The Apex Club

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paulbroke

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My home theater room with the new colors :)

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RickyDeg

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paulbroke - that was some great pictures! :clap: I think your HT looks damn cosy and inviting. I especially like the warmth of the room. Now all you need really is a second AW12 subwoofer on the left side there!

Thanks for showing us and making the effort!!
 

RickyDeg

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Never heard of anyone not wanting a second sub! :rofl: Besides, it looks like something is 'missing' there to the left, dontcha think? hehe j/k

I didn't think I wanted or indeed needed a second one either at first, but it really has less to do with the amount of bass, and more to do with the eveness of the dispersion within the room that I couldn't do without now. It made massive difference (improvement) in my case, and when I finally upgrade to XT32 with dual subwoofer calibration it'll get even better!
 

buzz_lightclick

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What do people think of the Apex sub? I have a B&W PV1D with my Apex speakers but I don't know if the AW-12 would sound better as it's specifically designed to be used with the Apex speakers? Some reviews I've read of the Apex system say that the sub is the slight weakness of the setup, but most people who own it on here seem to praise it highly?
 

ellisdj

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Neil

The PV1D is probably the perfect sub for your system / listening environment - I wouldnt be looking to change ot for the MA.

While the PV1D is not going to give you room shaking thunderous deep bass can you honestly get away with that in a flat mate - you will be forever turning it down and thats the last thing you want to do with a sub?

It will give you clean bass through your crossover of 80hz down to whatever your room / the sub will do - probs around 40hz at a guess - that still deep enough to rumble you enough for enjoyment of a film - its the 50-60 htz range that you feel the pressure more anyways due to how your ears actually hear bass. The deeper the bass the more you need for your ears to hear it at the same spl

What The PV1D does have is built in DSP which is essential as the LX83 doesnt have any proper bass management.

Now changing over to the MA - a 12" sealed box sub you can get it to do deeper bass but will need to drive it hard / eq it hard to get deep bass / remove the room peaks etc which I doutbt you will get away with in a flat. Unless you drive a sealed unit hard it wont be doing deep bass with enough SPL for you to properly be hearing it - with eq you cna get that at the listening position but there is excess bass everywhere else - i.e. you downstairs or upsatirs neighbours.

I cant help buy comment on previous recommendation of 2 subs turned down low as being better than 1 sub turned up - that is not the correct thing to get the right amount of deep bass.

You dont have to have 2 subs to get even and transparent bass reproduction around the whole listening zone, you just need to get 1 setup properly.

RichMagnus can testify to that fact
 

buzz_lightclick

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Ok Terry thanks for the advice, I'll stick with what I've got for now then. From what I've read the PV1D is the more agile sub anyway. I'm looking for quick, clean musical bass rather than massive volume or depth so it appears I've chosen the right option.
 

ellisdj

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Work on getting it setup best - placed in the right spot in your room and how to maximise its internal DSP for best performance

make sure you run it's DSP before you run mccac mate ;)
 

RickyDeg

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ellisdj said:
Neil

The PV1D is probably the perfect sub for your system / listening environment - I wouldnt be looking to change ot for the MA.

While the PV1D is not going to give you room shaking thunderous deep bass can you honestly get away with that in a flat mate - you will be forever turning it down and thats the last thing you want to do with a sub?

It will give you clean bass through your crossover of 80hz down to whatever your room / the sub will do - probs around 40hz at a guess - that still deep enough to rumble you enough for enjoyment of a film - its the 50-60 htz range that you feel the pressure more anyways due to how your ears actually hear bass. The deeper the bass the more you need for your ears to hear it at the same spl

What The PV1D does have is built in DSP which is essential as the LX83 doesnt have any proper bass management.

Now changing over to the MA - a 12" sealed box sub you can get it to do deeper bass but will need to drive it hard / eq it hard to get deep bass / remove the room peaks etc which I doutbt you will get away with in a flat. Unless you drive a sealed unit hard it wont be doing deep bass with enough SPL for you to properly be hearing it - with eq you cna get that at the listening position but there is excess bass everywhere else - i.e. you downstairs or upsatirs neighbours.

I cant help buy comment on previous recommendation of 2 subs turned down low as being better than 1 sub turned up - that is not the correct thing to get the right amount of deep bass.

You dont have to have 2 subs to get even and transparent bass reproduction around the whole listening zone, you just need to get 1 setup properly.

RichMagnus can testify to that fact

I never claimed having 2 subs turned down low would be better instead of 1 sub turned up...??? Just for the record, mine are both set to the recommended "referencelevel" at 75db which works terrifically well within the acoustics of my current room. I had the same level when I had just the one unit. Increasing volume over 75db in either situation would prove overbearing.

