Svs As-eq1 - Blade's Review, If you want to save money don't read this post! Options

[BladeRnR]

Gidday,

As promised here's my review of the SVS AS-EQ1. I have just finished some 4 hours of calibration and testing with both music and Movies (BD). I also finally implemented Audyssey on the Integra DHC-9.9 so now all channels are level matched to 75dB reference and have Audyssey Processing in place.

The Unit/Box

You've seen the box pictures and contents in other threads so I won't belabor the point here. Suffice it to say all cables have excellent length, the most important being the Audyssey Microphone itself which is some 6+ meters long. The unit ships in an outer shipping box and foam packed inner box. It could happily be dropped from several meters with no adverse effects. Whilst the AVS review suggested it wasn't that heavy a unit I'd have to disagree. For a Non-Processor Non-Amplification unit I find it very well built and @ around 5 kg's I wouldn't exactly class it as being light for what it does. The magnetic (detachable) facia plate is really innovative and nicely covers the 2 Power/System Status lights to the Left/Right of the unit. With the facia in place these lights are not at all distracting and offer a subtle but informative indication the unit is both on and doing what it was designed to do.

Setup & Calibration

I'd have to say the Software is just excellent. It holds your hand with breakout boxes explaining in detail what step you're up to and what each one is trying to achieve. If you read it all carefully you'll find it hard to make any mistakes. I installed it on Windows Vista (Boot Camp on a Macbook Pro). Once plugged into the USB Port the SVS was found without issue and Calibration could begin. In my case I used the Bypass Patch cable bypassing the Integra's own Audyssey for the Subwoofer channel and looping it back to the Integra so once complete the SVS Calibration could then utilize it's own processing. Once Integra Audyssey had completed (About 1 hour 8 positions) the SVS Calibration Microphone was then plugged in and measurement could begin. I chose not to level match the Satellites as I'd prefer to use a Radio Shack meter for that purpose. Thus I skipped straight to measuring the Subwoofer. I did however use the program to achieve reference level for the Subwoofer which is really accurate (Red you're out of bounds and Green you're in the 75dB sweet spot). You modify the Gain on your Subwoofer to achieve this (In the Fathom F13's case you must switch the Subwoofer from "Reference" to "Variable" for the Gain to be active).

I performed the whole task twice so I could remove any doubt the procedure (Or User) did not color the result. The initial graph upon completion of run #1 pretty much made my eyes pop out of my head. The Before/After graph will really appeal to those HT aficionados who need/have to know everything about why they are hearing what they are. Every room offers unique challenges as we all know and in my case I had a huge +10dB peak between 20Hz to 30Hz and after that it dropped off sharply from between 40Hz to 80Hz tapering off to 100Hz. Obviously both node problems (Peaks and troughs) combined for fairly horrible Bass response in my room which explained why I could find only one real "Sweet" spot in my room. I then performed the whole run again (Run #2).

Both runs were measured for a total of 16 positions within the listening area. I measured 2 rows of 4 positions @ both ear level and about 2 inches below that for the 'slouch in seat' factor. This is the recommended approach as stated in the procedure/manual. This took around 30 minutes. You can measure up 32 positions for a large room. The calibration sound the SVS uses is actually quite subtle so no huge booms or massive 10Hz pulses here to scare the crap out of you. This is in stark contract to the Fathom's own (Primitive by comparison) A.R.O parametric system which threatens to shake your house apart at every opportunity during calibration. Once completed you can "View results" in an HTML style document (And can be saved in several document formats). You can then either choose to temporarily upload the result to the SVS or Permanently do so if you're happy with the results. You then input the Distance & Trim settings presented to you by the SVS tests into your Pre/Pro (Feet or Meters it's your choice). This is not just physical distance but electrical delay as well. I could tell little difference between the 2 runs looking at the graphs which means both Mic position and background noise were perfect. Once saved to the SVS it's says "Thanks - Calibration complete" and you can unplug the Microphone.

I then Calibrated Reference levels for all speakers (Except the Subwoofer as it's performed already by the program) to be certain everything was correct.

