The Dave's Fi IB Quad 18" Build Thread

**Avus_M3** · **04-04-08, 03:27 PM**

I did it. I fired it up...only everyone else was sleeping as it was LATE

I turned the receiver way down and the sub gain up to see if it's alive and all was well....just not too noticeable at the volume I had it at

I am bummed about that but that will be sorted out tonight.

I am also bummed out because I was pulled over this morning and received a nice little speeding ticket

!!!!!! Way to start off a day.

**atledreier** · **04-04-08, 03:57 PM**

Dude! You did it! Who cares about the ticket, eh? Now go home and play the thing!

**Owen Bartley** · **04-06-08, 03:17 PM**

Well at least you know you've got some good self control for not cranking it up and waking everyone like I probably would have done! And now that you know you're getting a signal, you're that much closer... but fire it up already and tell us how it sounds!!!!

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:20 PM**

Quote:

atledreier wrote:

Dude! You did it! Who cares about the ticket, eh? Now go home and play the thing!

I don't have the money to not care about the ticket right now

Post Install Update

Sorry for the delay. At the job site I have been at the last 2 days the internet was intermittent and at home...well...I had better things to do

.

Anyways, Friday night I about gave myself a hernia loading the manifold into the wall. It wasn't due to the weight of the box or subs in it but the tightness of the fit. Hell, the manifold isn't even secured in the wall right now by anything other than a snug fit. I thought I was going to have to shave a 1/16" off of the manifold but I pushed it all the way in finally!

I don't have the in wall cat 5 cable ran yet as it is not finished. My wife has been doing yard work instead

. The cable will probably be finished tonight. For now, I have some crappy ?15? awg cable running up the wall. Also, I need to get a proper interconnect. I have some crappy phono cable that has no shielding because if it gets near a power cable it hums. It doesn't seat the best either.

I have some real nice rca cable (can't remember brand) and barrels that I could cut a few feet from the spool and either buy a xlr plug for the back of the amp or just directly run the + and - to the back of the amps screw ins. What do you think? I am still up in the air about the covering. Well, my wife is still up in the air about the covering I should say.

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:21 PM**

I really don't have that much good demo material laying around. I do have LOTR

OTK though. My wife thought it was all 3 when she bought it as a gift, guess I will wait for the blu-ray version to buy all three!

I put it in and skipped around hitting select scenes I found in a "bass heavy scenes" thread. I will note that it was loud but sounded overly boomy

The scene where the underground dead king vanishes and the whole place topples down was pretty intense. I felt a little back massage in the couch

I don't feel the "in your face bass" like I did back in the car audio days but these go a LOT lower. I played a few songs and it was still pretty nice.

Last night after work I remembered I left the settings messed up from screwing around from before. My avr settings were all out of whack. I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-33tx. The x-over was set to 150hz and my mains were set to large. Also, the distance was set to 10ft on all channels. I set the x-over to 80 hz and distance to 15ft for the sub and 12.5 ft for the mains. It does sound loads better!

Just FYI I never really setup my avr since we have been here. My center and surrounds aren't even hooked up. I have been thinking I am going to sell them so I can try some DiY action for the other speakers

.

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:25 PM**

After getting settled, eating dinner, etc me and my wife look to see what we had from Netflix. We had the Simpsons movie, Big Love season 2, and Hot Rod. We pop in Hot Rod. I wasn't even going to turn on the sub because I figured what's the point with a movie like this? Actually, the sub sounded very realistic and really made the movie a lot "fuller" sounding. Little things like Adam ?Samberg? slamming the front door shut on his brother, the motorcycle, ect all sounded much more realistic.

The subs do blend very nicely with the mains. I still have to figure the appropriate way to set this up with the bass management on my receiver. There is a setting called bass peak level that goes from -80 to +12db. It is supposed to limit weaker subs to prevent them from going above their capabilities. Should I
set this to 0db or +12db as to not limit the sub? This is NOT bass level but the peak level so I would imagine this wouldn't be running the subs hot. It would just allow the subs on big transients or peaks to do what they do best right?

As for the bass level should I run that at 0db and adjust at the amp so I have some amp headroom or run the amp all the way up and adjust at the receiver? I typically listen to movies anywhere from -18db depending on the level of the movie up to -10db for the most part. The mains are capable of some high output.

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:31 PM**

Here's some pics of the setup (temporary). For size reference, the plasma is 60" (Pio 6010).

Taped up to cut

Me cutting

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:35 PM**

Pushing the beast in (more like sincerely begging it to fit in between the studs)

Installed

**Avus_M3** · **04-06-08, 03:37 PM**

Once the proper wire is ran in wall and the cover is finished up I will clean up the area and take some proper shots for the gallery

I will include graphs either tonight or tomorrow. They sound very realistic! For movies it adds a great deal of realism . For music I might dial them a little punchier...we will see.

I honestly haven't had enough time to play with them yet. I can say this...even when it was pounding pretty good it seems like these beast are barely moving!! I need mo' powwa!!! Eh...EQ first hehe.

**Avus_M3** · **04-07-08, 03:19 PM**

So I am screwing around with REW learning the program. I am having volume disparity with using the tone on the receiver to set 75db and the volume on REW. First couple attempts using 512K sweeps of my subs. (I know it's not in standard format yet..more concerned with learning the program right now)

**atledreier** · **04-07-08, 03:51 PM**

Some crossover trouble there, but looks pretty equalizable, that curve.

**Avus_M3** · **04-08-08, 06:04 PM**

I have not secured the sub yet (although it is tight) and since I haven't physically secured it completely I have not run some caulk around it yet so there is a *small* amount of air I can feel when putting my face next to the manifold on the living room side. That is my next task.

I did play around with REW a little more and got some better readings. I set the SPL meter to medium instead of low. This changed the graph a lot but changed the level settings which I took care of. I double checked the distance and level settings in the receiver and REW. I also set the sweep to 512k. I also changed the distance from 13.5 ft to 15 ft. It seemed to shift the dip a Slight way right.

Here is the graph. Also, do I need to use the smooth function at all? I just post non-smoothed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I opened the door in the attic area (finished to non-finished space) so there was more volume and for testing raised the XO to 150hz..

**Avus_M3** · **04-08-08, 06:05 PM**

Here is my wiring diagram for reference (I will try switching polarity):

**Avus_M3** · **04-09-08, 01:23 PM**

I switched the amp outputs to reverse the polarity...no go. It was hooked up right. I also tested with the door in the attic both open and closed...no real difference.

Things are looking a lot better though as you can tell from the latest graph I posted besides that real nasty notch around 90 - 95hz. It is not a x-over issue because in the second graph I raised the x-over to 150hz instead of 80hz (just for testing) and also killed the mains.

**Avus_M3** · **04-09-08, 03:38 PM**

Here's with the polarity reversed:

Here's the difference from using smoothing:

No Smoothing (as I have been posting)

Post 1/3 Smoothing

**atledreier** · **04-09-08, 03:43 PM**

Could be listeningposition induced, maybe? Have you tried moving the microphone?

**Avus_M3** · **04-10-08, 10:39 PM**

Quote:

atledreier wrote:

Could be listeningposition induced, maybe? Have you tried moving the microphone?

Not yet...I will try that a bit later.

I got a little time to do some more tweaking. I tested different settings for integrating the mains with the IB. It looks like actually setting the mains to Large and the sub to Plus works best. I would like a little protection for the mains to run as small though. All graphs were taken with the amp on the towers set to 4 out of 10.

Mains (Large) by themselves from 15hz - 20khz

**Avus_M3** · **04-10-08, 10:41 PM**

Mains (Small) and Sub On

Mains (Large) and Sub On

Mains (Large) and Sub Plus

**Avus_M3** · **04-10-08, 10:44 PM**

Here are some higher level sweeps. The sub and system still has more in it and I know this but I am just cautious so I don't cause any damage or blow anything. I want to let everything break in nicely.

This was at 0db (reference) IIRC?? Might have been +3db? I will run some higher stuff later.

**v1rtu0s1ty** · **04-11-08, 11:08 AM**

aren't you going to bottom your mains if it is set to LARGE? I remember that when it is set to LARGE, LFEs are both sent to mains and subwoofer.

I actually have a question regarding this config. What really happens when crossover is 80hz and

1. mains set to LARGE and LFE is sent to subwoofer
2. mains set to LARGE and LFE is sent to subwoofer and mains

Mine has always been set to SMALL and LFE sent to subwoofer only. I remember when I set mine to LARGE and LFE to both, my mains bottomed out.

Please let me know.

Thanks.

**Avus_M3** · **04-11-08, 12:25 PM**

Quote:

v1rtu0s1ty wrote:

aren't you going to bottom your mains if it is set to LARGE? I remember that when it is set to LARGE, LFEs are both sent to mains and subwoofer.

I actually have a question regarding this config. What really happens when crossover is 80hz and

1. mains set to LARGE and LFE is sent to subwoofer
2. mains set to LARGE and LFE is sent to subwoofer and mains

Mine has always been set to SMALL and LFE sent to subwoofer only. I remember when I set mine to LARGE and LFE to both, my mains bottomed out.

Please let me know.

Thanks.

I checked the manual for the receiver and it doesn't say anything about routing the LFE to the mains. It just says that with large, obviously the towers can reproduce bass (not redirect it). From what I can tell, with the sub set to plus and mains large, bass that goes to the mains is routed to the sub as well with the sub receiving LFE. Only difference that I can see. I will watch some scenes to see how it sounds and if it blends correctly.

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