# Will a BFD help my situation?



## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Hey guys here are some pics of my REW sweep with my pa-120 sub. Would adding a BFD to the picture be beneficial to me or should I not worry about it?

corner loaded









left side of the entertainment center


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Response at the entertainment center is pretty good. A BFD would help you get a house curve, if you're interested in that, and perhaps get a smidge more extension, assuming you have the headroom.

It is a bit curious that a sub rated for extension to 24 Hz can't manage to go that low, and that the corner reading has less extension than the other one. Is your room overly large, or open to other areas in the house? Are there openings in either of the walls near that corner?

Regards,
Wayne


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## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Response at the entertainment center is pretty good. A BFD would help you get a house curve, if you're interested in that, and perhaps get a smidge more extension, assuming you have the headroom.
> 
> It is a bit curious that a sub rated for extension to 24 Hz can't manage to go that low, and that the corner reading has less extension than the other one. Is your room overly large, or open to other areas in the house? Are there openings in either of the walls near that corner?
> 
> ...


Well it's pretty much a big open room connected with the kitchen/dining room, vaulted ceilings, and then the front room which is divided by an 8' high wall between the kitchen and front room. There is also a hallway at the back left corner of my room. The room is about 14' front to back and about 50+ wide, counting all rooms.

The corner that the sub is in is pretty much the only solid corner in the room (front right).

Here's a quick sketch.


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## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Wayne I went ahead and messed around with things today, but I'm having a few issues with REW. I backed the gain down on the sub from 6 to 5 and I re-ran audyssey with the sub on the left side of my entertainment center. My AVR now set the level to 0db when it was at -4db on my last sweeps. I level checked everything with my SPL and I bumped the sub to +2db just to run it a little hot. Now on my very first attempt at calibrating my soundcard a couple days ago it showed this...










I went back to do everything over in REW and now I can't get anything different from this!










I messed around with it for a couple hours. :explode: I don't know why it is so different now? Could it be that I did not get it correct the first time I calibrated it or am I doing something wrong now? When I went back and loaded the initial soundcard file, on measure/level check it kept telling me I was clipping and I had to back the level down to lower than a 75db reading on my spl.

Now I went ahead and ran some sweeps with that second sound card file. I had headroom available and I came up with these results. These look better than what I was getting, but I don't want to get my hopes up because of the soundcard issue.










:help: Help please.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Sorry, I don't know anything about Audyssey - can't help you there.

There's no reason to re-run the calibration file - just use the first one you had. It's no big deal if it tells you you're clipping and you have to back the level down a little. Happens all the time...

Regards,
Wayne


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## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Wayne, if it says I'm clipping in REW and I have to back it the level down then wouldn't I be running the sweeps below the 75db ref point? And would that affect the sweep and results? Could my lack of low extension be attributed to the large open floorplan design?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

sickboy013 said:


> Wayne, if it says I'm clipping in REW and I have to back it the level down then wouldn't I be running the sweeps below the 75db ref point? And would that affect the sweep and results?


It will have no effect on the results, other than showing the overall level a bit lower than it otherwise would have been.



> Could my lack of low extension be attributed to the large open floorplan design?


Possibly, but most likely no more than a few Hz. The biggest detriment to large open floor plans is reduced headroom. However, they make up for it in other ways, like more uniform response across a broader seating area.

Regards,
Wayne


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## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Would introducing another pa-120 sub and having them on both sides of my entertainment center help out, as far as helping to fill the room more?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Hard to say, every room is different. Some people seem to like stuff like that, others get worse overall response unless they co-locate the subs at the optimal location. I think I'd spend my money upgrading to something that will get down to 20 Hz or lower rather than buying a second sub that seems to have at best average performance in your room.

Regards,
Wayne


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## thewire (Jun 28, 2007)

Multiple subs would work best if the area was centered but since your entertainment center and seating area is off to one side of the room I have to agree with Wayne and say that a new subwoofer would be your better choice to improve output.


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## sickboy013 (Feb 28, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Hard to say, every room is different. Some people seem to like stuff like that, others get worse overall response unless they co-locate the subs at the optimal location. I think I'd spend my money upgrading to something that will get down to 20 Hz or lower rather than buying a second sub that seems to have at best average performance in your room.
> 
> Regards,
> Wayne


I decided to go with another pa-120, gotta stick with the budget. I figure if it doesn't work on both sides of the entertainment center than I will try co-locating them on the left side. I figure then I will have some additional output and it might help with filling the room more.


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