SV Subwoofers O WNERS’ G UIDE SVS “Powered Cylinder, Ultra” (PC-Ultra) ™ Contents: • Page 1 Welcome • Page 2 About your new SV Subwoofer • Pages 4- 7 Setup, integration, and calibration • Page 7- 8 Powered cylinder amp features • Pages 9 - 11 Parametric equalizer (PEQ) • Pages 12 - 13 Variable tuning • Pages 14 - 15 Bass demos Last update: 27 January 2004
Page 2 SV Subwoofers Welcome. From the entire SVS team, congratulations on your purchase of the standard in home theater and music bass! Your new subwoofer isn’t some generic, mass-produced box built someplace you can’t even find on a map. It’s made in Ohio (USA), by home audio enthusiasts... like you. Designed, tested and assembled by hand, while using state of the art automation and materials, your SVS is without a doubt one of the best investments you’ll ever make in bringing music and theater home.
SV Subwoofers Page 3 About your SV Subwoofer No powered subwoofers look anything like them. And virtually none work like them either. SV Subwoofers are decidedly different. The best part? You could have spent much more and still not come close to the same bass performance our PC-Ultra line gives you. But what makes a subwoofer an SVS? Quality components, sane prices. You might be surprised at how inexpensive the components in some not-so-inexpensive subwoofers are.
SV Subwoofers Page 4 Setup, calibrating and integration What’s to know? Well, first of all, setting up an SV Subwoofer is pretty darn easy. There are a few key things to get right though, if you want to get the most out of your sub… Unpacking. You’re probably eager to fire up your sub (we’re the same way), but take time to carefully unpack your sub. Set the box and other protective shipping coverings aside, just in case you need to return the sub for any reason.
SV Subwoofers Page 5 More Setup, calibrating and integration If you are running a pair of SVS’s (Fig. 2), you will need to use a standard “Y” cable adapter (c.) The best adaptor to use for this task has one male RCA connection and two female RCA outputs. (Radio Shack ® stocks them.) From the “Y” cable you can run a standard 75 Ohm signal cable (d.) to each sub thus “splitting” the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) and other bass signals from your receiver, thus feeding both subwoofers.
Page 6 SV Subwoofers appropriate speakers, and use the subwoofer correctly too. Also, make sure your subwoofer is turned “ON”. We don’t mean “is your subwoofer amplifier on” (that’ll be important later too!) but rather, is your receiver sending a bass signal to your sub amp? This can only happen if you say “Yes” (or “ON”) to the “subwoofer” setting of any typical Dolby Digital/DTS capable receiver.
Page 8 SV Subwoofers Phase. Think of bass waves as conflicting or enhancing each other, depending on the timing of their arrival at your listening location (either together, or not). Since some of your room’s bass might come from main, center and/or surround speakers, as well as your sub, getting these bass waves to arrive in a complementary, enhancing fashion is the difficult job of the phase knob. Essentially, this control varies the timing of the bass waves coming from the sub.
SV Subwoofers Page 9 Parametric Equalizer. Important enough and challenging enough, this feature gets its own section! “PEQ” allows you to tame a “peak” in your room’s response. Peaks are quite common, especially in large rooms or ones where your sub is far from your listening position. NOTE: A Sound Pressure Level meter is a must for proper use of the PEQ, so get one before you tackle this control.
SV Subwoofers Page 10 This disc allows the user to play 10Hz through 98Hz in one hertz increments allowing very good resolution over your measurements. Other good examples for test discs are Avia’s Guide to Home Theater and Digital Video Essentials. When measuring the room’s response use a minimum resolution of 5Hz. Figure 3 on the previous page shows a theoretical illustration of a room’s response.
Page 11 SV Subwoofers The LEVEL control is the amount of attenuation on the signal located at the center frequency. MIN is equal to 0dB and MAX is equal to -12dB “cut”. Each hash mark reduces the Center Point in question by 1.5dB. The “FREQ” control (short for frequency) is the adjustment for the center point of the cut and should target the highest peak frequency in the room’s response. Each hash mark for this control moves the center frequency for the desired cut 5Hz within a range of 20-80Hz.
SV Subwoofers Page 12 Subsonic Filter and Port Tuning Your new PC-Ultra subwoofer not only comes with our “Tri-Power” port flares, but custom port plugs and variable subsonic filter which allow your sub to be “tuned” to even lower frequencies than its stock configuration. For most people and most rooms, your SVS is already configured for the best blend of extension (how deep/low your sub goes) and output (how loud it gets at a variety of bass frequencies).
SVS PC-Ultra tuning chart
Page 14 SV Subwoofers Bassy demo scenes to die for. So now what?? You’ve got one of the best theater and music bass subsystems on the planet, you’re calibrated...want to see what she’ll do? But of course! Since finding those scenes can be a bit trying, we’ve compiled a list of our old favorites below. After all, calibration with test tones is important, but it’s movies and music this sub is itching to show off. Chapter stops for DVDs are shown, with movie time in hours: minutes: seconds.
SV Subwoofers Page 15 More Bassy demo scenes. • • • • • • “Titanic” You love it...or you hate it. Regardless of which side of the ship you sit on, this flick does some serious rumbling for you: 1. “We can’t leave him” Scene 22 (2:21:50) 2. “Ship Splitting” (2:41:30) 3. “Last Gasp” (2:42:05) “Blade” Not one for the kiddies, but loaded with deep bass. 1. “Footstep”, Scene 4 (7:15) 2.
Warranty: 45-day money back warranty. If you are not completely satisfied with the performance of your subwoofer, return it to us for a full refund of the purchase price. Just a few minor stipulations should you choose to do this: • The subwoofer must be returned in original shipping box. • E-mail SVS first for a return of merchandise number (RMA) and display this on the outside of the box. • The sub must be insured during shipping (SVS may arrange UPS pickup to ease any shipping damage issues).
