I wrote a post about this yesterday but it seems to have vanished
but google cache to the rescue and here is the post again:
Ok so after building myself a modest home cinema I was extremely happy with it, until I watched a movie and realized there was some serious chuffing going on
I use a macbook pro as a HTPC, and my amp is a denon 1910, speakers are some quite large technics speakers for the fronts, tibo edge mini for the rears, and an eltax centre, subwoofer is a powered yamaha from a home theatre package.
I tested this sub at my parents house with their yamaha 775 and it sounded great, no chuffing.
But when I took it over to my house and set it up I get chuffing- my dad's speakers are floor standers though so they can produce the bass without the sub needed, so perhaps i'm just asking too much from my subwoofer in my own set up, with smaller front speakers?
the subwoofer is on the front wall between the 2 speakers, 1/3 from the right wall and 2/3 from the left- it's front ported and facing into the room.
I set everything up with the audyysey mic, and the strange thing is that i only get chuffing when audyysey eq, and dynamic eq are enabled- turn those off and the chuffing goes away, although so does the bass- which leads me to believe the bass is just set too high for the subwoofer to handle (and that when the EQ is on, that's how it should sound- corrected for the room). But I can't live with the chuffing, nor can I live with turning down the bass. I guess a solution would be to:
A) buy a bigger/better subwoofer that can handle those low frequencies without chuffing
I was looking at a cheap paradigm model
B) move it into the corner to get more bass output, but I like where it is now aesthetically, and it sounds really good for music, not boomy at all- in fact it sounds fantastic! Moving the subwoofer would mean i'd have to buy a much longer sub cable though, and if the right solution was to buy a better sub in the same position, i'd rather save my money
It only happens with frequencies under 40hz, I used some test tones and between 20 and 28hz it chuffs a lot, and a little bit between 30 and 40, after 40 it's ok. In music it never goes this low, and in films it's rare but annoying, so I was thinking until I get a better/bigger sub I could just cut out the low frequencies. There's no filter options on the sub, but I figured out how to route the audio from my mac through a software EQ to take out all frequencies below 40hz- chuffing problem solved but unfortunately the DTS/DD coding gets screwed up when going through the EQ so it comes out as stereo. If there was a way to apply eq to the coded signal that would be perfect, but I suspect not and i'm not looking for a mac solution anymore as i'm building a windows based HTPC, but i'm still going to look for a software solution on windows, unless there is a pretty cheap external filter I could either make, or buy? But it would have to be very cheap as i'd rather save up for a better subwoofer. I tried stuffing with socks, but it still chuffs, just muffled...and it sounds even worse to be honest
after running it through the software EQ I honestly couldn't hear much difference in music or films between the normal, and the filtered signal (except that the chuffing vanished), so clearly my sub can't play those frequencies anyway and i'm way better off just removing them totally. I guess a bigger/better sub, that didn't chuff at those low frequencies would be noticeably better?
If I do get another sub though, I am quite concerned for how it will work with music, the yamaha does music so well, i'm concerned if I got a more 'cinema' style subwoofer, where the bass was much stronger, much deeper, that might be too much for music- so I could run 2 subwoofers, and have the new sub next to the sofa at the back of the room, turn it off for music, turn it on for extra bass in games and films? Or maybe a better sub would be much improved for music too, and I should forget/get rid of my old sub?
but google cache to the rescue and here is the post again:
Ok so after building myself a modest home cinema I was extremely happy with it, until I watched a movie and realized there was some serious chuffing going on
I use a macbook pro as a HTPC, and my amp is a denon 1910, speakers are some quite large technics speakers for the fronts, tibo edge mini for the rears, and an eltax centre, subwoofer is a powered yamaha from a home theatre package.
I tested this sub at my parents house with their yamaha 775 and it sounded great, no chuffing.
But when I took it over to my house and set it up I get chuffing- my dad's speakers are floor standers though so they can produce the bass without the sub needed, so perhaps i'm just asking too much from my subwoofer in my own set up, with smaller front speakers?
the subwoofer is on the front wall between the 2 speakers, 1/3 from the right wall and 2/3 from the left- it's front ported and facing into the room.
I set everything up with the audyysey mic, and the strange thing is that i only get chuffing when audyysey eq, and dynamic eq are enabled- turn those off and the chuffing goes away, although so does the bass- which leads me to believe the bass is just set too high for the subwoofer to handle (and that when the EQ is on, that's how it should sound- corrected for the room). But I can't live with the chuffing, nor can I live with turning down the bass. I guess a solution would be to:
A) buy a bigger/better subwoofer that can handle those low frequencies without chuffing
I was looking at a cheap paradigm model
B) move it into the corner to get more bass output, but I like where it is now aesthetically, and it sounds really good for music, not boomy at all- in fact it sounds fantastic! Moving the subwoofer would mean i'd have to buy a much longer sub cable though, and if the right solution was to buy a better sub in the same position, i'd rather save my money
It only happens with frequencies under 40hz, I used some test tones and between 20 and 28hz it chuffs a lot, and a little bit between 30 and 40, after 40 it's ok. In music it never goes this low, and in films it's rare but annoying, so I was thinking until I get a better/bigger sub I could just cut out the low frequencies. There's no filter options on the sub, but I figured out how to route the audio from my mac through a software EQ to take out all frequencies below 40hz- chuffing problem solved but unfortunately the DTS/DD coding gets screwed up when going through the EQ so it comes out as stereo. If there was a way to apply eq to the coded signal that would be perfect, but I suspect not and i'm not looking for a mac solution anymore as i'm building a windows based HTPC, but i'm still going to look for a software solution on windows, unless there is a pretty cheap external filter I could either make, or buy? But it would have to be very cheap as i'd rather save up for a better subwoofer. I tried stuffing with socks, but it still chuffs, just muffled...and it sounds even worse to be honest
after running it through the software EQ I honestly couldn't hear much difference in music or films between the normal, and the filtered signal (except that the chuffing vanished), so clearly my sub can't play those frequencies anyway and i'm way better off just removing them totally. I guess a bigger/better sub, that didn't chuff at those low frequencies would be noticeably better?
If I do get another sub though, I am quite concerned for how it will work with music, the yamaha does music so well, i'm concerned if I got a more 'cinema' style subwoofer, where the bass was much stronger, much deeper, that might be too much for music- so I could run 2 subwoofers, and have the new sub next to the sofa at the back of the room, turn it off for music, turn it on for extra bass in games and films? Or maybe a better sub would be much improved for music too, and I should forget/get rid of my old sub?