Smurfin
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2002
- Messages
- 22,503
- Reaction score
- 5,420
- Points
- 4,193
After 6 weeks eek: ) Bax Global finally turned up today with my SVS PB2-Plus, which scared me when I saw how big the palette was (yes, you read right, palette ).
The sub itself dwarfs a single Servo-15, being much much deeper and higher, but the same in width. You've all seen the pics from the website and from other SVS threads, so you'll know roughly what it looks like; but I was struck at how solid - but industrial - it looks. I certainly wouldn't want it in my living room unless I could hide it well enough, the finish is too rough for my liking (I'm thinking of the WAF factor). But one thing is for sure...these subs are built to last. And it was a real bitch moving it into place on my own....
Anyway, out went one of the Servos and in its place went the SVS. I made sure I had a good listening session of my favourite demo discs before the SVS arrived, so everything was fresh in my mind.
For those of you who may remember some of my older threads, I suffer from a huuuge dip in frequency response between 63hz - 40hz, such that I've need to apply 8 filters including ones of up to +10db. With twin servos I'd managed to flatten the response to this:
You can see from the pic how bad the in-room response was before the filters were applied, but it has nagged at me for a while the effect of having so many + filters in there. It may be psychological, but a part of me thinks the Servos strain occasionally.
Anyway, the first thing I was curious about was how the PB-2 reacted to the room with no filters used. Unsurprisingly the response was almost identical to the Servos...major problem with a nasty dip. So I engaged the filters again, but revisited them and reduced the two biggest ones so that the maximum amount of gain is +6. I've rechecked the frequency response and it's not quite as smooth as it was before, but still pretty close.
After doing this and before setting up the PB-2 properly I put both Servos back into place and played around with a couple of discs - yep, sounding great, no different in fact, and I didn't notice the change in frequency response.
So back to the PB-2....
After setting it up (one port blocked - with a stuffed sock as my port bungs are missing! - and tuned to 20hz) and calibrating it - I'm running -2db below the other channels (used to run the dual servos -4db), I've put some of my favourite demo sequences through the system to test its mettle.
Discs include:
Monster Inc R1 DD (opening scene, and later on in the film in the "door warehouse")
Titan AE R1 DTS (Ice Field sequence)
Jurassic Park 3 R1 dts (Plane crash, dino fight)
Matrix Reloaded R1 DD (Opening sequence, Trinity's slo-mo freefalling gunfight)
Master and Commander R2 dts (Opening battle).
First impressions?
WOW
Stonkingly clean, tight, low bass.
After warming up with some light stuff I played all of the scenes above @ -10db reference level. And the PB-2 laughed in the face of it all, and spat at even the most testing of sequences.
This is a monster sub, with real guts. I was worried about distortion being present (being used to Servo designs), but I needn't have worried; a single PB-2 Plus is just as clean as both of my Servos, and I'd say it even edges it in my room.
Is the PB-2 Plus better than a setup running Dual Servo-15s? Honestly, in my room there's not alot in it...but I would say that the PB-2 edges it. Most material that I've played sounds identical, but the PB-2 just has more of an "effortless" feel to it, with a punch that's a tad tighter and more controlled; it may be psychological of course (many of these things are imho, especially when you get to this level of subwoofer performance), but I've found the PB-2 has done nothing but make me grin since I first switched it on.
I'm off to play again, and tonight I'll also try some music with it (will be an interesting test), but so far it's a resounding
The sub itself dwarfs a single Servo-15, being much much deeper and higher, but the same in width. You've all seen the pics from the website and from other SVS threads, so you'll know roughly what it looks like; but I was struck at how solid - but industrial - it looks. I certainly wouldn't want it in my living room unless I could hide it well enough, the finish is too rough for my liking (I'm thinking of the WAF factor). But one thing is for sure...these subs are built to last. And it was a real bitch moving it into place on my own....
Anyway, out went one of the Servos and in its place went the SVS. I made sure I had a good listening session of my favourite demo discs before the SVS arrived, so everything was fresh in my mind.
For those of you who may remember some of my older threads, I suffer from a huuuge dip in frequency response between 63hz - 40hz, such that I've need to apply 8 filters including ones of up to +10db. With twin servos I'd managed to flatten the response to this:
You can see from the pic how bad the in-room response was before the filters were applied, but it has nagged at me for a while the effect of having so many + filters in there. It may be psychological, but a part of me thinks the Servos strain occasionally.
Anyway, the first thing I was curious about was how the PB-2 reacted to the room with no filters used. Unsurprisingly the response was almost identical to the Servos...major problem with a nasty dip. So I engaged the filters again, but revisited them and reduced the two biggest ones so that the maximum amount of gain is +6. I've rechecked the frequency response and it's not quite as smooth as it was before, but still pretty close.
After doing this and before setting up the PB-2 properly I put both Servos back into place and played around with a couple of discs - yep, sounding great, no different in fact, and I didn't notice the change in frequency response.
So back to the PB-2....
After setting it up (one port blocked - with a stuffed sock as my port bungs are missing! - and tuned to 20hz) and calibrating it - I'm running -2db below the other channels (used to run the dual servos -4db), I've put some of my favourite demo sequences through the system to test its mettle.
Discs include:
Monster Inc R1 DD (opening scene, and later on in the film in the "door warehouse")
Titan AE R1 DTS (Ice Field sequence)
Jurassic Park 3 R1 dts (Plane crash, dino fight)
Matrix Reloaded R1 DD (Opening sequence, Trinity's slo-mo freefalling gunfight)
Master and Commander R2 dts (Opening battle).
First impressions?
WOW
Stonkingly clean, tight, low bass.
After warming up with some light stuff I played all of the scenes above @ -10db reference level. And the PB-2 laughed in the face of it all, and spat at even the most testing of sequences.
This is a monster sub, with real guts. I was worried about distortion being present (being used to Servo designs), but I needn't have worried; a single PB-2 Plus is just as clean as both of my Servos, and I'd say it even edges it in my room.
Is the PB-2 Plus better than a setup running Dual Servo-15s? Honestly, in my room there's not alot in it...but I would say that the PB-2 edges it. Most material that I've played sounds identical, but the PB-2 just has more of an "effortless" feel to it, with a punch that's a tad tighter and more controlled; it may be psychological of course (many of these things are imho, especially when you get to this level of subwoofer performance), but I've found the PB-2 has done nothing but make me grin since I first switched it on.
I'm off to play again, and tonight I'll also try some music with it (will be an interesting test), but so far it's a resounding