Ep. 26 - Main to sub integration for your Home Theater! 

This is it. This was the video I needed. I've commented before about wanting a video on how best to integrate a single sub with the mains, so this is exactly what I needed! I was one of those fools that used a physical distance to set my distance settings. I also had the same problem as the guy you referenced, with a null from my mains at around 100hz. By increasing my distance a few feet and upping my crossover point to cover that null, my bass response measurably improved. I didn't expect how dramatically these adjustments would improve the subjective experience; initially it sounded like I had reduced bass, only to realize this was because boominess was reduced and tightened everything up. My system sounds smoother and cleaner than ever! Between the videos on the room mode calculator, the room treatment videos, and now this, I've learned so much on proper setup. My room will always remain imperfect, but my system has gotten substantial performance improvements, all for free! Thanks for doing what you do!

Thanks a MILLION for your entire channel. Invaluable!

Another really good one Steve! Thanks again from all of us who are using your videos to take our systems to the next level! Keep em coming!

Thanks for all the great information. I bought a MiniDSP and learned to use REW. It made quite a big difference in my sub performance and overall room performance. Great job!

Unreal. I’ve learned more with your videos than researching myself. Thank you thank you!

Just realized Audyssey was giving me wrong delays for years. Now everything sounds a lot cleaner and real. Thanks Stevens!

Your videos are the best I have as of yet. I believe I have watched all of them and have gone back to them on occasion as I work through my theater room. Thank you so much for this valuable information! It’s great. So glad you here to help! I will gladly send an offering once my theater room is done.

Steve, your videos are the best, so helpful and you do an amazing job explaining everything so that it can be easily understood. Thank you, i greatly appreciate all of your videos.

Thank you, as always! Great episode. Keep them coming.

Love the detailed and very informative videos. Keep up the good work.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Cool, I installed the app that you suggested on my phone so now I at least have something to visualize what I'm hearing which is very helpful so thanks a lot for sharing that.

Thank you for all this. This is great information and really help.

I did some test last night. Always thought my center speaker was the cause of harsh voices. Instead the problem was the delay and phase. Now voices are full and sweet. Thank you again for your videos!

I set my crossover up to AIX Records calibration disc that has a crossover set up section and set my delay using a well recorded kick drum. Works out well. Once you get it right, it's good for music and Home Theater. If kick drum is not time alligned with your mains, music and movie sound tracks will sound inaccurate and out of time. Sometimes old school is the best if you have experienced ears and you know what you're listening for. Takes allot of years of listening. You don't need rew to do this. Thanks for the awesome video...great info.

Very Nice 👍👍👌 Thank you for Keep spreading the knowledge .

SBIR Videos and House Curves would be great to kinda finish up these speaker/sub series, then sub design videos would be wicked.

Thank you for covering this. Once again, excellent video! I'm looking forward to that Audyssey editor app video. I think there are quite a bit of things to cover regarding Audyssey in general. What's the best way to set it up, e.g. number of measurements, how far apart etc. with respect to the listening area? What do the different settings do, how do they affect response etc?

Thank you for this video. Unfortunately my mains have a massive null in the 70hz range and moving the sub distance helped but never took care of it. Could never get summation from sub and main. I have the subs at 1/4 and 3/4 and can’t move them. Increasing crossover of the mains to 120hz fixed it and now sounds amazing. Can’t quite thank you enough.

You're making my name look good 👍💪

I appreciate these down to earth videos. With 4 subs, I have great seat to seat below 120hz and in the main seat the crossover region is now perfect. But, man, my crossover regions look like crap on some of my seats. Seems like an endless problem.

Thank u! again amazing info, this is a life saver.

Definitely going to try this.i have a nice setup, but I'm not getting that chest slam that I'm chasing. My room isn't completely closed off so that may be most of my problem.

Another great vid from you! Thanks for the great work to help dummies like me understand this stuff better!. I found that my mains to sub integration was pretty bad. Played around with the distances but still wasnt fixing some interference. I changed my mains cross over from 80 to 100hz and that helped alot, although still not perfect but much better. Now that I'm running the mains at 100hz, should I bump the rest of the channels to 100 as well?

Hi. Great video thanks for all that you do. I have learnt so much from this channel. One question though, there was an app that you mentioned in one of you're videos that allows you to tell what frequency a sound is being played at. Kindly could you redirect me to that app

Listen to this man people, for years I had my LFE Filter cut-off at 80hz!!! This in so wrong I've missed out for years,after seeing his bass management video two changes in Reciever settings have transformed my system!!! Ever cent I've spent has finally been actualized!! #1set LFE Filter to 120hz!! #2 Set your Speakers to SMALL!! This will change your entire experience, my vocals are clear my bass is devastating....people do it.