Adding a second unit resulted in better bass precense, dispersion and feeling of 'weight' than I ever managed to get with just the one (and I tested placing it in the full number of placement options available to me). When I added the second AW12 into the equasion lower frequencies were transformed. Best of all, I can no longer localize where the bass is coming from, which was a tad too apparent with just the one unit. A friend of mine who has a lower end speakersystem than Apex had issues with bass from his subwoofer in his room. He descided to test adding a second identical unit, tried it in different locations and finally got a much smoother respons. All without too much tinkering. My favorite dealer has infact a dedicated and well treated listening room in his house, and he uses 4 subs to great success. Though in theory he should be able to manage the same with just the one...? Donno.......I kinda doubt it.

If I could afford a super high-end subwoofer and manage to dial that one in "perfectly" I'd still wonder what more could be acchived by adding a second one. Again, I'm not saying it's 'impossible' to acchieve even and transparent bass with just the one sub IF you have the means of perfect conditions and can place it freely exactly as you wish according to your rooms acoustics, and of course if the sub itself is up to that task, I mean different models work in different ways. For example, downfiring units tend to sound pretty dreadful in my room (I've tested 3 brands before I got Apex). Sidefiring happen to work the best here. But how many of us in 'real world' apartments have perfect conditions to set things up 100% properly. I think a large dose of HT fans out there have discovered the very same thing, seeing how many do infact have multiple subwoofers.

I think our friend gosahl can testify to that fact.
 

ellisdj

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Hi RickyDeg I have read several posts in this thread where you have said - all you need now is a second sub, people read this forum for advice and think its the best thing to do. 2 subs will have benefits no doubt but its never as easy as buying another sub you will then have great bass.

I would put money on this is the harsh reality of what you have done

You have bought your sub - plonked it down where you think it looks nice and then expected Audessey to give you great bass - it doesnt work like that.

If you have nulls in your bass which is Very Very Likely Audessey will boost frequencies which unless your bloody lucky and especially if the null frequencies are deep down causes much extra load and work for the built in amp which it wont like and can cause the sub to sound directional in its bass notes - one of your problems mentioned

If you have peaks in your basswhich is Very Very Very Likely and If Audessey doesnt tame them effectively you will have directional and one note bass or growly bass as well.

Both of these situations makes your 75 reference DB measurement wrong as its a false reading as the peaks will cause the DB level of the sub to be set way too low by the receiver ! been there had that

Nowhere througout this thread have I read that you have actually measured your bass response - its impossible to listen to bass and know whats going on - you have to measure it - its a shocking and eye opening experience to actually see how bad the bass is in your room - trust me I know

You think you have good bass until you see the curve - you then realise its not

Now to combat the problems mentioned above you have bought another sub and plonked it down again - without knowing what the first one is doing and now you dont know what 2 are doing and again you hope that Auddessey will sort it out.

I know this as you say down firing sound worse than front firing - ask the manufacturer it doesnt make any difference- they will say they are the same.

If you have the situation where turning the bass up then becomes over powering you dont have good bass - correctly setup subs you can turn up and up and all you get is more pressure - thats how its supposed to be - completely transparent and omnidirectional - sub bass is mostly just pressure

Now the reason I think the second sub has made such a difference to you is thats its near field placed so you hear the bass before it starts becoming problematic and ears are deceiving when it comes to bass.

To get proper bass out of the subs you own I know for a fact they will need turning up hecen the power they have - I have mine which is a very similar 12" 400w sealed box roughly the same size - Mine is set to 0 level on the processor and 2 oclock on the back of the sub amp level (2 thirds up). The sub needs to work much harder in order to produce low notes and you need excess of low notes in order for your ears to hear them at the same level as higher bass notes.

http://www.philjonespuresound.com/about/documents/PJPS_WP_HowWeHearBass.pdf

Now if having 2 subs in a small environment means you cant turn them up, which in turn I would put money on means you are not getting deep bass and especially not enough deep bass to balance for your ears to hear it at the same level as the abundance of upper bass 50- 70hz range and room modes you will have as a result of 2 subs in corners. Then what is the point in having 2....

You are also asking a lot of Auddessy to EQ out the extra modes you wil have as a result of 2 subs in corners - I would bet its not coping at all well hence why you cant turn it up. EQ's have a limited amount they can reduce

I appreciate its difficult with the plug and play limitation of systems like Auddessey which is a major flaw with them in the first place, another reason why their not the be all and end all -- you are completely reliant on what they do and they do not show to you to my knwoledge what they have done, so how do you really know what they have done - you dont?

