience (AU24, Maestro, and Conductor series) or Audio Tekne are two names that come to mind that generate an absolute min. amount of time smear. Speltz Anit-ICs is another.

Properly addressing vibration mgmt techniques along with installing good quality ics can make the sloppiest of subs sound extremely tight, deep, fast, and well-defined. Which is what true bass is supposed to sound like.

-IMO

I have a velodyne DD-15 and puchased a symposium svelt shelf to put underneath.I replaced the rubber footers with the svelt so the bottom of the whole sub cabinet rests on the svelt.What a difference without trying to listen.Clean bass just popped right out,almost as good as no sub cabinet,I guess you could say that most of the bass was freed up from from the physical part of the cabinet.So i replaced the spikes on my revels(50-as)with the svelts,For me I won't go back to spikes or rubber feet.I like upgrades or tweaks that you don't have to try to listen,They make you listen,I like surpizes like that,Hope that helps(it does for me).

I have sets of the new Aurios Pro-MAX under both of my Aerial SW-12 subwoofers - they sound incredibly tighter, faster, better!
(I am also a Dealer for these gems.)

I haven't ttied anything like the ones you mentioned, other than the spike. I have tweaked the subwoofer distance (almost doubled the actual distance) and noticed the bass was a bit more responsive, less sluggish.

Craig