Great video man. Question- in REW I should basically run the sweeps on the individual speaker + sub to get the starting point and then run them on both simultaneously to see the combined response correct? I’m not so used to REW yet but should be able to figure it out. Would I need to run the speaker sweep on just one of the mains or are all required? Also, when changing the sub distance to see what works best, I would measure the combined response and adjust based on that vs the individual responses correct? Thanks in advance! And sorry for the basic questions!

Just found your channel.... good stuff! Hey, I am patiently waiting for my SVS SB-2000 Pro to be delivered today along with the SVS wireless sub connection kit so I can locate my solo sub to the best location in my room. The problem is that I will need 25-28' of sub delay/measurement in my Denon just to account for the wireless kit's latency, plus another 2-5 feet for where my sub is located to the MLP. My Denon X2600 will only let me set any speaker no further than 20' from the closest speaker, which in my room will be a max of 28' for my sub, meaning that I may be 2-5' short of delay adjustment. Do you think that will be audible, and if so do you have any suggestions on a work around? (phase adjustment on the sub itself ect..) Thanks in advance, and keep up the great videos.

Yes a sub design video tutorial would be awesome. I have been playing around with WinISD also but am not real sure what a good response curve should look like. Or what port velocity and port resonance to aim for or avoid.

Question? Could you purchase a second dsp and place it from your processor preout to LF RF and and place it inline with your amplifier and use that to eq the mains?

In what sequence would we need to perform the following in a single sub scenario 1. Sub placement in the room 2. Sub to main alignment 3. Sub placement to suite room modes and seating position 4. SBIR and 5. Auto setup Audyssey XT32 MultiEq. Do you suggest a sequence and the repeats of a few prior steps to finalise. For example, It’s clear that crossovers and Sub distance need to be tweaked again after Audyssey based on earlier measurements.

Hi! Thank you so much for this invaluable lesson. I have been playing around with the MINIDSP and correcting my room with DIRAC. Im trying to match my frequency response to a +10dB Harman curve, but am finding that I have to boost quite a fair bit at the lower frequencies in order to match the target curve. Instead of level matching my sub and mains at 75dB, I've instead increased the volume on my sub to 85dB before running DIRAC, thereby naturally achieving a frequency response that more closely resembles the bass boosted Harman curve. Is this the wrong approach to be taking?

For those of us that have benefitted from gain and alignment through the minidsp 2x4HD where the delay is set, how does this apply? What I mean is, I have no delay in the receiver for subs, the dsp does that for each sub. So what do I do to make sure I get that great 80hz crossover bridge. Thanks again for all your time it takes to do these videos. It has created such a "positive summation" in my theater room.

Would you have 2 mins to see this Curve that I got for my two SVS SB3000 I am using for home theater - running Marantz SR 8012 and used just their MultiEQ32?

A sub design and using the audessey app would be great

Really great stuff man…well explained at a level people without a degree in this can understand. And it’s done kindly….without the snobbish asshole tone some home theatre vids come with.

I have a question. When I set up my measuring mic do I set it pointing straight up or pointing straight out? I have heard said to do it each way for particular reasons. Wondering your thoughts.

By mains do you mean just the front speakers or all speaker? Do we do this alignment with dynamic Eq on or off?

Greetings, I have aligned my SVS subs using Mini DSP and REW as per your instructions on episode 8 and was wondering about running Audyssey now. If I run Audyssey with my Subs on will that screw up my alignment? How would you integrate your subs in Audyssey.

Is there a limit to how much we should change the sub distance to get the smooth transition?

Thank you -- been waiting for rhis video!! One thing did not come out clearly: do I align left front with virtual sub, or L+R with virtual sub? Because in my room L speaker response is different from R speaker response. So L + sub alignment would be different sub distance tweak than R + sub alignment; different than L + R + sub alignment. Can you clarify?

Great stuff!! After watching Ep. 7, 8, 26 several times I am not clear about how to run YPAO with the SUBS after setting up from Ep.7 and 8. I have a Yamaha RXA3050 Atmos receiver. It has 2 separate sub outputs. It can measure 2 Subs separately. You suggested using one of them if using the MiniDSP. If I have Multiple subs connected to the MiniDSP 2x4 HD, Do I run YPAO with both subs on? If so, how will the receiver or I determine distance for multiple subs?? Do I treat it as a one Virtual Sub with a phantom distance(Delay)on the receiver? Assuming my subs are setup correctly from Ep7 and 8, Could you please clarify exactly on what I need to do with the MIniDSP and multiple SUBS when running YPAO and how to adjust the distance for multiple subs? Thank you again awesome stuff.

