SVSound

**tonyvdb** · **04-02-08, 10:30 AM**

Thanks to The Home Theater Shack and SVSound I received my PB13 Ultra yesterday afternoon.

I will be posting a review and pictures about it in this thread SEE BELOW.

Day one, First Impressions:
Let me say that this is the most amazing sub I have ever seen and heard for home theater! The build quality and looks is no less than an A+. The size alone is just plain amazing.
During my initial testing of it I had the very structure of my house vibrating because of the db levels this PB13 puts out.

I borrowed an Audio control industrial Real Time Spectrum Analyzer SA-3051 from my church and hooked it up, the indication I got on it was that I still had readings below 20hz at 95db and the sub is not even calibrated properly yet

More info to come.

**drdoan** · **04-02-08, 10:52 AM**

Thaks for the update, Tony. Looking forward to your impressions as the days go by. Have fun, Dennis

**mike c** · **04-02-08, 06:01 PM**

Congrats Tony! it's a good upgrade, perhaps never to be matched again.

**Blaser** · **04-02-08, 09:40 PM**

Good news Tony! According to Ilkka's tests this is an excellent performer!

Congrats!

**a1161979** · **04-03-08, 03:43 AM**

SVS are really doing well at the moment and this Sub only proves this... Great performance, good price and compact package! Cant wait to see some more detailed information plus the all important subjective review as well as pictures

**jakewash** · **04-03-08, 04:32 AM**

I am still waiting for mine

and reading this makes it even harder.

**tonyvdb** · **04-03-08, 09:27 AM**

Ok, here we go,

The delivery of the PD13 Ultra was quick (form Ontario to Alberta less than 3 days ground) The box is huge and weighs 160lbs

Getting this beast into my basement was not as difficult as I thought it would be as once I had it in my back entrance using a dolly I just used gravity and let it slide slowly down the stairs. The sub is packed really well with rigid 3" thick foam all the way around.

Once out of the box (had to turn the box on its side to do so) I took off the plastic wrap and hulled out my old A/D/S MS3u sub and placed it beside the Ultra, You can really see the size difference in this photo.

The fit and finish of the PB13 Ultra is really something to talk about. It looks amazing just sitting there and will most defiantly be a conversation piece in any room.
The back panel BASH amp is also well put together with every option you can imagine. Including:
Phase control
Gain adjustment
Subsonic filter (used when closing off one or more of the front ports to get a lower frequency response) with settings of 20hz, 15hz, 10hz, and sealed.
A Parametric EQ
Crossover setting with RCA High pass filter switch
Room compensation size (small medium and large)
And also comes with balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs

Once the sub was in place it really becomes a part of the systems over all look and from the listening position does not look out of place.

**tonyvdb** · **04-03-08, 09:30 AM**

I decided to set the PB13 Ultra at the 15hz setting with one port plugged. I want the lower frequency's to be strong rather than have it with better output at higher SPL's although still not by any means "low" dbs as it still can reach well over 100dbs with that setting. I sent a test tone of 20hz to it from a test CD that I have and I literally had the entire house vibrating and that was only at a reasonable 90dbs.

I then played the opening section of video from the DVE DVD (I forgot to turn the volume down on the receiver and absolutely scared the pants off of me) The DB levels of my entire system was over 100 as I still had the SA-3051 turned on! The sub really brings the entire system together with a fullness that I have not heard before. The lows are astonishing

I can only imagine once this sub is tuned properly and has had some time to break in that it will really smooth out (I am a firm believer that a speaker needs time to break in before it preforms to its fullest).

**warren112** · **04-03-08, 10:38 AM**

Hi Tony,

I also just got a SVS PC 13 ultra as I liked the look of the upright cylinder and it somewhat disappears in my room behind the TV. I will try the 15 hertz setting with one port plugged. I am really enjoying the ambient LFE base effects but I probably have turned up the sub an extra 10 db. On the base frequency sweep test it rattled the pictures on my wall!

How do you recomend setting the phase? I haven't done this yet.

What are the speaker settings in your receiver? Audyssey has set mine to full.

What do you recommend & what do you do for setting up this sub. Should I get phone assistance from SVS?

I have the Radio Shack SPL & Avia dvd. Thanks for your help.

**tonyvdb** · **04-03-08, 10:52 AM**

Quote:

warren112 wrote:

How do you recomend setting the phase? I haven't done this yet.

What are the speaker settings in your receiver? Audyssey has set mine to full.

What do you recommend & what do you do for setting up this sub. Should I get phone assistance from SVS?

I have the Radio Shack SPL & Avia dvd. Thanks for your help.

Hi Warren,

Unless you have more than one sub usually leaving the phase set to 0 is best in most cases.
Setting up this sub really depends on your knowledge of what the adjustments on the back do. if you leave everything at its recommended setting in the manual you still will have fairly good results. It depends on your room size and shape. Mine is 15x 35' with a 9ft ceiling.
Seeing as you have the Radio Shack SPL meter & Avia DVD you have most of the tools you need I myself have not used REW yet so I cant give advice on that but just for starters setting the receivers crossover is a must with this sub as it doesn't need any help from the mains. Usually setting the crossover at 80Hz is a good start.
I am still in the process of tuning it to my liking and this will be a few weeks before I have it the way I like.

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