My REW experimentation in my basement system (1 Viewer)

[3dbinCanada]

I've been busy with REW lately..using it yesterday to find the best location for my single sub. I found it left of the fireplace as shown below. The couch spans 6' across so I took 3 measurements, at the center, 24" to right of center, and 24" left of center.


Here's just the bass response with no PEQ;


Today I took full frequency sweeps with various settings of YPAO. The results are not very good and I'm wondering if being too close to the backwall is the culrprit at play. The mic is only 19" from the back wall. Here are the results at 1/6 smoothing for each of the PEQ curves. Crossovers were set to 80 Hz

YPAO=Flat


YPAO=Natural


YPAO=Front (based on the Main capabilities)


YPAO=Off

 

[Dave Upton]

I've been busy with REW lately..using it yesterday to find the best location for my single sub. I found it left of the fireplace as shown below. The couch spans 6' across so I took 3 measurements, at the center, 24" to right of center, and 24" left of center.
View attachment 88038

Here's just the bass response with no PEQ;
View attachment 88039

Today I took full frequency sweeps with various settings of YPAO. The results are not very good and I'm wondering if being too close to the backwall is the culrprit at play. The mic is only 19" from the back wall. Here are the results at 1/6 smoothing for each of the PEQ curves. Crossovers were set to 80 Hz

YPAO=Flat
View attachment 88040

YPAO=Natural
View attachment 88041

YPAO=Front (based on the Main capabilities)
View attachment 88042

YPAO=Off
View attachment 88043

Looks like your main issue as at the crossover. Have you experimented with having your crossover lower or higher (60 or 100Hz) and adjusting subwoofer distance?

 

[3dbinCanada]

Looks like your main issue as at the crossover. Have you experimented with having your crossover lower or higher (60 or 100Hz) and adjusting subwoofer distance?

I was about too but my mic is no longer working. When I plug it in to the laptop, the light on the mic doesnt turn on nor does the PC see it. I have a ticket open with minidsp.

 

[3dbinCanada]

Time to update this thread. I thought I had. My apologies. I retook a Full Frequency sweep raising the head of the mic just a couple of inches past the top of the chair back and it cleaned up the measurements. No more deep notch between 85 and 110Hz.

 

[3dbinCanada]

While the weather is nice and the daylight hours are long, I will not spend much time on getting the new sub integrated into the system. Thankfully, I did keep my old measurements when I went through this exercise looking for the best location for the current sub.

The new sub location frequency response is this.


Out of the next three locations , I will locate the 2nd sub to the right of the sofa almost opposite corner of the new location.


The other two locations were left of sofa and by the exercise bike.

 

[Dave Upton]

Looks like you have a pretty good in-room response. Are you going to integrate your subs with a miniDSP?

 

[3dbinCanada]

Looks like you have a pretty good in-room response. Are you going to integrate your subs with a miniDSP?

A miniDSP HD-4 to be exact. I already have one in use in my greatroom setup. I got a deal on the 2nd mini I couldnt pass up on which led to the purchase of the 2nd sub. This upgrade path almost spun out of control on me. Im glad I kept my measurements when I only had the one sub because it greatly reduces the amount of work trying to find a 2nd location.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I got the 2nd sub dialed in I think. Here is the raw response before adding a house curve via the miniDSP. The 2nd sub was first gain matched my ensuring the SPL at 50 Hz was the same for the 2nd sub at the 1st subs location.

 

[3dbinCanada]

The first graph are plots along the width of the couch before EQ via miniDSP.


The second graph are plots along the width of the couch post EQ via miniDSP


I'm going to have play with the EQ a bit more with the miniDSP as I'm not satisfied with the drop in output from PreEQ to PostEQ and the difference between the 3 LPs

 

[Dave Upton]

You're making good progress. Did you use a house curve target when correcting, or manual EQ?

 

[3dbinCanada]

You're making good progress. Did you use a house curve target when correcting, or manual EQ?

For the EQ, I chose the slope of the bass to be +10db higher between 20 and 30 Hz and be down at 10 db at a 100 Hz based on the Youtube video stating that the lower frequencies (20-30) need to be 10 db louder than at 80 Hz.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I've played with REW EQ some more and this what I managed to get. I haven't taken any measurements yet as I'm too tired coming from a 75km bike ride. I took a snapshot of the settings as well.

 

[3dbinCanada]

Here is the actual sub measurements taken today across the couch.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I finally found the bass!!!! I read a review on Top Gun Maverick bluray and my bass was hitting as hard as the movie described. This really peaved me off so I went through all my AVR's settings and found the GD culprit. YPAO volume was turned on through all scenes but even worse than that was ADR (Adapative Dynamic Range) control was set. Who the hell turned that on?? I do not recall turning this on ever. I turned it all off and rewatched some of heavy bass scenes and I'm relieved to say that things are now rattling around the room and I feel the slam as much as my main floor system.

 

[3dbinCanada]

Now that I'm living on my own and not having to worry about people bumping into the surround speakers, I have lowered the left/right surround speakers more to ear height but left the single surround back where is for now. I haven't rerun YPAO yet.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I completed the wall repairs after also moving the surround back channel to align with the center listening position and the front center channel.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I tackled this room again a couple of days ago with my PC and UMIK1 mic. The reason for the tackle is that I could not get a smooth integration with my mains and subs when running my mains set to large with the current sub locations. I tackled this previously in the last week of October and had to run a cluge to get something that resembled a good response. I knew this was not the answer so I decided to relocate one of my subs, sub 2 in the room. Sub 1 remained in its location as it really gave an even bass response from 20 up to 80 Hz before it dipped. I moved sub 2 from the right side of the couch as shown here

to the left hand side of the left speaker.

Here are the following sub responses individually and combined before REW EQ curves were applied.

The next plot shows before and after REW of the combined sub response

I integrated the subs with the main speakers by tweeking the sub distance in the AVR's menu to provide me with the best response.

Pattern-1 is what I use to listen to music. The mains are run as large with the subs using the Xtra Bass facility on the AVR. The graph below shows differences between Through (no PEQ) but Mains + sub (Xtra Bass) and Pure DIrect (no PEQ) where the subs are not being used.

Pattern-2 is what I use to watch movies. Mains are set to small and Xtra Bass is turned off. The graph below shows the difference in response with PEQ set to Flat verses PEQ set to Through

It doesn't surprise me that the sub distances would vary between Pattern-1 and Pattern-2 The sub distances are 22.2 ft and 12.2 ft for Pattern-1 and Pattern-2 respectively.

I tweeked the sub level via the AVR for Pattern-2 (movie mode) . I like my subs running a little hot for movies.

 

[JohnRice]

Just my personal preference, but I run my mains on small, even with music. This is even though they are quite bass capable, and are provided with tons of power. The one thing I do is I cross them over at 80Hz with video sources and 50Hz with music.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I've been a busy over the last few days rearranging my basement area to accommodate a separates stack that I've been building up. I moved sh?t around again as I wanted to increase the distance between the mains. I got an additional 10" between them and additional 6" away from the wall behind them. I've also got my separates stack up and running. Here are some pics.