Subwoofers & DSP or nearly bye bye room

[electric beach]

[Reid Malenfant]

Firstly, I need to declare here and now that I don't understand the technical niceties of how all this works, which is probably a good thing if an unbiased review of the sound, rather than the electronics, is what is needed...

After I arrived at Marks he was very keen for me to hear what it's all about, so I settled down with a coffee and a ciggy while Mark threw on some tunes. We began the session with the Antimodes switched off, so as such, there was nothing new to hear over what I'd heard before. I'm not sure what Mark had playing, but it was his usual fare of dark synth chillout with seismic bass lines and ambiance aplenty. I thought it was all sounding pretty good until the Antimodes kicked in.

Noooooo

You have it arse about face Dave The Antimodes were both on all the time except for the brief times i turned them off. I then proceeded to switch them back in line again after 10 - 20 seconds due to the god awefull sound of the room which i admit i was totally used to until these things were plumbed in

In all honesty it may well have been better to have played some music you are more familiar with as then you'd have a much better idea about what was actually happening. All you could compare was a lumpy bass & much slower decay response with the things bypassed than with then in the circuit. In all honesty a few seconds be it 10 or 20 of stuff you just don't really know isn't going to give you much idea about what they can do...

I should have thought about that before you came over & asked you to bring some CDs you knew well & we should have had more time experimenting

All i can add is that to me these things are a true revelation Assuming i know what i now know & again assuming that i was starting from scratch building a stereo system one of these or a pair would be included. I'd get a pair of standmount speakers that would be happy to say 100Hz & then one or two good quality subwoofers fed via these devices, i'd be damn happy to


I did wonder what Steves emote was about

[synsei]

Ah, light dawns on marbled forehead. Next time I'm over I'll bring some 'choons' with me then

Ah well, even so Mark, watching Avatar on your setup was an event

[Reid Malenfant]

Ah well, even so Mark, watching Avatar on your setup was an event

Yeah, apart from you can pause it to take into account bodily functions, have a ciggy etc i remember you saying the picture was better than at the cinema

No wonder i don't go to the cinema, i just wait for the blu ray release & chill...

Bests to you buddy, hope you & Jo have a good weekend! All stocked up here so no need to go anywhere

[electric beach]

I'm very pleased to hear there's an explanation Mark

I've been working with sub augmentation for several years, regardless of the bass ability of the main pair. I totally agree with you that reproducing the lowest frequencies does something for the complete spectrum in terms of soundstage, presence, clarity, dynamics - well, just three steps further towards reality as opposed to reproduction and I wouldn't be without a sub now (never had two).

Just realised that BK are in my home town

[electric beach]

Installed a DSpeaker Antimode 8033s today, in line with a Velodyne CHT12 sub.

I can only agree with everything Mark has already said. Met all my expectations, not only in controlling the bass but has an extremely positive effect on the clarity of the complete frequency range. I wasn't prepared for the improvement in soundstage depth and acoustic information. If you think it's just going to get rid of a few room booms then you're in for quite a shock.

I take the feed from the dual output from my active preamp but it's pushing the limit of the input sensitivity, setting off the warning lights. I'm thinking a couple of 14db attenuated Goldenjacks will solve that issue.

DSpeaker have announced the 2012 launch of a new unit for controlling a stereo pair of speakers now, including inbuilt USB/SPDIF Dac, preamp and remote control operation for €850.

http://www.dspeaker.com/

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Steve, nice to hear you had a sucessful install & you notice the same benefits I'm sure that given a few days & lots of different music you'll find yourself stunned at the clarity of each & every bass note. You'll be able to pick each one out & you'll also probably notice that there is far deeper bass there than in your room previously You just need to play the right material...

The room was simply covering it up with resonances

I can't remember at what point the two different indicators flash in all honesty as they never have done here. Depending on how often it is 10Db of attenuation should be ok I'd have thought. You'd just turn the sub output up to match things again

Have fun because I know you are going to

Would be interesting to see someone with an OB subwoofer try out one of these

[Ali Tait]

Don't have an OB woofer, but do have OB's with twin 15" Eminence Alphas. Might get a hold of one of these to try, maybe the new one when it comes out.

[Reid Malenfant]

It may well be worth it Ali, while you don't get any enclosure colouration you still get all the room modes etc I think you'd be very surprised indeed

[Ali Tait]

I'd like to try something like this Mark, I was looking at a bit of Behringer kit on ebay the other week. I didn't press the button though.