The CHT-15 - my thoughts

-Spike-

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Having just taken delivery of this sub and with the current debate in this section I thought I'd post "my view"..

In May of this year the conversion of our integral garage was finished, this was a dream come true for me to have my own dedicated room with projector.
Several months passed and while being really happy with the image something was lacking in the audio dept.

I've been really happy with my Ruark Vita 100 sats' fed by my Denon 3801 but with the increase in size of image and now in a larger room there was just not enough "oomph" from the Ruark sub.

So the search began...
Now (IMO) magazine reviews cannot always be relied upon, I believe the best recommendation comes from owner's themselves i.e. this forum and it's members.

So along came the Powerbuys, Uncle Eric and the Velodyne CHT-15. Various purchasers had given their views. I was impressed. This was the one for me. I had to have it.
Last Thursday "the beast" was delivered to my door...this thing is big, really big and I must admit to having a little trouble getting it out of the box :blush:

Onto setting up, took one look at all the dials and knobs and called for help (thanks Eric!).
Now up and almost running, volume set to 4 and now the phase - set to music - out came the underused DTS music disc.
The first thing that sruck me was how precise this sub is, it's in and out just when it should be unlike my Ruark which would rumble on a little, it's spot on and seems so effortless. In turn my sats' seemed clearer as well. Shall definitely be listening to more music in future.

Now for the films..
Tried almost everything I had including the usuals - U571, Gladiator, Titan AE, LOTR, Crossroads etc
WOW this goes deep, real deep. It provides such power and presence filling my room with a clean gut wrenching, stomach tingling, trouser flapping experience - I was amazed - actually feeling bass as well as hearing it, each film sounded so much better than before. As in the music test my sats' sounded different, somehow clearer, everything had become so much more enveloping as well. Even the gf said it sounded great - praise indeed!

I'm very very happy with the CHT-15 it's totally changed the way my films and music sound.

My Aunt Flo always used to say, "Steve , big isn't always better"

:blush:
Well Aunt Flo I'm afraid you're wrong this time.

Any negatives? well yes one, the fact that I had to come to work today!

Uncle Eric - thank you.
Best wishes
 
Steve,
I agree with everything you say. This is a stunning bit of kit.
The thing that swayed me was their total reliability. I've seen loads of posts about paradigms breaking down and have not seen a single post relating to any CHT15 breakdowns.

Before I bought the Velodyne, I foolishly gave the paradigm the benefit of the doubt and bought one anyways.
My worst fears came true when this thing tried to set fire to itself. Richer sounds messed me around for ages after that. So much so that I shoved the thing into my car and took it back demanding my money on the spot.

I've had my CHT15 for a while now and can honestly say its the best thing I've ever bought for my home cinema system. Brilliant.
 
Hi Steve,

Good to hear from a fellow owner.

can honestly say its the best thing I've ever bought for my home cinema system. Brilliant.

Yes and in addition to above it's just one thing that improves so much of my existing kit.

Regards
 
Spikey,

Glad your enjoying your new toy. ;)

Everything you have mentioned I can relate to, it is excatly what I found, the rest of the system just opened up, all very clean and bright.

This sub will never compete with the big boys, but it will compete with subs nearly twice it's price, but to be honest that's not why I bought it, I don't care about all the figures that are mentioned here, these just go straight over my head, whoooosh......there goes another one, that was 8Hz from a 10" driver and 100w amp. :rolleyes:

What I bought/have is a sub that delivers deep/clean bass that complements my system. I'm one happy bunny. :D
 
I don't care about all the figures that are mentioned here

Totally agree Bob.
The CHT-15 sounds fantastic to me, I'm well chuffed.

:D
All the best
 
Fellas, can I ask what speakers your CHT-15 are complimenting?

Thanks,

Jon
 
Originally posted by Boink!
Fellas, can I ask what speakers your CHT-15 are complimenting?

Thanks,

Jon
I'm using - Polk Audios - RT600i's, CS400i, RT25i's.
 
Originally posted by Boink!
Fellas, can I ask what speakers your CHT-15 are complimenting?


Im using M&K's K-Series !!
Bet that instigates a response.............:D

Cheers
Kev
 
Fellas, can I ask what speakers your CHT-15 are complimenting?

Different here as well - Ruark Vita 100 sats'.

Regards
 
Hi Spikey (or Eric),
Just received mine today and have been playing with it briefly and would like to check my settings are roughly right.

Did you leave it on "audio" setting when playing films? Is volume number 4 a universal setting? (shame the markings don't go to "11"!)
Have you set all your speakers to "small", diverted all bass to the CHT 15 and switched the sub's onboard x-over to "out"?

If so and this is all correct then I can't believe how easy the sub is to set up!

The seismic charge scene in SW Ep2 is awesome, but it is getting too late to play anything at anywhere near reference level.

Even at this early stage I can tell this sub kicks my old REL Strata into the stone age.

I too was inclined to try the Servo 15 route, but the poor service I received over the phone from RS was enough to put me off. They tried so hard to sell me the £269 Paradigm PS 1200 as being "good enough". How the hell did they know?!

Anyway that and the worrying number of posts on this forum reporting delivery problems and transformer failures, not to mention the X30 dilemma, convinced me to email Eric and so far I'm very pleased. It's trouser-leg-shaking-tastic!