Great videos, I susbcribe to only a few sites for all my hobbies and I'm now subscribed ! I have a few questions: My subs are part Hifi, part HT so they dont go as high as 80HZ, should I consider removing the manual cut off electronics on the back ? As I dont have a mini dsp but do have three subs can I set the delay and EQ in the processor (Acurus ACT4) and then manually ad the adjustments are the same for each sub then adjust all of the delays keeping the relative delays the same to time align to the mains (so make three equal adjustment to time aligned subs) to align to the mains ?

I have a dual setup of 2 ultimax 15s powered by behringer nx6000 in stereo, the avr is yamaha rxa1000, running ypao with nx6000 volume at middle(half) the receiver puts main volumes at 0 and sub volume at +4.5, am I doing anything wrong. Is the amp not powerful enough or ....

I'm building some DIY subs with minidps 2x4 HD and a unik 1. I was wondering should i run audesey with the subs or just the speakers and then integrate my subs how i want ? If i do the second one, once i do my audesey for the speakers only, i can do what ever changes to the subs later without re running audesey. This will save me time and software errors.

Bro! Trying to get my speakers perfect is killing me! Is there anyway i could send you a pic or eq of what i have and somehow get some help? I would be willing to compinsate

Hey Stephen, you mention in this video about how to just get measurements from your sub(s) by unplugging mains speakers. I have found a work around for this if you have a MiniDSP. If you have your PC or laptop hooked up to the DSP via USB then by going into the input selection on the interface for the DSP you can change the input to USB. Usually when your DSP is hooked up to your AVR the input is set to Analog, receiving signal from phono. Switching the input to USB ensures that sound only comes from your subs. You have to select the output on your PC/laptop as the miniDSP via USB for this to work. I hope this makes sense! It allows you to take measurements of subs only whilst still being able to utilise your laptop/pc hdmi output for video purposes or for easy switching back over to outputting through your AVR for full measurements.

Is placing sub in front of tower speaker for lack space work

That's what happen to my syst. Ypao, set bass -6 @ 37ft away. I manually changed to 9ft +5 bass sounds good now. Set the mains to small, goes down to 32db...Q? If set mains to large will i get double bass feed ?

I don’t do multichannel stereo much, but when I do, I have to turn the surround back volume down. Mains and surrounds integrate well but when the surround back are added I loose bass and dynamics. I believe they are out of phase. Note: my surrounds and surround backs are overhead. I have checked and rechecked wiring. Finally my question: Can I fix this by adjusting the distance for either the surround or surround back channe?

One more question (I hope), do I hook up the minidsp to my computer while running rew and them when I'M finished then hook the minidsp up to my system? I know the question seems silly I just wasn't sure if it needed to be connected to the system before running REW. I'm assuming that I don't need to and I can save all adjustments in the dsp and integrate it into the system with saved settings and am off to the races. Please tell that is correct?

I followed your video to the letter. I've changed the distance all over the map. I've changed the crossover like you recommended. I've changed from small to large. I cannot get it to fix itself. Thoughts recommendations?

My wish for the wish list: Sub EQ HT - Does it really work?

Question: why delay the sub and not adjust the sub phase to get in phase with the main speakers?

I recently bought a pb1000 and did the sub crawling with the frequency sweep from your channel. Then i run audyssey and it set the sub to -7db which i found did not provide enough bass. I tried to add +4 db to the sub from channel options and boom my couch started shaking. Is this ok or am i getting extra bass that the director did not intended? l listen at around -22db with the crossovers at 80hz and speakers set to small.

@12:59, ASIO vs Java is confusing. Using ASIO I got sparkling sounds doing sweeps. Tried this using 2 computers. Same result. Tried Java drivers and sweeps now sound OK. Somehow I have multichannel with Java driver. Perhaps there was an update in REW? But when sweeping L+R I get a lot of output at 40 hz in mains even though I've set them to small and 100 hz crossover.. don't know what is going in with that

Where si episode 7?

Is there a possibility that you can also make a vid on how integrate/set the EQ for the mains, just like you did with the subs? I really would like to set my eq's with REW/umik-1 and the minidsp 2x4hd. If you run dual subs, you have 2 out's for your mains left! I just dont want to use audissey because they fu*ck up my mains and im sure my opticon 8's can do better when calibrated..

