USP-1 Bass Management Idea

[mathwizard]

I need to have the bass frequencies EQ'd on the USP because they are being sucked out by the room Putting up panels to correct this is out of the question (WAF).

I was looking at buying a Velodyne SMS-1 or the equivalent product from Audyssey. Before I do this, can you guys give me the pros and cons of this idea.

I want to use the Audyssey EQ on my Onkyo 806 AVR to do the bass management. I will connect it as follows:

USP-1 LFE out to CD analog in on the 806. LFE Out on the 806 to the Sub.

I will put the sub in stereo mode so that Audyssey will be active. I will also have the crossover on the USP-1 at the highest setting so that it does not interfere with the bass management of the 806.

I think that this will work, because when playing music through the Onkyo 806, the bass sounds perfect. The ERC-1 will remain connected directly to the USP-1, because I like the way the upper frequencies sound in my set-up, and the front channels will continue to be connected directly to my amps.

The only draw back I see is that the Onkyo will have to be on when playing 2-channel sources, and the Onkyo's volume control will have to be used to match the volume of the sub to the front channels. Other than that, the USP-1 will control the overall volume of the system in 2-channel mode.

I also know that the signal will go through an extra AD - DA loop, but it will do this with the Velodyne and Audyssey units also.


Does anyone see any problems with this. I'd like to get some comments before I went through the trouble of changing things around. any comments or advice will be appreciated.

[billmac]

Oct 3, 2010 14:03:14 GMT -5 mathwizard said:

I need to have the bass frequencies EQ'd on the USP because they are being sucked out by the room Putting up panels to correct this is out of the question (WAF).

I was looking at buying a Velodyne SMS-1 or the equivalent product from Audyssey. Before I do this, can you guys give me the pros and cons of this idea.

I want to use the Audyssey EQ on my Onkyo 806 AVR to do the bass management. I will connect it as follows:

USP-1 LFE out to CD analog in on the 806. LFE Out on the 806 to the Sub.

I will put the sub in stereo mode so that Audyssey will be active. I will also have the crossover on the USP-1 at the highest setting so that it does not interfere with the bass management of the 806.

I think that this will work, because when playing music through the Onkyo 806, the bass sounds perfect. The ERC-1 will remain connected directly to the USP-1, because I like the way the upper frequencies sound in my set-up, and the front channels will continue to be connected directly to my amps.

The only draw back I see is that the Onkyo will have to be on when playing 2-channel sources, and the Onkyo's volume control will have to be used to match the volume of the sub to the front channels. Other than that, the USP-1 will control the overall volume of the system in 2-channel mode.

I also know that the signal will go through an extra AD - DA loop, but it will do this with the Velodyne and Audyssey units also.


Does anyone see any problems with this. I'd like to get some comments before I went through the trouble of changing things around. any comments or advice will be appreciated.

I would be interested in how this works for you. It seems like a lot of work especially volume level matching the 806 when ever you use the USP-1. I have the 886 with a Parasound 2100 and had the same sub EQ concerns as you have.

I bought a Rythmik F12SE sub that has a built in PEQ so I could tame a peak around 42-45Hz. I then bought an Anti-Mode 8033 sub EQ that works great with both the 886 and the 2100. Now when I listen to 2CH music with the 2100 the bass is tight with no boominess and the sub is not easily located as it was before any EQ efforts . To be honest I would try an outboard EQ device instead of using the 806 if at all possible.

Another thing you could do is join the Home Theater Shack and go to the REW sub forum to learn about REW. I had read many posts from people who recommended REW but I did not have a laptop or am I very technical with this hobby . But I worked at it, read a lot about REW on the Shack and bought the recommended components. After a lot of frustration and mistakes I am at the point where I can see with graphs how my sub is interacting with my room . I will say the members over at the Shack were extremely helpful with my many questions and helped correct my mistakes as well.

Below is a link to the Shack and the REW forum:

www.hometheatershack.com/forums/rew-forum/

Good luck !

Bill

[mathwizard]

thanks for the reply.

I've connected it, and it sounds great. I still need to do volume matching between the two units, but I'll use a sound meter to do fine tuning. I haven't decided if I like the Dynamic EQ engaged or not.

I made one change. I used the extra analog outs on the ERC-1 to connect to the CD analog in of the 806. Because of the way I have it set up, only the sub is being fed by the 806. Using the USP-1 sub out to the CD analog in on the 806 produced weak bass frequencies.

If you look at the stand along units (SMS-1, Audyssey, etc..), they seem to connect and work in the way that I have this set-up connected.

[billmac]

Oct 4, 2010 16:26:20 GMT -5 mathwizard said:

I made one change. I used the extra analog outs on the ERC-1 to connect to the CD analog in of the 806.

Isn't this sending a full signal to the 806?

Because of the way I have it set up, only the sub is being fed by the 806. Using the USP-1 sub out to the CD analog in on the 806 produced weak bass frequencies.

I have to admit I'm confused as to how you have this setup .

If you look at the stand along units (SMS-1, Audyssey, etc..), they seem to connect and work in the way that I have this set-up connected.

Not really. If you have the SMS-1 you could send the sub output from the 806 to the USP-1 then on to the SMS-1. In this configuration when you used the USP-1 for music the 806 would not need to be powered up.

With the Audyssey stand alone unit you would connect all the preouts of the USP-1 to it and calibrate. But seeing you have Audyssey with the 806 the SMS-1 would be the way to go.

Bill

[mathwizard]

Oct 4, 2010 18:22:53 GMT -5 billmac said:

Oct 4, 2010 16:26:20 GMT -5 mathwizard said:

Isn't this sending a full signal to the 806?




Bill

The ERC-1 is sending a full signal to the 806. The bass management is sending all frequencies below 80 Hz to the sub. The front channels are fed by the USP-1. Since the 806 is in STEREO mode and the USP-1 is not in HT pass thru, no signal is sent to any other speaker except the sub from the 806.