SV Subwoofers
OWNERS’
GUIDE
SVS “Powered Cylinder,
Improved” (PCi) ™
SVS Models:
16-46PCi
20-39PCi
25-31PCi
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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 9-10 Bass demos for your home theater
Page 11 Home theater terms
Page 12 Warranty
Last update: 13 March 2001
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SV Subwoofers
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
Powered Cylinder 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. Make
no mistake, we scour the earth for the best, most cost effective parts (when we
don’t make them ourselves), and meld them into finely tuned designs that define
high performance home theater (HT) and music bass. Want woofers, amps, or
even binding posts? We’ve tested and discarded plenty that didn’t meet our
tough standards. If we use it, whatever “it” is, you know it made the grade.
Get “tubular”. Typical subs require heavy internal bracing and thick enclosure
walls because they’re boxes. But cylinders can’t flex the way boxes do. Ever
wonder why high pressure tanks are always round? At SVS form follows
function, and fortunately, functional designs can lead to simple, stylish and
elegant designs too. Take one look at our subs and you’ll know this is true.
Stable downward firing woofer. Our slender design is one plus, but we’ve
also taken great lengths to design a downward firing driver. Coupled with our
unique base-plates, which minimize driver reactive forces, you’ll find our subs
can take a tremendous amount of power and remain rock solid. Compliant foam
rubber feet on our innovative base plates allow for stable placement on a variety
of surfaces. No rattling, or buzzing allowed!
Custom low turbulence port designs. When you listen to our trend setting
ported subs you’ll hear (and feel) bass like never before, with a exceptionally low
noise and distortion. When you experience genuine SVS bass you’ll know
something special went into it.
Stylish, and understated. From the simple top grill, to the elegant base-
plate, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to lose your sub in a corner. SVSs are
big, but this is one of those times size does matter. There are hundreds of brands
of “black box” subs out there. Fortunately, you didn’t just unpack one.
World class power. Our amps are designed and built with a level of fit and
finish, plus a collection of features and power, practically unheard of at this price.
Did we mention power? It’s there in spades (though we rate them
conservatively). And SVS starts with efficient subwoofer designs which don’t
require equalization to go low and flat. This way our amps can be dedicated to
reproducing bass, not making up for a lack of enclosure space (the bane of clean,
deep bass). As a result, we don’t require the megawatts some subs need. Plus
they run cool and powerful in those vented cylinders. We sweat the details on
integrating a top of the line amp in your sub, so you don’t have to.
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SV Subwoofers
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.
Location. They say it’s ALL about location right? It’s the same with
setting up your subwoofer. So, where to put it? Go for a corner if you
can, and avoid putting your sub where it might adjoin large open areas
.
Studies have shown that the deepest and flattest bass response is
typically attained when a subwoofer is placed within a few feet of one of
your home theater’s corners. The upright configuration of SV
Subwoofers makes this easy. Whether you put the sub in front or to the
rear of your seating area makes surprisingly little difference. Deep home
theater bass, like that from Dolby Digital (DD) “5.1 channel” DVDs and
Laserdiscs is non-directional. You can’t tell where it is coming from,
even though you can hear, and feel it (and how!).
Hook-up (see fig. 1). There are a variety of ways to configure your
new sub. Usually, a simple mono, shielded 75 Ohm A/V RCA type cable
(a.) is used to take the subwoofer output of your DD/DTS surround sound
receiver (b.) and feed the low-level input of the sub’s amp. There is no
need to “split” the signal going to the PCi. You can feed either one of the
two amp inputs, it doesn’t matter, right or left.
NOTE: Stop now if you aren’t
TOTALLY familiar with your receiver’s
!
manual. Ensure all power to your equip-
ment is off when making these connections.
Also, be certain your power outlet can handle a
minimum of 300 watts. (Use of “convenience
outlets” on receivers are not recommended for
(a.)
your SVS.) PC).