Can i suggest the SI SQL-15 for your builds. Would love your input on ported and sealed designs for these high sound quality drivers.

mmmmmm WinISD . . .I don't think that app ever closes on my laptop. Yes please, lets do some fun builds! I'm building 2 8CF gross (24x24x24) 6.6CF net sealed subs two get 2 18s in my theater. I'd love to see what the master recommends for 18s, vs something like 15s or 12s. And how you prefer to build and tune ported subs vs sealed subs. I'd pay to see that.

i adjusted the sub distance in my AVR then ran a sweep in REW bit there were no changes in the response as if the changes i am making isnt taking effect. anything did i miss? i am using an onkyo rz series AVR.

So when you are taking your base measurements of your speakers and your subs. @12:45 The speaker and subs should be set to small and 80hz, Or full range?

Typically, my measured distance from the subs is that correct or should sub distance always equal main speaker distance?

I know this is old and not sure if you still monitor. I have a relatively new dedicated basement HT. After time aligning subs via minidsp and achieving a flat response post Audyssey I started working on sub-main integration which I'm familiar with from prior systems. I have 2 subs in opposite diagonal corners. I altered sub distance to get a great CC-sub integration but when I then check LR-sub integration there is an enormous up to 20db null from 40-110hz. I can fix this and get a great response by inverting both subs but this leaves the CC with a 10db null from 75-85. Not as bad as the LR null but not good. I have played with distances and crossovers but it seems I have to compromise either LR or CC integration. I have 3 identical towers behind AT screen for LCR. I verified polarity is correct for all. So not sure why this is so difficult other than some strange room interactions. It this scenario any other suggestions and what would you recommend I prioritize for primarily HT usage, LR or CC integration? On AVS some recommended optimizing LR-subs and than tweaking the CC distance to get CC-sub integration better but I'm hesitant to alter speaker delays. Thanks.

I have a huge problem moving the TV with the stand from and to the wall - my wife will going to kill me if I move it again in the nearest future :) Can I just set crossover for mains to minimum and measure the response, and then set it to 250 and measure the response?

How do I intergrate my mains that have powered 8" subs in them, they are mirage frx 9, my sub is the frx 12. The 9s are rated down to 25hz

Hi Steve, living room HT enthusiast here. Thank you so much for all your informative videos, they’ve been of amazing help understanding and tuning my system! One thing I don’t see in forums or videos - my processor doesn’t have a separate LFE setting (Sherbourn PT-7030), only individual Xover settings. Does that mean I have to leave my subs XO to 120 Hz, and if so, do I use 120hz Sub and 80 Hz mains measurements to time align them in REW, or use 80-80 for the alignment but then open the subs back to 120? Thank you!

Is this technic applicable for a church setup

What app for IPHONE?

Thanks for all you do. I have learned a lot. My questions is, with my SVS ultra towers rated down to 28 hz. , set to small. Should i still crossover at 80 hz? If so, will i get any base at all out of the ultra tower woofers? I have dual svs subs.

As a huge proponent of your channel, I believe you may need to make some small edits to this one because you have not shown much actual footage of the how tos and where tos and when tos. For example, and this may seem simple, how do you measure the mains (together as in L C and R)? Also, how do you separate? Or, how do you include the subs? All those types of questions are taken for granted in this one figuring the watcher already knows how to do that stuff. Please let me know your thoughts.

Is it possible to use REW for time alignment?

Did you guys observe that ALL Denon and Marantz Receivers are *missing* the X-over at 70Hz...from 60Hz skipped 70Hz and go on to 80Hz. Is there any reason why?

90% of integrated amps out there don't have any Audyssey or similar adjustments. Maybe I'm watching the wrong video. Great info though. Thanks.

Hi I replaced my Duel Klipsch R115SW with duel Monolith 15 inch thx ported subs , but they seem to lack the chest thumping bass the Klipsch had ?? Its driving me mad 😠

great video and info as usual, but man you are looking tired. make sure your looking after yourself champ.

Man this totally goes against everything Rel Acoustics preaches. They say to set your Mains at Full Range and the rest of your speakers as low as their crossover frequency range will go. I'd love to see a good debate on this because it's a massive blindspot right now in the Audiophile community

Is there anywhere where this is explained for novices? Every video on this channel is completely mystifying to the beginner. All I want to do is make an expensive amplifier use my subwoofer.

this whole video is wrong on everything the crossover slope is usually 12db the crossover you drew is 90db there is no subwoofer in the world that has a crossover like 90db I just looked at a chart of 12db crossover it doesn't look like what I thought was suppose to look like