I just wanted to take a minute to thank Robb for hosting this Get Together. Both he and his lovely (and patient) wife are gracious hosts. You always feel well looked after in their home, and today was no exception. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera, so no pics . In my defense, I was glad to be just attending, as I just got out of the hospital 6 days ago…
I met a number of people from different forums, as well as Ron Stimpson (of SVS fame), but we all had one common interest - BASS. And we had it, in spades!
Robb is the proud owner of a stacked dual PB13 Ultra/MTS setup, and boy was it sounding mighty fine. We gave it a workout with music and movies. Robb had a number of contemporary artists on his CD changer, all of which sounded exceptional. It was difficult to give to critical of a listen in a GT atmosphere, but the MTS's had a nice wide sound stage that made it easy to get a good impression, even if you weren't in the "sweet spot"
Easily the belle of the ball (as if stacked PB13's weren't enough) was SVS's new Audyssey powered sub Equalization Management box. I was a bit late and missed the setup, but from what Ron said, it sounded like your typical Audyssey setup, mapping the room with multiple measurement points, and the magic happens inside the box. The new thing for me was the USB interface with a management program on Robb’s laptop. Also, it was remote controlled (nice!). Ron gave me a brief overview that included a pre/post eq response graph. The unit was a slim grey box with a few led’s, a USB in on the front, and inputs/outputs on the rear. It was quite unobtrusive, and could easily be left on the sub, or hidden in a rack.
I got to listen as Ron punched it in and out with a number of tracks, and the result was quite evident. The system still sounded great with no eq, but with it, it gained this full, almost enveloping quality. It was what I have been trying to do with my system for years, a total integration of sub and mains. It was like they disappeared. Without a doubt, I could have sat on that couch and picked Ron’s brain and fooled around with that unit for the whole afternoon, but people were calling for movies, so away we went.
We played around with the usual suspects, Darla, The Matrix, U571, Pod Race, Master and Commander, etc. But the star of the show (and the room killer) was War of the Worlds at reference volume. Love it or hate it, you know that when that Pod emerges, the house is coming down. And it did. Those dual 13’s reproduced subsonics I have never felt before and never seemed to break a sweat. It was like a rollercoaster ride, and when the stop button was finally pushed, we all fell into our chairs a breathed almost a sigh of relief. My ears are still ringing a bit.
By that time it was close to 7PM and the ladies had just about had it. Dinner was calling and we needed to do the drawing for Robb’s old (and still top of the line) PB12 Ultra/2. I only got the gentleman’s first name-Warren. There was many an envious handshake, I must tell you.
That ended the afternoon, and I can’t cry too hard, I did get a nice hat and T-Shirt and some other spifs. They’re not an Ultra/2, but cool just the same.
I have to say, when SVS gets this new Sub Management box out, that thing should fly off the shelves, based on what I observed today. It’s a killer solution to a problem we all have, taming unruly rooms. I’m sure there are features that I never got to see in the software. Suffice it to say, that it will be a hard thing to resist when it finally hits the streets
To wrap all this up, thanks to Robb, his wife and Ron Stimpson for a great and informative afternoon.