I am not saying they are bad systems but to be good systems they rely on the sub being in a good spot in the first place - a good spot will have no or minimal nulls in the frequncey repsonse - boosting eq in the bass is bad for subs that are not designed with enough amp headroom to cope and 500w is not enough I would bet. The only way to check this is by measuring

I am also sure if done right adding a second sub can improve the frequency response and definately improve the spl - however it wont be as easy as plonking it down without knowing whats going on - what effects it has in the room and with the other sub - and you will also have to know what phase it needs to be in and more. Thats quite complex

Therefore good advice to people reading is to learn how to measure a single sub with REW (which is free) and get it in as best spot as you can and dont just think Auddessey or similar = great bass as it doesnt and also 2 subs = better bass it doesnt either.

You shouldl then be able to turn it up much more and get a combination of deeper and more authoritative bass due to increased spl and better performance and more tuneful due to a better eq (with less work needed) + less peaks and nulls - non directional as there is none or minimal boosting within the eq and less peaks / reduced decay

Also the reason I mentioned RichMagnus is because he has been round to hear my system and we have disucssed things at length so he knows and has heard what I am trying to explain.
 

RickyDeg

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Thanks for the informative feedback ellisdj. I actually do appreciate it :grin:

Bass (and reproduced sound in general) truly is a science all onto itself. Especially when it comes to room acoustics which is an horrific topic, haha. All kidding aside, I will look more closely at REW (which I've heard about before) and that link you gave. As it stands though, I'm very thrilled each time I put my system on and the bass I now have impress me every time, that's basically the point, and that's without ANY room treatments thus far. I'm now entering my 20:th year with HT gear and I've never had bass (or surround) sound this promising. Possibly when I had my Lexicon DC-1 processor with JM Lab Electra speakers, but that was an entierly different system back then. But knowledge of possible improvements are always welcome, and should not be ignored.
 

gosalh

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ellisdj wrote:

Neil

The PV1D is probably the perfect sub for your system / listening environment - I wouldnt be looking to change ot for the MA.

While the PV1D is not going to give you room shaking thunderous deep bass can you honestly get away with that in a flat mate - you will be forever turning it down and thats the last thing you want to do with a sub?

It will give you clean bass through your crossover of 80hz down to whatever your room / the sub will do - probs around 40hz at a guess - that still deep enough to rumble you enough for enjoyment of a film - its the 50-60 htz range that you feel the pressure more anyways due to how your ears actually hear bass. The deeper the bass the more you need for your ears to hear it at the same spl

What The PV1D does have is built in DSP which is essential as the LX83 doesnt have any proper bass management.

Now changing over to the MA - a 12" sealed box sub you can get it to do deeper bass but will need to drive it hard / eq it hard to get deep bass / remove the room peaks etc which I doutbt you will get away with in a flat. Unless you drive a sealed unit hard it wont be doing deep bass with enough SPL for you to properly be hearing it - with eq you cna get that at the listening position but there is excess bass everywhere else - i.e. you downstairs or upsatirs neighbours.

I cant help buy comment on previous recommendation of 2 subs turned down low as being better than 1 sub turned up - that is not the correct thing to get the right amount of deep bass.

You dont have to have 2 subs to get even and transparent bass reproduction around the whole listening zone, you just need to get 1 setup properly.

RichMagnus can testify to that fact

I never claimed having 2 subs turned down low would be better instead of 1 sub turned up...??? Just for the record, mine are both set to the recommended "referencelevel" at 75db which works terrifically well within the acoustics of my current room. I had the same level when I had just the one unit. Increasing volume over 75db in either situation would prove overbearing.

Adding a second unit resulted in better bass precense, dispersion and feeling of 'weight' than I ever managed to get with just the one (and I tested placing it in the full number of placement options available to me). When I added the second AW12 into the equasion lower frequencies were transformed. Best of all, I can no longer localize where the bass is coming from, which was a tad too apparent with just the one unit. A friend of mine who has a lower end speakersystem than Apex had issues with bass from his subwoofer in his room. He descided to test adding a second identical unit, tried it in different locations and finally got a much smoother respons. All without too much tinkering. My favorite dealer has infact a dedicated and well treated listening room in his house, and he uses 4 subs to great success. Though in theory he should be able to manage the same with just the one...? Donno.......I kinda doubt it.

