Velodyne DS-10 - Manual (Page 23)

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OPTImIZATION
Digital Servo User’s Manual
oPtimizatioN oPtioNS
Optimize for Audio Genres
You might prefer to have a different bass sound and feel that depends on the type of audio you’re listening to. For example, if you’re gaming
versus if you’re watching a movie. Having presets that are accessible on the remote control allows you to easily optimize for these different
audio genres without any additional setup by you. And you don’t have to use the presets for the type of audio on the remote control buttons.
For example, if you like how your jazz music sounds using the Pop preset better than the jazz preset, use the Pop preset. If you’re feeling
a bit more adventurous, you can even modify these presets to your exact tastes using the TV interface.
Optimize for Your Room
As a subwoofer plays in a room, the reflections of the sound waves off the walls create standing waves. Standing waves cause places in the
room where certain frequencies are louder and others are diminished. Some room cancellations of the sound waves can be like black holes
that no amount of amplifier power can fill. Thus, as a general rule it is better to “cut down” a peak of the frequency response rather than to
“boost up” a valley. Self-EQ and Auto-EQ perform this adjustment automatically for you.
In general, you should try to achieve a frequency response that is +/– 3 dB at all lower frequencies. This is because most people perceive a
response curve of this accuracy level as very smooth. However, people with excellent hearing or who have been trained to listen for sonic
purity can hear frequency response deviations to as small as +/- 1 dB or less. The DS-10 Self-EQ and Auto-EQ both will automatically
smooth your DS-10 subwoofer output to within a +/- 3 dB window.
Optimize for Your Audio System
How good your bass sounds also depends on how smoothly it blends with the output of the satellite speakers. If a smooth transition doesn’t
exist at the crossover frequency, you hear either too much mid-bass or the bass frequencies as separate from the mid and high frequencies.
To smoothly blend the subwoofer with the main speakers, you first need to know the low frequency response of the main speakers.
Auto-EQ determines the low frequency response of the main speakers automatically and blends with it.
The response always rolls off at the lowest end, but no dip or peak should exist at the crossover frequency with the satellites. While the goal
is a perfectly flat response, this may not be possible in the higher frequencies of the subwoofer’s response due to peaks or valleys
introduced by the satellites.
Optimize for Your Listening Preferences
Everyone has a personal preference as to how they want their audio system to sound. With the Self-EQ and Auto-EQ features, the bass
response for your subwoofers in your listening room should be within +/– 3 dB. These EQ methods aren’t as aggressive as they could be as
optimizing filters for flatter response takes exponentially longer due to perturbing external noises to the process. Also, using more EQ can
sometimes have a negative effect in the time domain, so less EQ is preferable.
However, you can make the correcting filters more aggressive or adjust it in other ways to match your listening preferences. Auto-EQ serves
as an excellent starting point for those of you who want to manually adjust parameters to modify the frequency response profile and the
parametric filter frequencies, bandwidths and levels. It’s your subwoofer, not ours any more. You have the freedom to make it sound the way
you want it to.
Optimize for Subwoofer Placement
When you unpack the subwoofer, you place it in the room according to the information in the general section and optionally the ”Crawl
Test” section in the Subwoofer Placement Recommendations Guide. The “Crawl Test” can help you to improve the bass reproduction quality
by simulating moving the subwoofer around the room using acoustic reciprocity to find the placement that gives you the sound you like best.
With the ”Crawl Test” you have to move around the room. Moving yourself around is easier than moving a heavy subwoofer around.