@tomthiel I’m a little late, but welcome and t
hanks for your valuable and insightful comments.
I like Thiel's augment mode where the crossover to the woofer is first order and only the subwoofer is higher order. … I use a stereo pair of Thiel SmartSubs and place them at the proper ear distance for best integration and use the room-boundary controls to adjust for early wall reflections.
My first sub was a single Thiel SW1 and PXO5 in augment mode. True enough, it integrated seamlessly right off the bat. As I gradually added acoustic treatments to improve my room, I generated numerous bass response plots
that clearly showed the SmartSub's ability to eliminate front and side-wall cancellation. Very neat! There's no other product I know of that can do that.
I bought my SW1, serial no. -4, from Dave C., a Shaolin martial arts master who used to do graphic arts work for Thiel. Did you knew him? According to Dave, my sub is a pre-release SW1 that Jim used to demo the first-generation SmartSubs at audio events. He'd give it a tune-up before every show ... can't say if that improves the sound today.
Keep in mind that when conventional subwoofer integration is employed, the frequency response at the listener position is optimized at the expense of all other positions in the room. Therefore the average power response in the room is wrong and the resultant sound is artificial.
Bottom line: I think that bass-generation position is very important and I position my subwoofers where they are distance-correct and let any room problems be addressed via Thiel's sophisticated distance controls or room treatment.
Based on these comments, I tried killing the room EQ on my current subs, and I think you’re onto something. Cutting out the EQ seemed, at times, to remove something not quite right in the bass. Anyway, I'll keep this 'back to analogue' option on the front burner as I continue to tweak.
PS: The Classé DR amps in your system; very cool! I’ve been driving my Thiels with Classé amps since the mid 90s, but I jumped in too late to sample any Dave Reich designs. After being shut down by B&W, Classé was recently acquired by Sound United. It’s another conglomerate, but I think it's a good sign that Dave Nauber is reassembling his design team in Montreal. They had just announced a new generation of amps when B&W cut them off, so they should have a running start getting back on their feet. Together with the good news about Rob Gillum’s new business — Yea! — there’s hope for continued enjoyment from both brands.
