|   What;'s the scoop on D-Box David subwoofers? | Jeffrey N
Apr 8, 2003 9:38 PM | | I have a D-Box David 302 subwoofer that I picked up from Costco for about $300.00 CDN. Bought it after reading reviews for the predecessor model, D-Box 300 that I read in the review section for this site.
How does my subwoofer compare to the more expensive models like HSU or Paradigm?
I have B&W fronts and Center (DM 602 Series II/LCR6 Series II). Should I have gotten a B & W subwoofer or will my cheapie D-Box be able to do the job?
Thanks for your responses.
Jeffrey N., Toronto |
| re: What;'s the scoop on D-Box David subwoofers? | Woochifer
Apr 9, 2003 4:41 PM | | Rather than worry about the quality of the subwoofer, I would first check and see if your subwoofer is positioned correctly and whether your room is causing large peaks at specific frequencies. You can try this by ear, but you'll get much more accurate results if you invest in a Radio Shack SPL meter and an audio test disc (stryke.com has one available for $10USD). With those tools, you can actually compare how different subwoofer positions affect the in-room frequency response, and identify where your problems occur. By extension, you can use the SPL meter to accurately set the surround levels. (Quick point back to your previous thread, you'll also need to set the delay timing properly if you want a seamless soundfield -- add one millisecond of delay timing for every foot that the surrounds are closer to the listening position than the mains; the default delay timing is 5 ms)
If you think you got a problem, rather than buy more equipment, I would try optimizing what you got first, and then figure out if a new hardware investment is justified. And if you do indeed find that you have severe peaks and dips in your bass response, keep in mind that those could be caused more by your room acoustics than your subwoofer, in which case you should first try taming those peaks with a parametric equalizer. A $120 in a Behringer Feedback Destroyer for parametric EQ can work wonders for a subwoofer. As I've stated repeatedly, my Adire Rava was unlistenable in my room without the EQ (a +17 db peak at 88 Hz, and a 15 db rise between 36 and 32 Hz were problematic), but with the EQ applied, I'm now within 3 db all the way down to 25 Hz. |
| |
