SVS 25-31 PC+

Introduction

I moved into a new place and so my hi-fi system had to shift. A decision was made to site the system in the living room/dining which was about 27’ x 12’ (i.e. a long rectangular room ½ dining ½ living room) with glass doors on one of the 12’ sides. In comparison, my dedicated listening room was 12’x13’.

Since Home Theatre is the rage nowadays, I also decided to upgrade my ancient Home Theatre System. My Sony EP-9ES volume control was malfunctioning, and I had sold my REL Strata II sometime back.

Searching High and Low

Locally, good old Kingsley with the full range of REL subs and great service was an obvious place to go to audition. However, REL prices have gone up (due to the exchange rate and other factors). REL subs are simply superb for music applications but are rather polite and don’t have the ‘grunt’ of say, the ‘cheaper HT-only subwoofers other shops sell.’ I wanted to look for better ‘Home Theatre’ value.

At that time, Reference Audio had no stock of Hsu Subwoofers (actually, a few months later writing this, I think Reference still doesn’t have stock) otherwise, the Hsu could have been a viable alternative.

Around this time, I was clued in by the xtremeplace forum to a subwoofer company called SVS. Having heard good things on the forum and elsewhere on the internet, I took the plunge and ordered the smallest one, a 25-31 PC+ . Furthermore, it did seem like serious engineering went into the subs, and something that ugly should sound good otherwise theres no chance of it selling (small cute subs on the other hand may sell for reasons like aesthetics over sound quality). The airmail shipping rate is also very good (mine was US$125 but it varies).

I had seriously considered the more aesthetically pleasing box subs like the PB-1+, but they cost more and are heavier, so shipping is higher too.

Which Model?

There is a wide variety of models available at the SVS site, but the PC+ seems to be a better value considering that foreign orders get hit with the same shipping cost for PCi and PC+. I also chose the smallest PC+ for a few reasons.

 

SVS Customer Service

SVS Customer Service is very good. They will answer all your e-mail queries (with enthusiasm) within 24 hours.

 

Initial Impressions

I hope that by getting the smallest SVS, I would minimise the impact on the aesthetics. Its footprint of 16" diameter is actually smaller than most box subs so its easy to position. In my room, its not inherently obtrusive, but once you notice it, you’ll always notice it J There is a sort of felt like covering around the SVS. In our 80% humidity and 30 degree heat, I hope it lasts.

 

 

 

Home Etiquette

The low notes of the SVS pass very very easily through concrete walls. When that ship explodes in SW:AOTC, your neighbours will definitely hear it. As a matter of courtesy, I informed my neighbours when I got the SVS and indicated that I will only play Home Theatre on weekends (of course, for the first week I got the sub, I told that them I needed to play a couple of hours each night first to run it in :) )

 

Testing

Initial Home Theatre testing was straightforward. I just plugged the LFE output from my Marantz SR-6300 to the SVS and set the Sub at about +3dB hotter than the mains (using the receiver test tones and AVIA produced the same results for my system). Just for fun, I also checked the frequency response of the SVS using sinewaves and my Radioshack SPL meter and the response looked pretty ok.

There is no doubt that the SVS delivers the bass in my room. I never listen beyond 100dB by the way (the ridiculous levels of Star Wars:AOTC ship landing and exploding scene peaks at 100dB on my system, meaning most other DVDs will be softer). However, as noted, 12’x27’ is a pretty large room.

Anyway, the SVS delivers bass that is tight, extended and loud. I have no doubt that this is quality bass but delivered in quantities that similarly priced RELs (and even one level up from that) have no hope of delivering.

For other bass-silly DVDs like Fast and the Furious DTS (My excuse for owning this is that I bought it 2^nd hand at a good price), the SVS played out the bass beats without breaking a sweat. To be more technical, bass remained non-directional throughout. If you can localise the bass, it probably means the sub is rattling, distorting, bottoming out, and/or emitting port noises etc. Actually, I had to turn down the volume because F&F is an annoying movie that became even more annoying when you have a good Subwoofer (I’m not the type that likes to repeatedly watch bad movies because they have a reference soundtrack).