(b.)
DD/DTS Processor/Receiver
(Subwoofer “Out”)
Fig. 1
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SV Subwoofers
More Setup, calibrating and integration
If you are running a pair of SV Subwoofers (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 stan-
dard 75 Ohm signal cable (d.) to each sub thus “splitting” the Low Fre-
quency Effects (LFE) and other bass signals from your receiver, thus
feeding both subwoofers.
!amp
NOTE: Now is a good time to select if
you want “ON” (always on) or “AUTO ON”
which turns your sub on only when a bass signal
is present.
(d.)
“Y” cable/splitter from re-
ceiver
(c.)
DD/DTS Processor/
Receiver
Fig. 2
“Calibration” isn’t only for tech minded folks, it’s critical to a proper
configuration of your home theater sound system. Fortunately, adjusting
channel balance (or calibration) is as easy to do as it is important. The
first order of business is making sure your DD/DTS surround sound sys-
tem is set up properly. We recommend you consult your audio/video
receiver (or processor) manual to refresh on the procedures to do this.
Generally, this requires ensuring the receiver’s test tones, or a special
test disk (like Video Essentials or Avia) plays back at the same volume
from each of your system’s full range speakers. That’s left, center,
right, left surround and right surround speakers, plus the subwoofer .
(More on sub level in a second). Skip now to page 7 (“Powered Cylin-
der Amp”) if you aren’t familiar with your sub’s amp, and come back to
calibration.
Some things to check as you get ready to calibrate your system:
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Are your speakers set correct to the correct “size”? Your receiver/
processor might allow you to indicate if your speakers are “Small” or
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SV Subwoofers
“Large”. Selecting the size accordingly will ensure bass goes to most appro-
priate speakers, and use the subwoofer correctly too. Also, is your sub-
woofer 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.
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Is your receiver connected to the sub amp? Use a well-shielded RCA
cable (sometimes called a “patch cord”) to hook to the subwoofer output of
your DD/DTS receiver to either input jack of your subwoofer amplifier. As
mentioned earlier, you’ll need to “split” the subwoofer signal with a “Y
Cable” if you bought a pair of subs.
Is your Radio Shack ® sound pressure level (SPL) meter ready?
This tool is absolutely critical to proper home theater au-
dio calibration. It’s akin to a tire pressure gauge for your
car. Set the meter to “Slow” and “C-weighting” (and
turn the dial to 70dB). The manual which comes with the
SPL meter is excellent, and we recommend you read it
entirely. Haven’t got the meter yet? Well, head on down
to your neighborhood Radio Shack ® and snag one. We
prefer the analog instead of the digital display model. Ask
for part number 33-2050. At about $38, it’s a bargain.
Getting ready to start now: Just a few more checks. Make sure your receiver/
processor master volume is set at “00 dB” or some other easy to remember refer-
ence level. Finally, ensure your subwoofer’s volume control is set 1/2 to 3/4ths
up, to start. It’s also critical to check the subwoofer level control of your sur-
round receiver before you begin the test tones. Set it to no higher than “-5 dB”
initially (that’s one quarter way up, given a typical receiver’s channel limits of –
10 dB to +10 dB) . Your LFE “trim”, if you have one, should be set to 0dB to
start (that’s full up) but this can be dialed down later to tame peaks if needed.
Turn off ANY sound-field processing modes, “peak limiters” etc.!
Now play your receiver's internal test tones so you have something to
measure with your SPL meter. Or better yet, buy a calibration disk, like the
Video Essentials, or Avia DVDs. A test disk’s tones ensure your entire signal
path, from the DVD player to your speakers, is set correctly. Whatever you use,
when the tones start alternating from speaker to speaker (watch your sound meter
now), set each full range speaker’s volume to about 75 dB (or 85dB if using
Avia), by using the receiver’s dedicated channel level controls (leaving master
volume the same). We recommend you turn down the receiver’s subwoofer out-
put level, before you significantly lower your sub’s volume control. This helps
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SV Subwoofers
keep input distortion to a minimum, however you should not be set much lower
than –5 dB recommended earlier, some adjustment room is needed to tweak down
the road. If your subwoofer reading is still too high then turn down the sub’s amp
volume a little with each run.
