Subwoofer EQs - what does good look like?

For what its worth, I have found that all sub EQ's only do half of what really needs to be done. Yes, they are an effective tool to get the sub sounding great to the room. I'm not challenging that at all. Have you ever considered a Velodyne SMS-1? I ask because I have had seamless integration with these units.

In a nutshell, what they do is [with a seemingly infinite array of custom or automatic settings] blend the mains to the sub and then both of them to the room. Of course since you can't make chicken soup out of chicken droppings, you are going to have to start out with proper placement of both in the room. The Sumiko setup can help with the mains and the typical placement of the sub in the listening spot and crawling around the room can help to achieve a location [for one or more subs] for optimum sub placement to your preference. After this has been done, the SMS-1 can make the entire system and room integrated as one. Instead of just blending the sub into the room.

Many times with a sub that had a 12" and a 15" active woofer along with a 15" passive sub in one inclosed unit [wired in mono and separately amplified] , folks would require that I take the cover off the sub because they swore up and down that the sub wasn't on, that they would be able to hear it. All I had to do was turn the SMS-1 off and they would discover that it was in fact on. What followed was the questions that typically started with "how'd you do that"?

It is not the easiest of gear to operate to sonic perfection but there are many avenues of help that are available. I'm sure that there is a learning curve with any software or other sub EQ products but it's not anything that you need to have a degree from MIT to properly integrate. It may not be the best available out there but two of these units either refurbed or on the used market will properly integrate two subs in stereo. One SMS-1 unit will only do a mono sub signal but as many as 3 or 4 [I forget] subs can be hooked up to the one unit. For just a little more coin over your 1K budget, you can purchase them new. I hope this helps.

I apologize, I am not familiar with the Behringer DCX-2496 so I really can not comment. If it blends the mains to the sub and then both the mains and the sub(s) to the room, then I suppose that they are similar. From briefly looking at this page http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DCX2496.aspx I see that one main difference is that the Behringer does not offer RCA inputs and unless I missed it, it doesn't correct either the sub or mains to the room. It appears as if it is an active crossover that the user via the software can manually change things and I must admit, this unit has a plethora of really nice features.

That said, I don't believe that this actually records the frequencies allowing the user to subsequently adjust the parameters within the unit for the listening position. I could be incorrect but I didn't see anything that would suggest that it did. With the SMS-1, you take a mic and put it on a stand. Let it do the sweeps on both the subs and at the same time the mains. When you first get it, there is an "easy" button and the unit will automatically adjust the parameters for you. However this is not the preferred method. It's a great starting point to see what the unit does before you move along but the unit is capable of doing so much more.

Here is a review if you would like to familiarize yourself a bit more with the unit http://www.prillaman.net/sms1_review.html

The best way to learn what this does is not to read the horribly written manual but rather to download and print out the Outlaw's guide to the SMS-1 linked here http://pdf.outlawaudio.com/outlaw/docs/sms1guide.pdf You might want to brew a pot of coffee before you start reading, though.

I have found that for the best results, place the mic in different locations around the listening position and not just in one spot. This means above and below the listening position, in front of and behind as well as L to R of the listening position. I usually did the sweeps in the various locations about a foot away from the listening position. Take the average and customize everything to make it sound the best. This unit has so many options [read about them in the Outlaw guide linked above] that options are seemingly infinite. The good news is that once you are completely satisfied with blending your subs to the mains and both to the room, you won't have to worry about doing it again unless you just want to try out another preset you had entered when say, going from music to a movie. I usually just kept it on the one optimized preset and turned the volume on the sub up or down.

You have to have the test tones go through your rig via the preamplifier and once the sweeps are done, they do not need to stay in the input, however it is convenient to do so when you first start playing with it and making adjustments. The most important thing that you have to be 100% positive of is that the mains AND the sub are both operating when doing the sweeps. I can not stress that enough! Oh, one more thing. In my old listening room, I did not have a TV. I had to go get a portable DVD player that had a video input in order to see the frequencies and make adjustments. If you have a TV at or near your rig, this will not be of any concern.

Eh, might as well throw this out there as well. A little bit of discovered trivial poop never hurts. I found through experimentation that raising the front firing Tyler Acoustic subs I have now increases the visceral impact, raises the sound stage and made the sound of said subs better. Being able to tell exactly where each drum is in the sound stage is no longer something that I have to strain to identify. You results may vary but in my case, it was a wonderful tweak. My subs currently reside on Target audio stands and the woofers are within an inch or two of the tweeter.

LOR, using your ears for final adjustments is something I should have mentioned. Very good point.

Nyal Mellor, have you made any progress on your inquiry?