If I could afford a super high-end subwoofer and manage to dial that one in "perfectly" I'd still wonder what more could be acchived by adding a second one. Again, I'm not saying it's 'impossible' to acchieve even and transparent bass with just the one sub IF you have the means of perfect conditions and can place it freely exactly as you wish according to your rooms acoustics, and of course if the sub itself is up to that task, I mean different models work in different ways. For example, downfiring units tend to sound pretty dreadful in my room (I've tested 3 brands before I got Apex). Sidefiring happen to work the best here. But how many of us in 'real world' apartments have perfect conditions to set things up 100% properly. I think a large dose of HT fans out there have discovered the very same thing, seeing how many do infact have multiple subwoofers.

I think our friend gosahl can testify to that fact.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes indeed, i can concur. For me, having an additional AW12 subwoofer increased the presence and all round listening experience. There was a huge difference to movies and music.
 

ellisdj

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Hi Goshal

Do you have any idea what bass you are getting at your listening position?

Do you know what the second sub has done in terms of frequency response? What was your freq reponse like before with just one sub

How do you know for sure its in phase with the other sub and speakers?

If you dont know then I woudl suggest looking into it - otherwise you might not be getting the bass you think you are.

Its no use just expecting Auddessey to autoi give you great bass - there is more it than that. It would be better if it wasnt but sadly it is
 

paulbroke

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Thanks @gosalh,

Acoustic panels have built into my setup to help unwanted sound reflections. I think the sound is claner with the acoustic panels. There was also a significant improvement in musical clarity due to reduced sound reflection. :clap:

(BTW, After the acoustic panels, Pioneer has adjusted the front speakers to -6db from -11db)
 

ellisdj

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Hi paulbroke

by the looks of the movie art panels - they are your acoustic panels? They are very nice and perfect for the setting

the pics you posted are dark but I cannot see any panels on the front left and right walls for your front 3 speakers 1st reflections?

that is a major place that they are needed - do you have them there?? Do you plan to add some there if not??
 

paulbroke

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Hi ellisdj,

These are just movie posters not acoustic panels. You can see brown color acoustic panels behind and near the front speakers. I have adjusted the brightness of photo.

108be.jpg
 

paulbroke

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Thanks,

They are " Visquare - Premium Vicoustic" panels. You can find another types;

http://www.vicoustic.com/vn/Musicbroadcast/produtoscat.asp?cmd=reset&Id=22
 

ellisdj

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paulbroke said:
Thanks,

They are " Visquare - Premium Vicoustic" panels. You can find another types;

http://www.vicoustic.com/vn/Musicbroadcast/produtoscat.asp?cmd=reset&Id=22

Why have you got the panels behind the speakers? Who advised you to do that?
 

paulbroke

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ellisdj said:
paulbroke said:
Thanks,

They are " Visquare - Premium Vicoustic" panels. You can find another types;

http://www.vicoustic.com/vn/Musicbroadcast/produtoscat.asp?cmd=reset&Id=22

Why have you got the panels behind the speakers? Who advised you to do that?

Vicoustic dealer technicians have adviced this placement. As you can see, the front speakers are close to the rear wall and side walls. They said that "echoes from that wall will arrive soon after the direct sound, early reflections will be primary problem for this setup" so we preffered this placement.
 

RickyDeg

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surroundman said:
Hello guys,

IS there any difference in sound performance if Apex speakers are fix on the wall VS. if there are on original stand ???

Many thanks.

Though Apex are cleverly constructed for wall mounting these speakers, like most, will likely give you more 'air' and 'space' a bit away from room boundaries so placing them on the dedicated stands (A10's only, not A40, which doesn't have a stand) will not only bring them up to ideal height but give you more freedom of placement and fine adjustment, as long as your room/decor allows that of course. I have a mix of both myself, my front trio are placed ontop my A/V-cabinet while the pair of rear speakers are on the stands and I must say they sound slightly better. All of mine are between 20-50 cm away from walls. Not saying yours won't sound good mounted to your wall, I'm sure you'd be impressed anyway.
 

Ashley

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I just picked up 3 A10s so thought I say hi. I'm looking for a suitable AVR at the moment but have not so much a budget constraint as much as space. I was very tempted by the A3010 for £800 but it's too deep! I'm looking for something no more than 25cm high and 40cm deep. Budget is really £600, but if it's something special then I might be able to stretch it. Or would I be better off getting another 2 A10s to complete the set? The AVR is a Sony DN610 at the moment and I'm currently using 2 Tannoy SFX sats as the rears. Mostly used for movies.

Thanks in advance, Ashley.
 

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