But what’s “too high”?? Tastes vary, and so do movie soundtracks, but your
SVS is capable of tremendous levels of low distortion, low frequency bass — far
more than most commercial subs. Take advantage of this, especially if you like
action movies with lots of “.1” channel (LFE) action and give the sub a bit more
during calibration. Keep in mind too that the human ear is relatively insensitive to
low frequencies. This, coupled with the fact most folks don’t watch movies at
Dolby Digital reference level (loud!), means tweaking the bass up a few dBs usu-
ally yields a better movie sound experience.
What sub levels do we recommend? If you watch movies at relatively mod-
erate sound levels, a range of +2dB to +3dB over your other channels is a good
start. This means that the test tone will waiver about 78 dB for the subwoofer por-
tion of the calibration run (88dB with Avia). (Note: You may rotate the sound
meter SPL meter dial to the 80dB to get a good reading with these higher levels.)
Note too that many modern surround sound receivers allow a variety of different
subwoofer level settings, depending on the listening mode you are in. With
“DVD” as your “source” use the above calibration routine. You may well find
that CD stereo music calls for a lower bass settings. The above is a guide, experi-
ment! The louder your master volume though, the more you should back off the
sub level to compensate. Avoid your driver bottoming, resulting in a loud “clack”!
Location and measurement. You should take the above measurements from
your typical preferred seat for watching movies (center cushion, right?). Be ad-
vised, strong bass levels can vary tremendously simply by moving a few feet.
Such is the nature of long wave-length, low bass sound. Don’t hesitate to try dif-
ferent locations and different levels for your subwoofer. Calibrating too high (and
often, too low) is the most common subwoofer setup error!
Powered Cylinder amp. We scoured the world for the best perform-
ing sub amp (that’s still affordable). The result is a custom-designed, North
American-made, rock steady amp with Mil-spec like build quality, and an unbeat-
able feature set.
Volume. Use volume (in conjunction with your receiver’s subwoofer output
level control) to come up with a bass calibration to your liking. Start calibration
with the sub’s volume 1/2 to 3/4ths of the way up (or turned to the right).
Crossover Frequency. If you use your DD/DTS receiver/processor’s internal
crossover to manage bass frequencies (highly recommended), the setting of this
knob on the sub is irrelevant. (Note: You should use the crossover “Enable/
Disable” switch discussed below to take advantage of this configuration.) Other-
wise this knob is used to best blend your SVS to your other speakers. Typically
used in stereo only systems today.
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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 wave forms to arrive in a complementary, enhancing fash-
ion is the difficult job of the phase switch. Essentially, this control varies the timing of
the bass waves coming from the sub. You can tweak this endlessly and not hear much
difference. But don’t despair, the effect of bass cancellation will vary by volume and
frequency in your room, and no one setting is likely to ever be “perfect”. One simple
technique to optimize phase is to find a nice “bassy” loop (such as the menu of
“Godzilla”) and measure the loop’s bass response at various bass SPL peaks. As the
loop runs, you can make switch the phase knob. Where you see the most response on a
given bass passage is the phase setting providing the least bass cancellation in your
room (for the frequencies of the demo loop you chose).
Line In/Out. Use one of the sub’s “Line In” jacks to connect the subwoofer to the out-
put jack of your receiver/processor. Feeding just one input is enough. If you are using a
conventional amp and/or a stereo setup you can use the “Line Out” jacks to send sound
(filtered of bass information) back to your system amp. A simple RCA to RCA cable is
all you need.
