Subwoofers—including the Digital Drive 18+'s predecessor, the DD-18, and the Revel Ultima SUB-30—first tackled the problem of room optimization by displaying the room response on a PC and having the user adjust virtual sliders. More recently, JL Audio's Fathom f113 and Fathom f212, removed the user from the setup…
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Subwoofer technology is moving fast, with automated room equalization and system integration now a reality. A wave of new products has appeared in the past five years, all using different approaches to solving the problems of optimizing subwoofer response in listening rooms.
The Quad ESL-989s sat 8' apart, 5' from the front wall, and 3' from the sidewalls, slightly toed-in toward my listening chair, and were driven by a Mark Levinson No.334 solid-state amplifier. The DD-18+ was driven from the auxiliary outputs of my Bryston BP-26 preamplifier via two 6m-long, balanced, line-level cables.
I loaded Velodyne's Digital Drive Plus Windows Interface Setup software on my laptop. I removed the DD-18+'s grille in order to connect the Velodyne's USB cable from the mini-USB port on the front of the sub to one of my laptop's USB ports. I then plugged the calibration…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered subwoofer in sealed enclosure with remote control. Drive-unit: 18" forward-firing fiberglass Rohacell-laminate cone with 3" voice-coil and 39.7-lb magnet. Inputs: front panel, USB, microphone (mini XLR); rear panel, mono LFE (RCA), R&L balanced XLR and RCA, Ethernet, RS-232, IR, 12V trigger, speaker (bare wire, banana plugs, or spade lugs). Outputs: rear panel, line-level pass-through (RCA & XLR), high-pass output (RCA & XLR), video output (RCA), RS-232, S-video. Front-panel controls: Volume, Crossover, Auto EQ. Rear-panel…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Ittok tonearm; Spectral cartridge; Day-Sequerra FM Reference Signature tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player; Bryston BDP-1 digital transport with USB-2 flash drives, external USB hard drive; Bryston BDA-1 D/A converter; Netgear WN-350 wireless router connected to BDP-1 via Ethernet.
Preamplifier: Bryston BP-26.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson ML-2 (monoblocks), No.334, No.27.5.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989; B&W DB1, JL Audio Fathom f113, Velodyne DD-18…
Sidebar 3: Velodyne's Windows Setup Program for the DD-18+
Velodyne's room-management software, Digital Drive Plus (Windows only), uses two main screens to run the DD-18+'s automatic equalization routines. First is the Frequency Response and Parameter screen. This is split into two windows, the first displaying the room's frequency-response curve, the second showing the parametric EQ graph. To the right of the two screens is a dialog box that lists adjustments of volume, low-pass crossover frequency, subsonic filter frequency, subsonic filter slope, phase, and polarity. Just below the…
As a young music lover, I never knew there were such things as separate preamplifiers, amplifiers, and FM tuners. All I knew was that if I wanted to play music from my CD player, hook up my VCR to my stereo, or listen to the radio, I needed that magical device: a receiver. It was all I ever wanted.
It's my guess that many folks out there want good sound but can't be bothered with separates. All those folks know when they walk into a store or look online is that they need a receiver. And in this digital age, when many people listen to music from their computers, a receiver with a good…
Hi-rez rock, too, sounded great through headphones and the C7R. My download from HDtracks of a 24-bit version of U2's Achtung Baby sounded about as good as I've heard it. Although the new remastering of this classic 1991 album helps the sound, the limitations of the source tape were made apparent through the C7R and my Sennheisers. However, my headphone/C7R experience was heightened by the arrival of DH Labs' Silver Sonic USB cable, which clarified and extended the treble, reduced its grain, and fleshed out the midrange and bass in ways I hadn't anticipated. The result was greater…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state FM receiver with four S/PDIF digital input (two coaxial, ywo Toslink), two pairs of analog inputs (one phono, one line), one pair of line-level analog outputs, and two pairs of loudspeaker terminals. Maximum output power at 1% THD: 120Wpc into 4 ohms (17.8dBW), 60Wpc into 8 ohms (17.8dBW). Minimum load: 3 ohms per channel. Peak output current: 30 amperes. Frequency response: 1.5Hz–90kHz, ±3dB, into 4 ohms. THD+N: 0.003%, 1W, 1kHz, 4 ohms. Line input impedance: 11k ohms. Phono input impedance: 47k ohms in parallel with 150pF. Phono input…
Sidebar 2: Associated equipment
Digital Sources: Benchmark DAC1 HDR; Bel Canto e.One CD2 transport, e.One DAC 3.5VB Mk.II DAC, e.One VBS1 power supply; Sony Vaio laptop running JRiver Media Center 17, Bel Canto Light Link USB-S/PDIF bridge, Centrance DACmini D/A headphone amp.
Analog Sources: Clearaudio Ovation turntable & tonearm, Clearaudio Talisman V2 cartridge.
Phono Preamplifier: Clearaudio Basic+.
Power Amplifiers: Rogue Audio M180 monoblocks, Audio Research Reference 150.
Loudspeakers: Revel Performa F30.
Headphones: Sennheiser HD600.
Cables: Digital:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It") to measure the Bel Canto C7R's analog and digital inputs. To test the C7R as a digital processor and phono preamplifier, I took the measurements from the Line Output jacks. (I didn't test the FM tuner's performance.) Because the C7R has a class-D output stage, the presence of ultrasonic noise in its output might affect the Audio Precision analyzer's performance, so I placed an Audio Precision AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter…