Phase control and Subs.

[tcarcio]

I am fairly new here and don't get alot of time to post but I have a question and I hope it is not obviously dumb. I have a reciever that has phase control built in and I was wondering if that controls just the mains and surrounds or does that include the lfe. I would think that it would only do the mains but I wasn't totally sure. Also if any of you have this option do you use it or do you use the phase control at the sub. Thanks.

[Otto]

Hi TC,

I would guess that it only controls the sub phase. How is it implemented in your receiver? I would guess that's it's under some setup menu. What other options are "near" it?

[Mike P.]

What brand and model of receiver do you have?

[Sonnie]

Also... what receiver do you have?

EDIT: Ok... obviously great minds think alike, but some are nanoseconds quicker.

[tcarcio]

Thanks for the response guy's. I have the Pioneer Elite VSX81TXV and it doesn't specify if it controls all speakers or just mains. I looked through it twice and didn't see anything about it. Unless I am just missing it. All it says is that the Phase control provides coherent sound reproduction through the use of phase matching. Right now I do have it on and I have the phase control on the sub set to 0 but I don't know if I am getting conflicting controls by having the control on at the reciever. I know experimentation is the way to see what sounds best to me but it would be nice to know for sure.

[Mike P.]

The manual shows an example of phase matching between the mains and the subwoofer. You would think the phase matching ability would be for all speakers connected to the receiver including the 7.1's. An e-mail to Pioneer support would tell you exactly what the phase control affects. Nice receiver you have there.

[tcarcio]

Thanks for the response, I do love the Elite series of recievers. I could give them a call but sometimes the people that you talk to are kind of short answered and I would rather talk to guy's like you who have hands on experience with things like this. I appreciate the feedback....Thanks.

[Otto]

Hi there,

I had a look at the manual. It's a rather sad discussion that's available there, regarding the "phase"' control. I'm pretty sure that it's adjusting the phase between the sub and mains or sub and all speakers. In general, I believe they are adjusting the phase of the sub. However, it doesn't appear that the user can make any adjustment other than on/off. I would guess they're adjusting phase based on distance between sub and mains.

If your sub has a fully variable phase control built into it, I would probably suggest you play with that one instead; it should give you more control over the actual phase, rather than simply relying on whatever implementation Pioneer has decided upon. Of course, if the Pioneer's phase control is working for you, use it!

So, when you engage "phase" on the Pioneer, does it affect the sound much?

[bobgpsr]

I think that it is cool that Pioneer is also doing phase compensation between the mains and the subwoofer with their DSP auto calibration code. This phase matching is needed not only because of speaker distance differences but also due to delays with the sub crossover filters, equalizers (like the BFD) and the subwoofer amplifier. IMO good DSP code can do a better job of this for a whole range of frequencies rather than just one point frequency (like you get when using a fine adjustable phase control like what SVS builds into their sub plate amps).

[tcarcio]

Otto wrote:

Hi there,

I had a look at the manual. It's a rather sad discussion that's available there, regarding the "phase"' control. I'm pretty sure that it's adjusting the phase between the sub and mains or sub and all speakers. In general, I believe they are adjusting the phase of the sub. However, it doesn't appear that the user can make any adjustment other than on/off. I would guess they're adjusting phase based on distance between sub and mains.

If your sub has a fully variable phase control built into it, I would probably suggest you play with that one instead; it should give you more control over the actual phase, rather than simply relying on whatever implementation Pioneer has decided upon. Of course, if the Pioneer's phase control is working for you, use it!

So, when you engage "phase" on the Pioneer, does it affect the sound much?

Thanks Otto, They really don't address how it works in the manual very well but I think you might be correct in that it does both mains and subs because in talking to a few people that seems to be the consenses. When I engage the phase control it seems to make a little difference but it is so minor that it might just be me reading into it too much but in any case it is not a very noticable difference. I think what I really need to do is get someone to assist me so I can remain in my seat and have him adjust the phase control on my subs to see how that would effect the sound. Thanks for your input.

[tcarcio]

bobgpsr wrote:

I think that it is cool that Pioneer is also doing phase compensation between the mains and the subwoofer with their DSP auto calibration code. This phase matching is needed not only because of speaker distance differences but also due to delays with the sub crossover filters, equalizers (like the BFD) and the subwoofer amplifier. IMO good DSP code can do a better job of this for a whole range of frequencies rather than just one point frequency (like you get when using a fine adjustable phase control like what SVS builds into their sub plate amps).

Thanks Bob, I have variable phase control on both of my subs so I will be doing alot of tweeking to see what my best settings should be. Thanks again........