Looking at the Before/After graphs is of course only half the story. It was time for the "Taste Test" and to fire up the ASi OPPO DV-983H for some SACD action and the Sony BDP-S5000ES for BD.

Listening Tests

I don't want to appear too over the top here but seriously....FMD. Before calibration the Bass was boomy and bloated due to room acoustics (Or lack thereof), standing waves and node issues. It's like somebody had rearranged the room while I was out shopping or something and had installed a raft of expensive acoustic treatments. The Bass is now there - everywhere - but has a distinct "Evenness" that no amount of Fathom A.R.O or physical movement of the Subwoofer could achieve. In food terms the Bass is now as rich as a good Tiramasu. The Bass no longer tries to push itself to the front of the frequency range queue. It's like a 7 foot tall bouncer who's cool, calm and collected (And polite) who knows what he's capable of but prefers to deal with a situation with due respect. No matter where I stood in the room the Bass response is the same. The Bouncer was there, casting his careful eye across the crowd, only intervening when and if he had to.

Now for the true test - Movies on BD.

Transformers - As anyone would know this is a benchmark BD. At the time of testing the missus came home and sat next to me. She knows the soundtrack well and always commented how the Bass was "Overpowering". Not anymore. There was that even distribution of Bass again - right across the room. Midrange and Treble are hugely improved as the Bass is now perfectly controlled and those ugly Peaks are now gone. Had somebody installed a new Subwoofer while I was away? Was I in a different room? Nope. I could not believe what the SVS AS-EQ1 had done for room response. I simply cannot locate the subwoofer eyes open or closed - that to me is just pure heaven yet the Slam and Subtle Bass harmonics (Now clearly discernible) hadn't gone anywhere. There's a great scene that is a really difficult Subwoofer test. Just as Bumblebee kicks away the last 2 cars and fires off his last 2 rounds whilst being towed by Megan Fox there's a massive Bass moment which I'm sure reaches down toward 15Hz if not less. I had never heard this properly until now and it was a real eyebrow raiser. Wow!

I also tested Dark Knight, Cars, Master & Commander & Wanted. No change - the Bass was there as the supporting cast, the gestalt upon which all great HT sound rests but no longer drawing attention to itself. I soon forgot about the Bass aspect of the system and just started to enjoy the sound as ONE entity instead of 5.1. The AS-EQ1 had done it's job and how. Where have you been all these years? Where were you in 1992? The room is now completely energized with Bass but it's now everywhere and includes "Degrees" of Bass which I have not heard except in dedicated rooms and real cinemas. Even the missus was mesmerized and said "What have you done - that sounds amazing?". That's coming from a non-Audiophile.

Conclusion

The SVS AS-EQ1 is a no-brainer. If you're sick of concentrating on your Bass wondering how to improve it instead of enjoying the movie you need this unit. If you're sick of everything in the house shaking even when it's not supposed to you need this unit. For $1400:00AUD the SVS AS-EQ1 will save you a lot of mucking around and outlay on room acoustics which of course are not always (rarely) WAF ready. Sound-wise I am absolutely wrapped with my system. The Paradigm's are now singing, The Fathom is not being run hot (It's the porridge that Goldilocks found "Just right") it's there doing its job but now being beautifully controlled. Sure there's the Velodyne SMS-1 which gives the user a chance to tweak themselves to the nth degree but seriously do you want to tweak or calibrate once/twice and crack a beer and kick back to enjoy your system? I can only say adding a second Subwoofer would improve the situation even further but as it stands I could never go back to a system that didn't have this thing installed. There's a lot of Snake Oil solutions out there for HT - this isn't one of them.

Buy one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheers

Blade

This post has been edited by BladeRnR: May 23 2009, 06:22 PM

[zorg]

awesome review blade I loved it looks like I might have to add this to the wishlist along with a new sub of course.