Of great interest is that my Receiver, which is a budget SR6300, crosses over at 100Hz (I guess Marantz thinks that people who buy this model will have tiny bookshelves incapable of any bass) so really, bass directionality was a concern to me. However, perhaps thanks to the reasonable room response (no obstrusive peaks), the SVS integrated well with my speakers and explosions etc seemed to come from mains (i.e. because of a higher frequency cue) or from all around.

Playing Finding Nemo (R4 DTS-ES) and the infamous "Darla" scene, the clean bass is really something. This is accompanied by rattling glass in my glass cabinet across the room 27 feet away from the subwoofer.

 

Music

Yes it does explosions well. Frankly, so do many subwoofers. Some even sound ok even when they are distorting (after all, you might think that’s all part of the sound effects).

As the conventional wisdom goes, a speaker/subwoofer that is good for music is usually good for Home Theatre, but a good Home Theatre speaker/subwoofer is not necessarily good for music.

I wish to state that from the outset, I was fully prepared to use the SVS only for HT and not for music should the SVS turn out to be poor for music since I don’t listen to bass heavy music and wanted the sub mainly for HT anyway. But as things turned out, the SVS is now an integral part of my music system as well.

First, gentle reminder that you really need an additional set of RCA pre-outs to feed the SVS (I don’t think most audiophiles would want to run speaker cables to it).

Concurrently with the running in of the SVS, I was trying to deal with serious bass/midbass modes that my 2 channel system was suffering from.

The solution was found with the arrival of a Behringer DEQ2496 parametric equaliser. Though this review will focus on the sound of the system with the DEQ2496 in the system, I had listened extensively to my system without the DEQ2496 and with/without the SVS. I do not think the equalisation altered the sound of the SVS (since there were no serious bass problems caused by the SVS to begin with the EQ was focused on problems from the main speakers).

One key thing to note is that the SVS has a fully variable phase control (which many other subwoofers have). However, my Strata II only had 0 and 180 degrees. Adjusting the phase control to get maximum output is simpler to accomplish with a fully variable control and necessary first step to integration with the main speakers.

I plugged in the DEQ and attempted to get a gently downward sloping response curve (The graph isn’t fantastic. I still have a lot to learn and improve on). In addition to correcting the room modes, I decreased the bass output from 60Hz down by 3-4 dB. This means that the amp and speaker won’t have to work as hard in producing bass which hopefully means better midrange. The intention was to allow the SVS to take up the slack. So I set the SVS crossover at 60-70Hz (this crossover is probably alarmingly high to most audiophiles but remember that since my main speakers are causing problems with room modes, good idea to divert the bass away – further my receiver crosses over at 100Hz without problems). Also, by digitally reducing the volume level of the bass and then boosting it via the subwoofer, I’m theoretically reducing dynamics. But hey, its only 3-4dB, and I think the improvements (lessened room mode problems, easier load for speakers) could be well worth it. I still have a long way to go and the response is far from ideal, but thats a long story for another article.

I then started playing music.

As with any good subwoofer, Orchestral Music took on an increased sense of scale and weight. The soundstage also seemed larger. Without the SVS, my little speakers seemed dwarfed by the large room and large orchestras sounded like Chamber Ensembles (but hey, I like Chamber Ensembles too). Brahms Symphony No.1 (one of my favourites – the recent Telarc version) is a useful test because it starts with a Timpani J

What was unusual was that for a lot of recordings, I discovered additional depth and detail in the bass guitar line. Take for example, Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car where the bass guitar was playing plenty of low notes. I could hear them cleanly with the SVS. Similarly for other acoustic sets like Suzanne Vega’s Sessions at West 54^th. The SVS was better than my Strata II in this regard. Listening to uptempo recordings such as U2’s Joshua Tree (the excellent MoFi remaster with more bass than the standard CD J ), I didn’t think that the SVS lagged behind speedwise to the nimble RELs. Similarly, synthesised bass lines like in Sarah MacLachlan’s Afterglow kept pace with the rest of the music.

