SV Subwoofers
OWNERS’
GUIDE
SVS “Powered Cylinders”™
16-46PC
20-39PC
25-31PC
SVS Models
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Contents:
Page 1 Welcome
Page 2 About your new SV Subwoofer
Pages 4-7 Setup, integration, and calibration
Page 7-8 Powered Cylinder amp features
Pages 9-10 Bass demos for your home theater
Page 11 Home theater terms
Page 12 Warranty
Last update 25 February 2001
Page 3
SV Subwoofers
About your SV Subwoofer
No powered subwoofers look anything like them, and virtually none work like
them either. SV Subwoofers are decidedly different. The best part? You could
have spent much more and still not come close to the same bass performance our
Powered Cylinder line gives you. But what makes a subwoofer an SVS???
Quality components, sane prices. You might be surprised at how inexpensive
the components in some not-so-inexpensive subwoofers are. Make no mistake,
we comb the earth for the best, most cost effective parts (when we don’t make
them ourselves), melding them into finely tuned designs that define high
performance home theater (HT) bass. Want woofers, amps, or even binding
posts? We’ve tested and discarded plenty that didn’t meet our tough standards.
If we use it, whatever it is, it made the grade and met tough cost guidelines too.
Get “tubular”. Typical subs require heavy internal bracing and thick enclosure
walls because they’re boxes. But cylinders can’t flex the way boxes do. Ever
wonder why high pressure tanks are always round? At SVS form follows
function, and fortunately, functional designs can lead to simple, stylish and
elegant designs too.
Stable downward firing woofer. Our slender, upright design is one plus, but
we’ve also taken great lengths to allow for a downward firing driver. Coupled
with our unique base-plates, which minimize driver reactive forces, you’ll find
your SVS can take a tremendous amount of power and remain solidly planted on
your floor. Interchangeable foam rubber or heat-treated steel spike feet allow
for stable placement on a variety of surfaces (NOTE! spikes are not
recommended for concrete sub-floors or similarly hard non-compliant
materials).
Custom low turbulence port designs. When you listen to these low noise, 4”
flare ported subs you’ll hear (and feel) bass like never before, with amazingly
little distortion. Movies or music, SV Subwoofers handle it all with grace and
efficiency, never sounding “boomy” —– even at their limits.
Stylish, and understated. From the simple top grill, to the elegant base-plate
you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to lose your sub in a corner. They’re big, but
it’s one of those times size does matter. There are hundreds of hulking “black
box” subs out there. Fortunately you didn’t just unpack one of them.
World class power. Our amps are designed in Germany and built with a level
of fit and finish, plus a collection of features, practically unheard of at this price.
And power? It’s there in spades (though we rate them conservatively at 190
watts). SVS starts with efficient subwoofer designs which don’t require
equalization to go low and flat. This way our amps can be dedicated to
reproducing bass, not making up for a lack of enclosure space (the bane of deep
bass). As a result, we don’t require the mega-watts some subs need. And they
run cool and powerful in those vented cylinders too. We import these wunder-
amps ourselves so you don’t have to.
For technical assistance e-mail us at “[email protected]”
Page 4
Setup, calibrating and integration
What’s to know? Well, first of all, setting up an SV Subwoofer is
pretty darn easy. There are a few key things to get right though, if you
want to get the most out of your sub…
Unpacking. You’re probably eager to fire up your sub (we’re the same
way), but take time to carefully unpack your sub. Set the box and other
protective shipping coverings aside, just in case you need to return the
sub for any reason.
Location. They say it’s ALL about location right? It’s the same with
setting up your subwoofer. So, where to put it? Go for a corner if you
can, and avoid putting your sub where it might adjoin large open areas
Studies have shown that the deepest and flattest bass response is
typically attained when a subwoofer is placed within a few feet of one
of your home theater’s corners. The upright configuration of SV
.
Subwoofers makes this easy. Whether you put the sub in front or to the
rear of your seating area makes surprisingly little difference. Deep
home theater bass, like that from Dolby Digital (DD) “5.1 channel”
DVDs and Laserdiscs is non-directional. You can’t tell where it is
coming from, even though you can hear, and feel it (and how!).
Hook-up (see fig. 1). There are a variety of ways to configure your
new sub. Usually, a simple mono, shielded 75 Ohm A/V RCA type
cable (a.) is used to take the subwoofer output of your DD/DTS
surround sound receiver (b.) and feed the low-level input of the sub’s
amp. There is no need to “split” the signal and feed both inputs on the
sub, since the inputs are “summed” before the amp stage.
NOTE: Stop now if you aren’t
TOTALLY familiar with your receiver’s
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manual. Ensure all power to your equip-
ment is off when making these connec-
tions. Also, be certain your power outlet can
handle a minimum of 200 watts. (Use of
“convenience outlets” on receivers are not
(a.)
recommended for your SVS PC).
