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keep input distortion to a minimum, however you should not be set much lower
than –5 dB recommended earlier, some adjustment room is needed to tweak down
the road. If your subwoofer reading is still too high then turn down the sub’s amp
volume a little with each run.
But what’s “too high”?? Tastes vary, and so do movie soundtracks, but your
SVS is capable of tremendous levels of low distortion, low frequency bass — far
more than most commercial subs. Take advantage of this, especially if you like
action movies with lots of “.1” channel (LFE) action and give the sub a bit more
during calibration. Keep in mind too that the human ear is relatively insensitive to
low frequencies. This, coupled with the fact most folks don’t watch movies at
Dolby Digital reference level (loud!), means tweaking the bass up a few dBs usu-
ally yields a better movie sound experience.
What sub levels do we recommend? If you watch movies at relatively mod-
erate sound levels, a range of +2dB to +3dB over your other channels is a good
start. This means that the test tone will waiver about 78 dB for the subwoofer por-
tion of the calibration run (88dB with Avia). (Note: You may rotate the sound
meter SPL meter dial to the 80dB to get a good reading with these higher levels.)
Note too that many modern surround sound receivers allow a variety of different
subwoofer level settings, depending on the listening mode you are in. With
“DVD” as your “source” use the above calibration routine. You may well find
that CD stereo music calls for a lower bass settings. The above is a guide, experi-
ment! The louder your master volume though, the more you should back off the
sub level to compensate. Avoid your driver bottoming, resulting in a loud “clack”!
Location and measurement. You should take the above measurements from
your typical preferred seat for watching movies (center cushion, right?). Be ad-
vised, strong bass levels can vary tremendously simply by moving a few feet.
Such is the nature of long wave-length, low bass sound. Don’t hesitate to try dif-
ferent locations and different levels for your subwoofer. Calibrating too high (and
often, too low) is the most common subwoofer setup error!
Powered Cylinder amp. We scoured the world for the best perform-
ing sub amp (that’s still affordable). The result is a custom-designed, North
American-made, rock steady amp with Mil-spec like build quality, and an unbeat-
able feature set.
Volume. Use volume (in conjunction with your receiver’s subwoofer output
level control) to come up with a bass calibration to your liking. Start calibration
with the sub’s volume 1/2 to 3/4ths of the way up (or turned to the right).
Crossover Frequency. If you use your DD/DTS receiver/processor’s internal
crossover to manage bass frequencies (highly recommended), the setting of this
knob on the sub is irrelevant. (Note: You should use the crossover “Enable/
Disable” switch discussed below to take advantage of this configuration.) Other-
wise this knob is used to best blend your SVS to your other speakers. Typically
used in stereo only systems today.
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SV Subwoofers