How much house curve?

[toecheese]

Chrisbee was asking why I'm not overwhelmed with my IB. I ran through REW, dialled in a standard house curve and ended up with a decent scale. Beautiful sound, but nothing to kick me in the tail.

I was over at friends and we were putting in his IB, didnt' even have his BFD set up, but just cranked up the gain knobs and watched Star Wars 3. Man, that sounded good (lava fight scene).

My setup should have been much better than his, but I didn't get that punch I wanted.

So, I came home and did the same thing. Much more satisfying.

What *should* my house curve be? Is running through REW tests sufficient to set the levels (gain) on the amp? I just turned them right to the middle and left them alone and used other settings to get REW right (receiver volume, etc).

I know I don't have a concise question here... but... I'm at a loss to the recommened next step once the BFD programming is done.

[brucek]

I ran through REW, dialled in a standard house curve and ended up with a decent scale.

Can we see your subs response graph ?

And also a graph of sub + mains.............

brucek

[toecheese]

Here's my sub:

I'll run through and do a sweep with the mains later today. I assume you're just talking <200Hz?

[brucek]

I assume you're just talking <200Hz?

Yep.

That looks like a very nice sub response. I can't imagine why it wouldn't sound great, other than you had it too low in relation to the mains....

brucek

[toecheese]

Okay- can you expand on that some more? How high should it be in relation to the mains? (or is that why you want the full graph?)

[thxgoon]

Sweet response! I would imagine that dip at 60hz could have something to do with it. A lot of the bass 'punch' occurs in that range.

[brucek]

How high should it be in relation to the mains? (or is that why you want the full graph?)

Well, that's the rub isn't it. Everyone likes something different.

There's quite a difference as to where the bass starts to rise depending on its relative level compared to the mains. If the mains is low and 'meets' that bass curve shown above at 90Hz for example, that's where the bass starts to rise as the frequency lowers. If the mains is high and 'meets' the curve at 40Hz, it's a whole different story.

To illustrate my point, I'll show you my sub+mains response.

I really like bass. I use a 60Hz crossover so I am able to have a higher level of bass compared to the mains while not getting a bloated sound. The mains 'meet' my sub at about 100Hz because their level is lower than the sub. I get a lot of slam that way. It results in a 100Hz to 30Hz comparison of ~30dB. I also listen at fairly quiet levels, so this works for me.

It's always nice to also see someones sub+main to get an idea about the above situation.

I would imagine that dip at 60hz could have something to do with it.

Although that may clear up completely when the mains are added.....

brucek

[toecheese]

Oh my- I thought that was just your sub response- that's your mains too?

That's a house... cliff! I thought the rule of thumb was a 3db boost for low frequencies?

[brucek]

I thought the rule of thumb was a 3db boost for low frequencies?

Yeah, I suppose that's a good starting point, but in the end it's whatever sounds good to you.

brucek

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

toecheese wrote:

I ran through REW, dialled in a standard house curve and ended up with a decent scale. Beautiful sound, but nothing to kick me in the tail.

Fellow Shackster Ayreonaut and myself prefer a hard knee house curve. You might give it a try.

Regards,
Wayne