Whatever music I played through it (usually female singer-songwriters with guitars and classical music for me), the SVS gave the music an increased sense of scale and weight. My speakers seemed ‘larger’ for it. However, there are some CDs out there where the guitars are ‘larger than life’ (one particular played to death at certain hi-fi shops CD about checking into a Hotel comes to mind). This is exaggerated further by the SVS.

The SVS also exhibits admirable subtlety in making contributions in quieter passages as well. This is something that the RELs do very well and many don't.

For PURELY music, would I still get REL or SVS?

I still have a little soft spot in my heart for the agility and deftness of the RELs and its general politeness does serve music, especially classical music very well. However, once Home Theatre creeps into the equation, there is no contest. I will take SVS anytime, because in absolute terms, the SVS is a very good performer for music and just fantastic for Home Theatre. REL subs, even the Home Theatre oriented Q201 series, have no hope of competing with the SVS in the HT arena except for the smallest of listening rooms (I can't imagine myself finding the space to put the 25-31+ in my old 12' x 13' room). More of a comment on forward firing subs than on REL in particular, but when you push subs like the Q series hard, the bass becomes very obviously directional.

 

 

Other setups compared

How does the SVS plus my small speakers compare to say larger speakers like Joseph Audio Rm50si + biamped Conrad Johnson MF-2500s? The Joseph Audios are 20Hz +-1 dB and with 2 x 250 w amps biamped, they can deliver a very big sound. First off, the Joseph Audios sound more dynamic. Not much contest.

But heres a trick: because I can EQ and create a gently downward sloping bass curve (i.e., the lower bass is slightly up in volume), it gives the impression that the SVS is more extended and fuller in the bass (of course, at this early stage, the frequency response is far from 'gently sloping' but on its way there, hopefully).

Is EQ necessary?

If your main speakers do not have serious bass/midbass problems, then EQ is not really necessary for sub/mains integration. The crossover of the SVS can be set as low as 40Hz and coupled with a fully variable phase control, integration was really not a problem for me when I tried it without the DEQ (the bass problems of the main speakers remained though).

 

Conclusion

I don’t mean to be hard on REL, I use REL as a comparison because I’m rather familiar with REL subwoofers and they are still better subwoofers than many others on the market. Its just that SVS is better if you want to use the subwoofer for a mix of music and HT.

In absolute terms, the SVS 25-31 PC+ is fantastic value at US$775 plus US$125 shipping plus GST to Singapore. Frankly, because shipping is a fixed cost at US$125, its better to fork out a bit more over the slightly cheaper SVS 25-31 PCi. The remaining factor is whether you’re comfortable with ordering online. This is the first time I have ordered a piece of audio equipment without actually having seen or heard the item in real life, and it was worth it.

 

Afternote: Comments from SVS and my further thoughts

It was suggested out to me that even though I still preferred RELs for music (even then, pricewise the SVS is a clear winner), this may only be because the SVS sound is 'new' to me and that over time it may grow on me.

My response is yes, entirely possible. I notice that most reviews don't mention how a sub is voiced, because, I guess 'bass is bass'. However, when it comes to comparing an SVS to a REL, it seems clear that they are 'voiced' differently and dare I say, the one that sounds betters is not the one that measures better but ultimately the one that sounds better to you. To try and pin the voicing down is risky as I could actually be talking about the sound of the room rather than the sub, so with that caveat in mind: SVS is harder hitting and extended while REL has a slight 'roundness' in the notes which makes it 'polite'. Depending on your tastes in audio reproduction and your choice of music, you may way prefer the SVS for music.

This may well mean that the REL is slightly more forgiving if you hit a room mode. If you hit a room mode with the SVS, its going to be far more obtrusive. This is where the Behringer Feedback Destroyer (or your choice of EQ) becomes very useful I suppose.

The End?

Anyway, I'll carry on listening and continue to tweak the EQ. I haven't even EQ-ed the SVS for Home Theatre yet because it already sounds fantastic without EQ. I think EQ will make the SVS even better for HT. Will post further sonic discoveries here :)

 

 

Ok, if I turn the lights way down low, its not that obstrusive... maybe.

 

Oh yes, their website is www.svsubwoofers.com