Thank God for halls-adjoining Victorian semis...

Oh and FYI, my speakers are B&W CDM7 SEs, CDM SE centre and DS6 surrounds.
 
Originally posted by godzilla
Hi Spikey (or Eric),
Just received mine today and have been playing with it briefly and would like to check my settings are roughly right.
Did you leave it on "audio" setting when playing films? Is volume number 4 a universal setting? (shame the markings don't go to "11"!)
Have you set all your speakers to "small", diverted all bass to the CHT 15 and switched the sub's onboard x-over to "out"?

If so and this is all correct then I can't believe how easy the sub is to set up!

The seismic charge scene in SW Ep2 is awesome, but it is getting too late to play anything at anywhere near reference level.
Yep, seems like you've got it nailed. Most folks end up around 3-4. Glad you're enjoying the sub. Have fun.
Regards
Eric
 
So what is the difference between "audio" and "video" settings and why is "audio" still the best setting for movies?
 
You're welcome.
One of them, video I think, mearly boosts the output by a few decibels. This is largely irrelevent as you will calibrate the out-put to reference whether in whatever setting.
Jase and Bob are the CHT-15 experts around here so lets see what they say.
 
Originally posted by godzilla
So what is the difference between "audio" and "video" settings and why is "audio" still the best setting for movies?

As Eric has mentioned, the Video setting boosts the output by around 3 or 4db. It seems to be at around 50/60hz as well, though I´m not 100% on that. The Audio setting appears (to me!) to give a smoother response.
 
As Uncle Eric says, "seems like you've got it nailed". :D

I too set the sub up with Audio selected, but apart from that the only difference is that in addition to using the amps xover I have selected in for the subs xover.

Don't forget to run it in. ;)
 
Bob,
I was told by Eric that leaving both the amp and the subs x-overs on would "conflict" with each other, can you explain your thinking behind it?

I must admit the amp doesn't have much in the way of adjustment, just "small" or "large" for the speakers and "all to the sub" or "main and sub".

This, of course, could be a good thing as I prefer to do less fiddling more listening!

thanks for your help,

p.s. what is the recommended way to "run it in"? What are the benefits of doing so as the manual doesn't mention anything about it?
 
Hi all,

Mine is set up the same as everyone else except for Bob's, where I have my subs xover set to out.
Mind you I did have to ask Eric in the first instance...

:blush:

p.s. what is the recommended way to "run it in"? What are the benefits of doing so as the manual doesn't mention anything about it?

If it is really necessary just to break this "son of" in, then I think music's probably a good start.
That's all I did anyway...

Over to the guys in the know.
Hope you enjoy the sub as much as me godzilla.

Regards
 
Originally posted by godzilla

I was told by Eric that leaving both the amp and the subs x-overs on would "conflict" with each other, can you explain your thinking behind it?


If they are set at the same crossover setting yes. i.e amp at 80hz and sub crossover at 80hz. Bobs is fixed by the amp (80hz) and he has the crossover on the sub set to MAX, so no conflict. Try each way and stick with what sounds best to you.

On mine, I have the amps crossover set to FIXED/THX (80hz) and the sub on the crossover switched out, subs volume is set to around 3/4.
 
Originally posted by godzilla
Bob,
I was told by Eric that leaving both the amp and the subs x-overs on would "conflict" with each other, can you explain your thinking behind it?

Decided on this setting after reading the section in the manual where it states better results may be obtained, (my speakers are set to small, amps xover 80Hz, subs xover 120Hz and in selected).

My other thought was, what do you do when speakers are set to small? You set subs xover to max. My understaning of this is there's no guarantee that the sub will receive the precise frequencies that's selected/sent via the amps xover, so you select max to make sure the frequencies will be covered. So does the subs xover still remain active? Why select max if it doesn't? So many questions. :D Thought that with all the not knowing selecting the in option covered all the bases. :)

Would love to hear Erics views on this.
 
Well, it was Eric who recommended me to switch the subs x-over to "out". I would have thought that would mean it would accept any signals the amp decides to send it and the fewer x-overs in the loop the better.

Another question, have you all stuck the little feet on the bottom? I have a fairly thick carpet and have left the feet off at the moment to aid moving the thing around but is that substantially softening up the response or cause any other probs?
 
Originally posted by godzilla

Another question, have you all stuck the little feet on the bottom?

Nope, left mine off. Its just sat on the carpet.
 
Originally posted by godzilla
Well, it was Eric who recommended me to switch the subs x-over to "out". I would have thought that would mean it would accept any signals the amp decides to send it and the fewer x-overs in the loop the better.

Have tried both settings and TBO can't hear any difference.

Originally posted by godzilla


Another question, have you all stuck the little feet on the bottom? I have a fairly thick carpet and have left the feet off at the moment to aid moving the thing around but is that substantially softening up the response or cause any other probs?
Haven't attached mine either.

They did come in handy though, placed them under the sky box, now have better venitlation, it was getting rather hot on top of the cable box. :D
 
thanks for the advice guys, that's what makes this forum worthwhile IMO.

Good point about using the feet for other things, I decided to wedge something under the front edge of the centre speaker (which now has to sit near the floor) to aim the tweeter nearer my ears; they could be just the thing!

Any more thoughts about running them in? Why and how?
 

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