Any Home theater guys playing with REW and miniDSP?

[DSG2003Mach1]

Decided to try and dial in my dual SVS PB2000s (not pros) using a umik1 mic, REW and a miniDSP 2x4 hd. Gotta say I’m getting my ass kicked, learning curve is steep but it’s starting to make sense.

I’ve been following home theater gurus YouTube guide

I will say the more I mess with it, I don’t like Yamaha and ypao compared to audyssey on the Marantz

 

[9397SVTs]

I have some experience with it. I have a Marantz.

I've spent hours messing with it. It can be frustrating, but stick with it and put in the time.

I think it's useful and worthwhile.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

I have some experience with it. I have a Marantz.

I've spent hours messing with it. It can be frustrating, but stick with it and put in the time.

I think it's useful and worthwhile.

I think I screwed up at the start - level matching the subs. I think I had the AVR volume set too high when bringing the subs to 75db, so now when the other speakers are turned up the subs have no punch at all.

Im gonna re-watch the level matching video and run through it all again from scratch

 

[CobraBob]

I'm really a novice in this area. Can you give me a short Cliffs Notes explanation of what you're looking to do and why? I'm interested in this stuff but like I said, I'm a definite novice. LOL. If it's too involved to explain, no worries.

 

[Evil Bender]

I use it at my house with a Yamaha pro rig . I love it .

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

I'm really a novice in this area. Can you give me a short Cliffs Notes explanation of what you're looking to do and why? I'm interested in this stuff but like I said, I'm a definite novice. LOL. If it's too involved to explain, no worries.

most receivers have room correction software - that little microphone you put in your sitting position. It will send test tones from each speaker to that mic and use that info to make little adjustments to volume and timing for each speaker. This way the sounds from each speaker reach you at the same time and approximately the same volume.

Obviously this has limits, especially when it comes to subwoofers. When you have multiple subs, even if the same make/model the room itself can cause fluctuations in what you hear and volume at various hz. The idea is to 1) make sure both subs are putting out the same volume at a given test tone 2) time align them so you get sound from both at the same time despite being different distances/room issues. it essentially gets you more output by combining the signals (you might literally see 2 subs putting out 75db individually register 80+ when played together).

MiniDSP is the company, the 2x4 HD has 2 inputs and 4 outputs. Im just using one subwoofer input to the device then 2 outputs (one to each sub). You hook it to your laptop and you can program/alter the signal being sent to each output, you make the changes based on measuring signals from a software like REW using a calibrated microphone like Umik-1 (you download a file specific to your serial number mic from the manufacturer even).


A good example in this first video he takes the mic and with no corrections to the subs moves it around the room and takes measurements - you can see that what each person would hear is radically different. Then at the end he does the same thing with everything calibrated and what everyone would hear is now super close to being the same.


to me, neither of these videos or series of videos is complete, they each have some things that are missing in the other...it's interesting but it does suck watching 3+ hours of how-to and I still made some mistakes as I was going. Definitely one of those things that just plan for there to be a sharp learning curve with plenty of trial and error. The nice thing is - you can't really hurt anything, just reset the 2x4 programming and do it over.

 

[TerminatoRS]

I'll be paying attention to this as you make progress.
I'm not using a DSP yet, but going through the basics first (phase/crossover/filter/levels...etc). Just revamped my whole setup and not getting what I had expected out of the subs (2 Monolith 12s). I had 8 12s before so part of my issue is probably due to the previous levels I could achieve versus what I can realistically get from just two subs.