Active line level crossover with subwoofer out - HELP

@heaudio123   Thanks for the info.@erik_squires -- If I remember right, you are a proponent of standalone DACs (specifically Brooklyn), DIY swarms, and dedicated multichannel subwoofer amps, in addition to miniDSPs. Assuming that's so, do you put the miniDSP between your sources' digital output and the dedicated sub amp? If so, I assume you use a second digital out from your source to feed the Brooklyn DAC; do you also use a filter after the DAC to dampen the bass below a given cutoff frequency for your main speakers? Finally, do you use a different output from the miniDSP to each of the subs, and tune each one differently? Sorry for so many questions...

@heaudio123

Not usually how a four output miniDSP works. Usually the outputs are for high and low frequency, so with that configuration it is for 2 satellites and 2 subs, with configuration for high pass, low pass, timing, global EQ as well as EQ per driver. It’s’ important to double check with miniDSP as the mixing is controlled by the app, so ask them if you want to do anything fancy with the bigger units.

OP:

If I remember right, you are a proponent of standalone DACs (specifically Brooklyn),

I like mine, my biggest fear with integrated streamers is support for new handheld OSes and new online services. For instance, if you buy a streamer/receiver, in five years, how many of the online services it supports will still work?

DIY swarms,

Yes to DIY speakers, not swarms. Yes, they work, but they are also complicated in that they require 4 subs, and appropriate cabling. My own personal solution is usually 1 to 2 subs, with bass traps AND EQ.

My (limited) understanding of room nodes is that they are affected by the placement of the subwoofer (or subwoofers, as in a swarm). If that is true, can a single mini-DSP fix the room nodes regardless of subwoofer location? Or do you need one mini-DSP for each sub?

I never said a miniDSP would fix everything all by itself. I was quite narrow in my claim. If all you have is 1 sub, adding EQ can get you far. Of course, optimal placement helps, but after this you may still be left with enormous (20 dB) narrow peaks at the listening location. That is what the EQ alone can fix. Clip them, and you can raise the overall sub volume. This alone is an enormous improvement. How much of course depends on how bad the room is to start with.

Room treatment, AND speaker placement AND EQ however can go even further. It can even out the response across the room, not just one location, and you can even treat nulls.

I see this as a continuum:

• Poor bass due to overall bass level dominated by peaks.
  
• Enjoyable bass 
  
• Great bass.

One subwoofer, good placement and an EQ can often get the hobbyist with limited space and money far into the "enjoyable bass" region. Appropriate room treatment (GIK Acoustics Soffit Traps for instance), additional subs are what moves the needle into great bass.

So, I don’t think the swarm fanatics are wrong about swarms working. I think they are wrong that it is the only possible answer for the hobbyist.

Best,

E

Fixing bass issues in the analog domain with 11 bands of active subwoofer EQ in stand-alone and floorstander speakers for twenty years.... drumroll Vandersteen Audio.... 

re: nodes

can you fix = yes
can you eliminate = no

every room has nodes

the 11 bands are not octave based they were chosen based on typical nodes in American rooms...

Enjoy the music

I have to say last show I was at, the Vandersteen room was the best sounding. The compensation for the room worked really well.

PS - I do like the Mytek products, but for the most part I’m not fanatical about them.  They have class-leading specs AND sound really good but over the last 10-15 years a lot of great sounding DACs have hit the market.

The only DAC I’m really against are the standalone Oppo lines. I made one or two bad comments about them on Audiogon about them, and the company went under. ;-)

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Fear me, mortals!!!