Auto On. Your Powered Cylinder allows itself to be in an “auto on” mode… or on all
the time. With the former setting (the switch in the “Auto” position) your subwoofer
will “sense” that a DVD or CD etc. has begun and switch on immediately (the hard
power switch mentioned below must be on naturally). A few minutes after a movie, the
Auto On light will turn Red, switching the sub back off. When running (and sensing a
signal) the Auto On LED will be green. Sometimes, with very low listening levels, your
subwoofer might not get enough of a bass signal from your surround sound processor
to “trip” the Auto-On circuit. Should you ever find this to be the case you should leave
this switch to “On”.
Crossover Enable Switch. If you allow your DD/DTS surround-sound receiver or
processor to manage bass frequencies (recommended), this switch should be set to
“Disabled”. This disables the “Crossover Frequency” knob and allows your sub to re-
produce just what it’s fed from the receiver. If you are using the sub in a two channel
(stereo only) configuration then “Enable” the crossover and adjust the associated knob
to best blend the sub into the low frequency output of your speakers.
High level inputs/outputs. Not commonly used today, but binding posts are there
in case you don’t have low-level inputs/outputs on your receiver/processor. Typically
used if you are not using a DD/DTS compatible system.
Power. This heavy duty two-position switch next to the power cord will completely
cut the power to your sub amp. Flip this switch to off should you ever move the sub or
change inputs or outputs.
A/C connection. Plug your sub into a dedicated A/C outlet. “Convenience” outlets
of typical receivers often don’t provide the needed current. Avoid them.
Fuse. User replaceable, contact SVS if you have trouble finding a replacement.
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SV Subwoofers
Bassy demo scenes to die for.
So now what?? You’ve got one of the best HT bass sub-systems on the
planet, you’re calibrated...want to see what she’ll do? Sure you do!
Since finding those scenes can be a bit trying, we’ve compiled a list of
our favorites below. After all, calibration with test tones is important, but
it’s the movies (and music) this sub is itching to show off. Chapter stops
for DVDs are shown, with movie time in hours: minutes: seconds. What
are you waiting for? Just hit PLAY!
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“The Iron Giant” Great family animation with SERIOUS bass, in-
cluding strong peaks below 25 Hz. Jump to:
1. “Chase thru the forest” Scene 8 (20:00 into the movie)
2. “Robot Landing” (Train Impact) Scene 10 (25:40)
3. “Green Boom” Scene 27 (1:11:40)
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“Antz” Another good family movie, though not perhaps for small
children. Extremely loud bass above 30 Hz.
“Terror from Above”, Scene 17 (51:48)
“The Matrix” Modern, violent, science fiction classic with plenty of
shoot-’em-up bass blasts. Here’s some subtle and not so subtle.
1. “Where we are grown”, Scene 12 (42:55)
2. “Landing in fight”, Scene 15 (50:51)
3. “Chopper shootout”, Scene 31 (1:47:15)
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“Das Boot” Arguably one of the best war pictures of all time with
bass approaching 20 Hz. Very loud, very intense.
1. “Depth charges”, Scene 21 (59:30)
2. “Storm surfing”, Scene 25 (1:15:15)
3. “Hitting bottom”, Scene 17 (53:15, Side “B”)
“Apollo 13” Moving story, with some surprisingly subtle, but re-
vealing, bass where it counts.
1. “Lift off”, Scene 13 (35:15)
2. “Coming home”, Scene 53 (2:05:43)
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SV Subwoofers
More Bassy demo scenes.
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“Titanic” You love it...or you hate it. Regardless of which side
of the ship you sit, 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)
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“Blade” Not one for the kiddies, but loaded with deep bass.
1. “Footstep”, Scene 4 (7:15)
2. “Door blown” Scene 20 (50:05)
“Aliens” Not just another modern sci-fi horror classic, this one
rocks from intro to final scene.