(b.)
DD/DTS Processor/Receiver
(Subwoofer “Out”)
Fig. 1
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SV Subwoofers
More Setup, calibrating and integration
If you are running a pair of SV Subwoofers (fig. 2), you will need to
use a standard “Y” cable adapter (c.) The best adaptor to use for this
task has one male RCA connection and two female RCA outputs.
(Radio Shack ® stocks them.) From the “Y” cable you can run a stan-
dard 75 Ohm signal cable (d.) to each sub thus “splitting” the Low Fre-
quency Effects (LFE) and other bass signals from your receiver, thus
feeding both subwoofers.
NOTE: Be sure to keep the power volt-
age switch in the correct position (your
!
sub is 110 volt or 220 volt capable).
Now is a good time to select if you want
“ON” (always on) or “AUTO ON” which turns
your sub on only when a bass signal is present.
(d.)
Audio am-
plifier (two
(c.)
DD/DTS Processor/
Receiver
Fig. 2
“
Calibration” isn’t only for tech minded folks, it’s critical to a proper
configuration of your home theater sound system. Fortunately, channel
balance (calibration) is as easy to do as it is important. The first order
of business is making sure your DD/DTS surround sound system is set
up properly. We recommend you consult your audio/video receiver (or
processor) manual to refresh on the procedures to do this. Generally,
this requires ensuring the receiver’s test tones, or a special test disk
(like Video Essentials) plays back at the same volume from each of
your system’s full range speakers. That’s left, center, right, left sur-
round and right surround speakers, plus the subwoofer . (More on sub
level in a second). Skip to page 7 (“Powered Cylinder Amp”) if you
aren’t familiar with your sub’s amp, and come back to calibration.
Some things to check as you get ready to calibrate your system:
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Are your speakers set correct to the correct “size”? Your receiver/
processor might allow you to indicate if your speakers are “Small” or
SV Subwoofers
Page 6
“Large”. Selecting the size accordingly will ensure bass goes to most
appropriate speakers, and use the subwoofer correctly too. Also, is your
subwoofer turned “ON”? We don’t mean “is your subwoofer amplifier
on?” (that’ll be important later too!) but rather, is your receiver send-
ing a bass signal to your sub amp? This can only happen if you say
“Yes” (or “ON”) to the “Subwoofer” setting of any typical Dolby Digi-
tal/DTS capable receiver.
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Is your receiver connected to the sub amp? Use a well-shielded RCA
cable (sometimes called a “patch cord”) to hook to the subwoofer out-
put of your DD/DTS receiver to either input jack of your subwoofer
amplifier. As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to “split” the subwoofer
signal with a “Y Cable” if you bought a pair of subs.
Is your Radio Shack ® sound pressure level (SPL) meter ready? This
tool is absolutely critical to proper home theater
audio calibration. It’s akin to a tire pressure gauge
for your car. Set the meter to “Slow” and “C-
weighting” (and turn the dial to 70dB). The manual
which comes with the SPL meter is excellent, and
we recommend you read it entirely. Haven’t got
the meter yet? Well, head on down to your
neighborhood Radio Shack ® and snag one. We
prefer the analog instead of the digital display
model. Ask for part number 33-2050. At about $35 it’s a bargain.
Getting ready to start now: Just a few more checks. Make sure your re-
ceiver/processor master volume is set at “00 dB” or some other easy to re-
member reference level. Finally, ensure your subwoofer’s volume control is
set at least 3/4ths up, to start. It’s also critical to check the subwoofer level
control of your surround receiver before you begin the test tones. Set it to
no higher than “-5 dB” initially (that’s one quarter way up, given a typical
receiver’s channel limits of –10 dB to +10 dB) . Your LFE “trim”, if you
have one, should be set to 0dB to start (that’s full up) but this can be dialed
down later to tame peaks if needed.
Now play your receiver's internal test tones so you have something to meas-
ure with your SPL meter. Or better yet, buy a calibration disk, like the Video
Essentials DVD (go to Chapter 3-1). A test disk’s tones ensure your entire
signal path, from the DVD player to your speakers, is set correctly. What-
ever you use, when the tones start alternating from speaker to speaker
(watch your sound meter now), set each full range speaker’s volume to
about 75 dB (except for the subwoofer — read on!) by using the receiver’s
dedicated channel level controls (leaving master volume the same). We
recommend you turn down the receiver’s subwoofer output level, before you
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SV Subwoofers
significantly lower your sub’s volume control. This helps keep input distor-
tion to a minimum, however you should not be set much lower than –5 dB
recommended earlier, some adjustment room is needed to tweak down the
road. If your subwoofer reading is still too high then turn down the sub’s amp
volume a little with each run.
But what’s “too high”?? Tastes vary, and so do movie soundtracks, but your
SV Subwoofer is capable of tremendous levels of low distortion, low fre-
quency bass — far more than most commercial subs. Take advantage of this,
especially if you like action movies with lots of “.1” channel (LFE) action.
Keep in mind too that the human ear is relatively insensitive to low frequen-
cies. This, coupled with the fact most folks don’t watch movies at Dolby
Digital reference level (loud!), means tweaking the bass up a few dBs usually
yields a better movie sound experience.
What sub levels do we recommend? If you watch movies at relatively moder-
ate sound levels, a range of +4dB to +6dB over your other channels is a good
target. This means that the test tone will waiver about 81dB for the subwoofer
portion of the calibration run. But experiment a bit! (Note: You’ll briefly
need to rotate the sound meter SPL meter dial to the 80dB setting to get a
good reading with these higher, subwoofer settings.) Note too that many
modern surround sound receivers allow a variety of different subwoofer level
settings, depending on the listening mode you are in. With “DVD” as your
“source” use the above calibration routine. You may well find that
“CD” (music) calls for a lower bass setting for the best balance in your home
theater. The above is a guide — experiment! The louder your master volume
though, the more you should back off the sub level to compensate.
Location and measurement: You should take the above measurements from
your typical preferred seat for watching movies (center cushion, right?). Be
advised, strong bass levels can vary tremendously simply by moving a few
feet. Such is the nature of long wave-length, low bass sound. Don’t hesitate
to try different locations and different level settings for your subwoofer.
Powered Cylinder Amp. We scoured the world for the best per-
forming amp (that’s still affordable). The result is a German designed, rock
steady amp with Mil-spec like build quality, and an unbeatable feature set.
Volume. Use volume (in conjunction with your receiver’s subwoofer output
level control) to come up with a bass calibration to your liking. Start calibra-
tion with the sub’s volume at least 3/4ths of the way up.
Crossover Frequency. If you use your DD/DTS receiver/processor’s internal
crossover to manage bass frequencies (highly recommended), the setting of
this knob on the sub is irrelevant. (Note: You need to set the “Crossover By-
Pass” [discussed below] to “ON” to take advantage of this configuration.)
Otherwise this knob is used to best blend your SVS to your other speakers.
Typically used in stereo only systems today.
SV Subwoofers
Page 8
Phase. Think of bass waves as conflicting or enhancing each other, depending
on the timing of their arrival at your listening location (either together, or not).
Since some of your HT bass might come from main, center and/or surround
speakers, as well as your sub, getting these bass wave forms to arrive in a com-
plementary, enhancing fashion is the difficult job of the phase knob. Essen-
tially this control varies the timing of the bass waves coming from the sub.
You can tweak this endlessly and not hear much difference; but don’t despair,
the effect of bass cancellation will vary by volume and frequency in your room,
and no one setting is likely to ever be “perfect”. One simple technique to opti-
mize phase is to find a nice “bassy” loop (such as the menu of “Godzilla”) and
measure the loop’s bass response at various bass SPL peaks. As the loop runs,
you can make gradual changes to the phase knob. Where you see the most re-
sponse on a given bass passage is the phase setting providing the least bass
cancellation in your room (for the frequencies of the demo loop you chose).
Line In/Out. Use one of the sub’s “Line In” jacks to connect the subwoofer to
the output jack of your receiver/processor. Feeding one input is enough. If you
are using a conventional amp and/or a stereo setup you can use the “Line Out”
jacks to send sound (filtered of bass information) back to your system amp.
Bass Boost. Your Powered Cylinder is tuned “flat” so that no bass boost is
needed to get it’s full natural extension. Still, you might find the +3dB or
+6dB “bump” (centered on the 30Hz range) sounds good. This may be espe-
cially true if you listen to movies at a relatively low level. Be advised that such
a boost can significantly lower available amp head-room. If you like to push
your system to reference levels (loud!) we recommend running a 0dB boost.
Crossover By-Pass. If you allow your DD/DTS receiver or processor to man-
age bass frequencies (recommended) this switch must be “ON”. This disables
the “Crossover Frequency” knob and allows your sub to reproduce just what
it’s fed from the receiver.
Power (with LED). “Off” is off. “On” is (always) On. And “Auto” allows
your sub to switch itself on or off depending on whether there is a bass signal
fed to it. Even if there is NO signal fed to the sub in this mode, the sub’s amp
takes few minutes to switch off (so it’s not continually going off and on in a
movie!). It turns on in a split second from it’s “sleep” mode.
High level inputs/outputs. Not commonly used today, but binding posts are
there in case you don’t have low-level inputs/outputs on your receiver/
processor. Typically used if you are not using a DD/DTS compatible system.
A/C connection/Voltage Selector. Plug your sub into a dedicated A/C outlet.