[:)]

good to see of benefit blade, as an owneer of a velo DD with the sms unit built in, I can tell you even with tweaking to hearts desire when running audyssey on my pre-pro does take to another level. words like organic and textured come to mind in regards the bass. by the sounds of what you describe what I like about this unit is that you can let the pre-pro do its audyssey thing for the rest of the spectrum and have this thing do its business to get the very best from the bass (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) yeah particularly helpfull as you say for the likes of us not really in the position to remodel the room for room issues or put in place heaps of treatments to try sort out inadequacies.

ps like the thread title, thank goodness not really got a empty slot in the rack or be wondering about one of these hehe

do wonder how this works with audyssey dyn eq and dyn vol and built in audyssey in the pre-pro. I imagine if you ran audyssey on the pre-pro once you had run audyssey using this thing. on the pre-pro it would hopefully see a pretty good bass response and only do minor touch up if anything ? and would be no different to audyssey on board the unit ?

[BladeRnR]

good to see of benefit blade, as an owneer of a velo DD with the sms unit built in, I can tell you even with tweaking to hearts desire when running audyssey on my pre-pro does take to another level. words like organic and textured come to mind in regards the bass. by the sounds of what you describe what I like about this unit is that you can let the pre-pro do its audyssey thing for the rest of the spectrum and have this thing do its business to get the very best from the bass (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) yeah particularly helpfull as you say for the likes of us not really in the position to remodel the room for room issues or put in place heaps of treatments to try sort out inadequacies.

ps like the thread title, thank goodness not really got a empty slot in the rack or be wondering about one of these hehe

do wonder how this works with audyssey dyn eq and dyn vol and built in audyssey in the pre-pro. I imagine if you ran audyssey on the pre-pro once you had run audyssey using this thing. on the pre-pro it would hopefully see a pretty good bass response and only do minor touch up if anything ? and would be no different to audyssey on board the unit ?

Al,

Yep this is a great unit for those (Most of us) that are forced to have their HT integrated into their living space and can't plaster their walls with all manner of panels and Bass traps.

In regards to your question as to how the Pre/Pro sees the Bass component. When I setup the Auddysey on the Integra you see the Subwoofer light up in the pictorial view but the signal is fed back to it via the patch cable on the SVS AS-EQ1 so in effect it measures 'nothing' therefore Audyssey doesn't include this channel in it's final calculation (the 10Hz - 80Hz component is ignored). During the SVS setup you can level match the satellites by performing a level check (75dB reference) to the Subwoofer. You can do this for each of your 5 speakers but I chose to do this with Ye old faithful Radio Shack Meter. There's a Sat/Out port on the SVS which you connect to each of your Pre/Pro's Multichannel In's - you do this 5 times for each of your speakers or 7 for Ex. So the Pre/Pro Audyssey performs absolutely no adjustment to the Bass, sends the signal to the SVS where it is shaped accordingly with the filter you calibrated / uploaded to it. The patch cable effectively forces the Pre/Pro to 'ignore' the Bass since it's being fed back into the Pre/Pro (You don't even hear the test noise for the Bass channel - it just lights up in the picture). After the Pre/Pro the SVS is then free to perform it's magic in the 'Audyssey Pro' arena with the 'Sum' of the 2 calibrations essentially joined after it's all said and done. Final level calibration ensures everything integrates properly.

'Organic' and 'Textured' for sure - the Bass has now taken on it's own character whereas before it was simply a dull, lumbering beast walking blindly into walls.

Cheers

Blade

This post has been edited by BladeRnR: May 23 2009, 07:37 PM

[Simon10]

Great review. Despite our differences in the real world I do have 3 questions regarding your tests and in no way are they intented to undermine what you have done or dispute/question your findings:

1. Before implementing the SVS unit did you run Audyssey using the Integra (all 8 positions) and test the same material (SACD/BD's) that you used to test the Svs As-eq1 ?

2. Did you have to move the subwoofer at all to acquire the "Sweet" spot or was it left in the same postion?

3. What crossover did the Svs As-eq1 set the sub to? Is this adjustable via the OSD?

I appreciate as I'm sure all forum members will be for taking the time to report your findings for the Svs As-eq1.

Personally if your going to pick a scene in Transformers try the bit where just after Bonecrusher smashes through the bus there's a huge bass moment just before he clashes with Optimus. Also in the city where Ironhide flips trying to avoid the rockets being fired and the girl screeming and he flys overhead. 2 very bass heavy moments and is a great test for any bass junkie.

