# 3db's Secondary System



## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

Lots of changes went through this setup from an equipment perspective starting with the AVR replacing a Yamaha RX-V1500 with an RX-V1900. The main speakers were upgraded from the original PSB Alphas to PSB 400 to finally PSB 500. The 100c Center channel was upgraded to a 200c. The subwoofer, a PSB Subsonic5 was replaced with a PSB Subsonic 6. The pics here are of the final setup.


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## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

Swapped out the PSB 600 with the 800 each sporting dual 8" woofers. These speakers are seriously good speakers even to this day...


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## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

I gave the PSB 800 some heels to play in


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## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

Not being satisfied with the bass, I used REW (Room EQ Wizard) plus a measurement mic, a Umik1 and started hunting for a suitable location that would give me an even sub response across all 3 listener positions. I spent 6 or 7 hours moving the sub around the room and taking measurements but I could not find a good spot. Here are the results of my hunt.


























I quickly came to the conclusion that I would need multiple subs and a miniDSP to tie the subs together, I found a second PSB Subsonic6 sub for a good peice in its original shipping box.

I spent a day placing the subs at the 1/4 and 3/4 position of the long wall and took some measurements and it wasnt much better than a single sub. I then placed the subs in the corners of the long wall and took some measurents. Not great but an improvement. I decided to proceed with these just to learn the REW EQ process and get better aquainted with the miniDSP.

The first measurement shows each sub on its own and then the combination of both playing at the center or main LP (listener position) 









Here's a measurement of the combined sub outputs across the three LP before applying REW EQ. 









From the EQ'd response above, I noticed a notch between 75 and 85 Hz that had to be addressed. I did a manual EQ at the miniDSP input to try and fill in that notch. I was fairly successful. 








There was a huge improvement in the response and the bass which I felt was never in control now played nicely. I quit for the night but I wanted to try again to see if I could gain further improvements.


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## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

the saga continues ...

The next day (today) I decided to put the subs in the places that showed a good result with two of the listening positions, under the painting and behind the couch. I moved the sub behind the couch out of the corner and placed it under the painting and took meassurements. Not bad...what if I turned the sub 90degrees to the left and face the corner from it previous placement. It showed much promise so I started moving the sub back towards the corner in small increments and found a really good spot. I then took the sub that was placed in the left corner in the previous exercise and moved it under the window facing out. I took measurements there, experimented with rotating the sub facing the previous corner and the other corner but facing out prooved to be the best. Here's a pic to illustrate what Im trying to say. 








Below are the single sub responses and combined response for this location. 









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, aka house curve. Here are the EQ response across the 3 LPs. 








Now integrating this with YPAO was a process I had to think about and run a few measurements. What I ended up doing was disabling the two sub outs on the miniDSP and running YPAO. I also ran YPAO for the main or center LP as I did NOT like what its was doing when I ran it across the 3 LPs. I realise that this would set the mains to large so just for shits & giggles (my favourite English expression) I ran a measurement as shown below. 








I enabled the sub outputs on the MiniDSP, went into the AVR config menu, set the bass to sub only, set mains to small, and set the cross over to 90 Hz..(I experimented with that and 90 gave me the best result) . I also played with the sub distance and found that 10.5' gave me the best response. I also took a measurement of YPAO set to through which means no YPAO EQ but bass management is still employed. 









I've listened to music and some BluRays and I must say that I agree with the slope philosophy, The bass is no longer boomy but the floors are rattling because of the lower bass. I'm actually very pleased with the results.


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## 3dbinCanada (Sep 13, 2012)

I finally dialed in the 3rd sub into the Greatroom. The bass is much more even now when walking around. Still not perfect but I'm not going to invest into another sub. Here are the pics.. The last sub added is the sub on the left. The other two subs I had in their present location since March of this year. The 3rd sub is holding up the lamp. 














Here is the bass response.. each response at a different listening position, NON EQ verses EQ (miniDSP). The LLP is closet to the hallway and the RLP is closted to the backwall. The couch is not considered a listening position. 




















Here are the full frequency sweeps across the listener positions (LP). First graph is with YPAO set to flat, second graph is YPAO turned off but using bass management, and the third graph is Pure Direct


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