Customer Review: By Ed Mullen, SVS
20-39 PC-Plus owner
It
turns out Ed Mullen is just your typical commercial
brew-master with a photographic memory and both audio and
rifle ballistics as hobbies. As an early adopter and
knowing SVS's reputation for outdoing itself, he got one of
the very first
20-39 PC-Plus subs.
Here's Ed's unedited review:
Highlights
of the PC+ line include a proprietary TC Sounds db-12 ultra
long throw, super high output 12" downward firing, bottom
mounted woofer. Triple 3" flared top firing ports. Birch end
caps which are 1.5” thick and CNC’d. The enclosure is a high
tech exceptionally dense and rigid fiber/polymer laminate
tubing (much stronger than MDF), turned to exceptionally
tight tolerances. The Indigo BASH 525 watt (RMS 4 ohm
nominal) onboard amp has an infinitely variable phase knob
and a 4 position SS filter (25, 20, 16, 12), with
low/high/speaker level inputs.
My HT room is roughly 12x18x8 with one permanent opening
(stairwell) and 3 openings to a basement, bath and office
that are normally closed during HT listening. Room volume
with all doors closed is about 1,800 cubic feet. The floor
is concrete slab on grade covered with Armstrong wood
laminate.
Set-up and calibration details are as follows:
1) The sub is placed in the front left hand corner of
the HT room, between the left main and the HDTV. Blurring of
the picture on HDTV from vibration or from magnetic flux has
not been a concern.
2) Bass management is done at the receiver, with all
speakers set to "normal" and the sub is set to "on".
Crossover to the sub is set at 100 Hz for all speakers.
3) I am using a Bruel & Kjoer (made in Copenhagen,
Denmark) professional grade sound pressure meter on
C-Weighted Slow response setting. I just calibrated it with
the included tone generator and it reads spot-on (94 dB @
1,000 Hz).
4) My listening position is 12 feet from the
mains/center/sub and 6 feet from the surrounds. At the
"reference" master volume setting (-15 on the Kenwood), the
receiver's test tones for the center/mains/surrounds all
read 75 dB +/- 0.5 dB. The sub test tone reads 78 dB +/- 1dB
(i.e., fluctuates between 77 and 79 dB).
5) Individual speaker volume settings on the Kenwood
are mains (+2), center (-1), surrounds (+2), and sub (-3).
6) Settings at the sub are: one Monster sub cable
running to the low level left RCA input, auto on enabled,
crossover disabled, SS filter set to 20 Hz, no ports
plugged, phase set at 0 degrees, gain set at about 2/5
volume.
7) For my testing, I made sure to disable all the
various cinema, speaker, and LFE trim settings on the
receiver and just ran a “straight through” signal.
Well, how does it sound? In a word - spectacular.
This sub will completely alter your impressions of ALL of
your best bass demo DVDs. It is tight, clean, refined,
DEEEEP, and very, VERY powerful.
The funny thing about SVS subs (I've heard two different
models now - the sonic signature is very similar) is that
your initial impression will be "where did all that boomy
mid bass go?". These subs are very flat through the mid bass
range (60-30) with none of the usual emphasis at 35-40 Hz
that many sub makers deliberately build in to hide the fact
that their subs have no real bottom end. This lack of mid
bass bloom allows the sub to blend beautifully with the
mains and it remains very neutral and undetected until the
source material calls for it.
The second thing I noticed is that there is an entire world
of bass from 30-15 Hz that I never heard before on several
DVDs. It is literally another dimension in sound. The ultra
deep stuff is absolutely visceral - it is felt more than
heard, and there are no messy 2nd or 3rd order harmonics,
just pure, clean, DEEEEP bass that literally PUSHES its way
through the room and envelopes you in the sound field.
At reference levels, and if the source material calls for it
- this sub effortlessly provides vision blurring, teeth
rattling, couch moving, guts turn to Jell-O, pants waffling,
stuff falls off the shelves upstairs, call the fire
department - REAL DEAL ULTRA LOW INCREDIBLY POWERFUL BASS.