Enjoy

This post has been edited by Simon10: May 23 2009, 08:01 PM

[Franin]

Personally if your going to pick a scene in Transformers try the bit where just after Bonecrusher smashes through the bus there's a huge bass moment just before he clashes with Optimus. Also in the city where Ironhide flips trying to avoid the rockets being fired and the girl screeming and he flys overhead. 2 very bass heavy moments and is a great test for any bass junkie.

Enjoy

I agree, best moments in bass history.

[Franin]

Great review Blade!

[BladeRnR]

Great review Blade!

I know you didn't much like the SMS-1 or didn't have great success with it mate - get one of these. Seriously. It supports dual subwoofers and more importantly EQ's them SEPARATELY including the time domain (Which very few EQ's do - even high-end ones).

Drop Peter @ Deep Hz an E-mail as he said his initial shipment is selling 'very well' and it will be another 2 months before he gets his hands on more units.

Those JL Audio F112's of yours will really deliver after hooking this puppy into your system (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheers

Blade

[Franin]

I know you didn't much like the SMS-1 or didn't have great success with it mate - get one of these. Seriously. It supports dual subwoofers and more importantly EQ's them SEPARATELY including the time domain (Which very few EQ's do - even high-end ones).

Drop Peter @ Deep Hz an E-mail as he said his initial shipment is selling 'very well' and it will be another 2 months before he gets his hands on more units.

Those JL Audio F112's of yours will really deliver after hooking this puppy into your system (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheers

Blade

Subs sound great now but then again...

Blade what are you doing to me mate. Well Im going wait until my scope screen is up and then will look at it. I don't think wife will be impressed at them moment coming home with something else. I had to buy a JVC HD350 because and edge the VP50pro was becoming a pain in the ass.

This post has been edited by Franin: May 23 2009, 10:40 PM

[Simon10]

I e-mailed SVS regarding implementing one of these into a setup with passive subwooofer as I was unsure how to hook one up b/w the external power amp and the NAD pre-ro. I received a response and a link to this forum:


http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/svs...-goes-sale.html

Might help some others considering this unit.

This post has been edited by Simon10: May 25 2009, 10:35 AM

[BladeRnR]

HomeTheatreShack has a large thread in progress specifically for the SVS AS-EQ1 as well so you can also get USer impressions there:

HomeTheatreShack AS-EQ1 Thread

Cheers

Blade

[Spearmint]

Blade thanks for the great read.

I've decided to check one of these units out for myself, for the HT side; not the 2ch side of my integrated system.

It has been ordered, now just awaiting delivery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[BladeRnR]

Blade thanks for the great read.

I've decided to check one of these units out for myself, for the HT side; not the 2ch side of my integrated system.

It has been ordered, now just awaiting delivery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Fantastic Spearmint I'll be very keen indeed to see what you think of it given your significant knowledge in this area. And your love of Subwoofers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I watched Bladerunner and WALL-E last night. The system is sounding just spectacular. Somehow a 24" Dell monitor doesn't quite cut it for picture though (Especially form 7 meters away!).

Cheers

Blade

[yorac]

Having a tweak tonight or tomorrow night (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Spearmint]

Blade, can you tell me if the outputs of the unit are muted during power off/on?

[BladeRnR]

Blade, can you tell me if the outputs of the unit are muted during power off/on?

Yes I believe they are mate.

Blade

[Spearmint]

Yes I believe they are mate.

Blade

Thanks!

[MACCA350]

Hey Blade,
Just noticed that SVS have linked to your review(this thread) on their product page: Early reports from customers and reviewers around the world : Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, UK, USA

cheers

[Spearmint]

Hey Blade,
Just noticed that SVS have linked to your review(this thread) on their product page: Early reports from customers and reviewers around the world : Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, UK, USA

cheers

Well done Blade, just goes to show they do read the forums (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[BladeRnR]

Well done Blade, just goes to show they do read the forums (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah Minty and Macca - I knew that over the weekend as Peter from Deep HZ asked me if I minded if SVS linked to my review (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Of course I wasn't about to shout it from the rooftops but yeah...pretty cool, and does show how much stock they put in User reviews! After all - it's cheap advertising for them!

Cheers

Blade