1. “Ship drop”, Scene 9 (41:20)
2. “Awakenings”, Scene 15 (1:12:52)
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"Apocalypse Now" Making This Vietnam war movie, Francis
Ford Copolla nearly went crazy...imagine what it'll do to your
subwoofer!
1. "Chopper ride" Scene 2 (0:19:47)
2. "ARC LIGHT" Scene 4 (0:26:02)
3. "Grenade launch" Scene 12 (1:27:58)
“Contact” SETI with a (bass) twist or two along the way.
1. “Bombing”, Scene 28 (1:36:30)
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2. “Space truckin”, Scene 33 (1:55:56)
“Dark City” One of Roger Ebert’s favorites, think he likes bass
too?
1. “Let the tuning commence”, Scene 8 (34:30)
2. “City makeover”, Scene 15 (1:27:45)
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SV Subwoofers
A Glossary of Home Theater Terms
Frankly, don’t feel guilty if you want to skip over the below. But if you
are curious about just what some of the terms and abbreviations stand
for, read on:
dB - Short for “deci-Bell” a unit of sound, a 3dB increase takes twice
the acoustic power to attain!
DD - “Dolby Digital”, the most popular form of digital surround sound,
usually found on DVD soundtracks. Actually a compression algorithm
that can provide 1 to 6 channels of movie audio .
DPL - “Dolby Pro Logic”. The last generation of non-discreet channel
surround sound. Derived from 2 “matrixed” channels.
DTS - “Digital Theater System” similar to DD, but with less compres-
sion. Many feel it sounds better than DD, but you be the judge.
DVD - Amazing little video disk, DVD, doesn’t “mean” anything!
HT - “Home Theater”. What you make of it. But a home (theater)
without a subwoofer, isn’t quite up to our definition!
Hz - Short for Hertz, the German scientist who came up with a scheme
of measuring the frequency of sound waves. 15-30 Hz is very low bass
and very rare in anything but movie soundtracks. 60 Hz is generally
considered mid-bass above which most large full range speakers can
easily produce. The real fun (and real) bass, is in the middle of that
range, call it 20-40 Hz.
LD - Laserdisc, grandfather to the DVD. Still capable of great picture
and sound. Increasingly going the way of the 33 1/3 LP.
LFE - “Low Frequency Effects” are the “.1” channel in 5.1 sound
tracks. If you have a sub selected in your system, any LFE signal goes
to the subwoofer. The sub may get bass from other channels as well
however, depending on the “size” of speakers in your set-up.
RMS - A common and accurate way to rate the power of an amplifier.
Literally “Root Means Squared”. Typically measured in “watts”.
SPL - “Sound Pressure Level”, a fancy way of saying “Volume”. Usu-
ally measured in dBs.
Sub - Short for subwoofer
“5.1” - Reference to 5 full range channels and one bass only channel.
Warranty:
45-day money back warranty. If you are not completely satis-
fied 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:
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Subwoofer must be returned in original shipping box.
E-mail for return of merchandise number (RMA) and display
this on the outside of the box.
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Subwoofer must be insured during shipping (SVS may ar-
range UPS pickup to ease any shipping damage issues.
Unfortunately, shipping costs are not refundable.
3 year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for
subwoofers, 1 year for electronics. Sub must be returned to SVS
shipping pre-paid. SVS will repair or replace any item at its dis-
cretion and return to the customer as soon as possible. Naturally,
this warranty does not cover any product subjected to misuse or
accidental damage.
Except as provided above, SV Subwoofers makes no other war-
ranties express or implied. Some states do not permit limitation
or exclusion of implied warranties, so exclusions may not apply
to the purchaser.
The bottom line: We’re proud of these subwoofers and want you
to be as happy owning one, as we are selling one (or more) to
you. E-mail us if you have any warranty question.
SV Subwoofers
SV Subwoofers LLC
365 Stone Harbor Road
Holland Michigan, 49424
Fax: 330-793-8183
Email: [email protected]
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