The third thing I noticed after extended HT listening
sessions is how beautifully this sub handles bass nuance and
detail during the quieter moments of movies. Subtle
background bass notes that change in texture or tone all
come through with perfect clarity and this makes for a very
satisfying listening experience.
Demo discs included:
1) U-571 (DTS) (master volume at –20):
Oh, so that's what depth charges are really supposed to
sound like! Amazing! When they show the close-ups of the
destroyer passing overhead with the props spinning - HANG
ON. The final battle scene with the destroyer rattled
several things off the shelves – in OTHER ROOMS.
2) LOTR – FOTR (master volume at –25):
This soundtrack is mastered on the “hot” side, so –25 gave
me plenty of volume on playback. I never before heard the
sub-20 Hz (actually goes to 10 Hz on waterfall charts)
delayed reverb when the ring hits the ground in the opening
battle scene. When the cave troll bursts into the room (109
dB peak on C-Weighted Fast setting at the listening
position) and when he falls dead (108 dB), I thought the
walls of my house were going to COLLAPSE. The falling bridge
and rocks in the caverns and the fight with the fire demon
are all VERY deep and powerful with many peaks in the
106-108 dB range.
One small nit to pick here. The scene where the Ring Wraith
is trying to find Frodo and his friends under the tree root
ball: There is a bass tone at 46:09 through 46:11 that
actually caused the sub to vibrate itself against the floor
and move an inch or two. Just to be clear - nothing on the
sub itself was vibrating – this thing is built like a tank.
This gives you an idea of not only how powerful this woofer
is, but also how exceptionally rigid and strong the entire
enclosure and assembly is. I don’t think this issue would
ever show up on anything but a very hard, smooth, slippery
and acoustically dead floor like mine. Anyway, I had a roll
of generic Architectural grade truck cap foam tape with
adhesive on one side and I simply turned the sub on its side
and laid strips across the entire bottom plate,
supplementing the three foam rubber feet supplied by SVS.
This worked like a charm and completely damped the base
plate from vibrating and moving in this scene. I recommend
this easy modification if you purchase a PC+ and you will be
placing it on a hard, smooth floor.
3) Saving Private Ryan (DTS) (master volume set at
–20):
Battle scene explosions, and the tank buster/P-51 fly-over
scene on the bridge (108 dB peaks) - I was RIGHT THERE with
Hanks.
4) The Matrix (master volume set at –17):
The lobby chest punch (107 dB), the Morpheus knee drop
sparring scene (108 dB), and the helicopter explosion
(107-108 dB) were all MUCH deeper and stronger than I've
ever heard before.
5) Star Wars – TPM (master volume set at –15):
The pod race – amazing. The fly-bys have such DEEP after
shocks they feel literally subsonic. The wave of energy is
incredible, and one of the canyon exits registered 109 dB!
Ditto on the light saber duels – especially when the bad guy
gets cut in half - never heard half the stuff before.
6) The Haunting (DTS) (main volume set at -20 dB):
We saved the best for last. We have over 100 DVDs in our
collection, including all the popular LFE bass busters – but
the DTS version of The Haunting is STILL the absolute,
undisputed, KING of ultra low end, super pumped up LFE.
Whoever mastered the DTS version of this DVD must have been
on drugs because it is INSANE with bass. This DVD will blow
your mind at near reference levels with this SVS sub. The
combination of low, LOW bass and the sheer SPL this DVD
generates will scare you - literally SCARE YOU. We kept
waiting for the sub to start showing signs of distress – IT
DIDN'T HAPPEN. It just kept effortlessly belting out wave
after wave of PURE VISCERAL MIND BLOWING NEAR SUBSONIC BASS.
Stuff rattled off my shelves - upstairs, and picture frames
through the entire house were off kilter. We recorded bass
peaks of approximately 111 dB (!!) at the listening
position. KILLER - TOTALLY KILLER.
What more can I say – I am OFF MY ROCKER AND OUT OF MY MIND
over this SVS sub. For ONE sub to generate CLEAN 110+ dB
bass peaks at the listening position 12 FEET AWAY is
remarkable. This is the absolute BEST investment I have EVER
made in my HT system - BAR NONE. My hat is off to SVS - they
are truly THE BASS AUTHORITY.
Regards,
Ed

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