“Convenience” outlets of typical receivers often don’t provide the needed cur-
rent. Select the correct voltage for your A/C system (115v. in USA).
Fuse. User replaceable with a 4 amp, 125 volt 5 x 20mm “Slow Blow” fuse.
Fuses can be found at Radio Shack (Part Number 270-1066).
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SV Subwoofers
Bassy demo scenes to die for.
So now what?? You’ve got one of the best HT bass sub-systems on the
planet, you’re calibrated...want to see what she’ll do? Sure you do!
Since finding those scenes can be a bit trying, we’ve compiled a list of
our favorites below. After all, calibration with test tones is important,
but it’s the movies (and music) this sub is itching to show off. Chapter
stops for DVDs are shown, with movie time in hours: minutes: seconds.
What are you waiting for? Just hit PLAY!
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“The Iron Giant” Great family animation with SERIOUS bass,
including strong peaks below 25 Hz. Jump to:
1. “Chase thru the forest” Scene 8 (20:00 into the movie)
2. “Robot Landing” (Train Impact) Scene 10 (25:40)
3. “Green Boom” Scene 27 (1:11:40)
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“Antz” Another good family movie, though not perhaps for small
children. Extremely loud bass above 30 Hz.
“Terror from Above”, Scene 17 (51:48)
“The Matrix” Modern, violent, science fiction classic with plenty
of shoot-’em-up bass blasts. Here’s some subtle and not so subtle.
1. “Where we are grown”, Scene 12 (42:55)
2. “Landing in fight”, Scene 15 (50:51)
3. “Chopper shootout”, Scene 31 (1:47:15)
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“Das Boot” Arguably one of the best war pictures of all time with
bass approaching 20 Hz. Very loud, very intense.
1. “Depth charges”, Scene 21 (59:30)
2. “Storm surfing”, Scene 25 (1:15:15)
3. “Hitting bottom”, Scene 17 (53:15, Side “B”)
“Apollo 13” Moving story, with some surprisingly subtle, but re-
vealing, bass where it counts.
1. “Lift off”, Scene 13 (35:15)
2. “Coming home”, Scene 53 (2:05:43)
SV Subwoofers
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More Bassy demo scenes.
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“Titanic” You love it...or you hate it. Regardless of which side
of the ship you sit, this flick does some serious rumbling for
you:
1. “We can’t leave him” Scene 22 (2:21:50)
2. “Ship Splitting” (2:41:30)
3. “Last Gasp” (2:42:05)
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“Blade” Not one for the kiddies, but loaded with deep bass.
1. “Footstep”, Scene 4 (7:15)
2. “Door blown” Scene 20 (50:05)
“Aliens” Not just another modern sci-fi horror classic, this one
rocks from intro to final scene.
1. “Ship drop”, Scene 9 (41:20)
2. “Awakenings”, Scene 15 (1:12:52)
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"Apocalypse Now" Making This Vietnam war movie, Francis
Ford Copolla nearly went crazy...imagine what it'll do to your
subwoofer!
1. "Chopper ride" Scene 2 (0:19:47)
2. "ARC LIGHT" Scene 4 (0:26:02)
3. "Grenade launch" Scene 12 (1:27:58)
“Contact” SETI with a (bass) twist or two along the way.
1. “Bombing”, Scene 28 (1:36:30)
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2. “Space truckin”, Scene 33 (1:55:56)
“Dark City” One of Roger Ebert’s favorites, think he likes bass
too?
1. “Let the tuning commence”, Scene 8 (34:30)
2. “City makeover”, Scene 15 (1:27:45)
SV Subwoofers
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A Glossary of Home Theater Terms
Frankly, don’t feel guilty if you want to skip over the below. But if
you are curious about just what some of the terms and abbreviations
stand for, read on:
dB - Short for “deci-Bell” a unit of sound, a 3dB increase takes twice
the acoustic power to attain!
DD - “Dolby Digital”, the most popular form of digital surround
sound, usually found on DVD soundtracks. Actually a compression
algorithm that can provide 1 to 6 channels of movie audio .
DPL - “Dolby Pro Logic”. The last generation of non-discreet chan-
nel surround sound. Derived from 2 “matrixed” channels.
DTS - “Digital Theater System” similar to DD, but with less com-
pression. Many feel it sounds better than DD, but you be the judge.
DVD - Amazing little video disk, DVD, doesn’t “mean” anything!
HT - “Home Theater”. What you make of it. But a home (theater)
without a subwoofer, isn’t quite up to our definition!
Hz - Short for Hertz, the German scientist who came up with a
scheme of measuring the frequency of sound waves. 15-30 Hz is very
low bass and very rare in anything but movie soundtracks. 60 Hz is
generally considered mid-bass above which most large full range
speakers can easily produce. The real fun (and real) bass, is in the
middle of that range, call it 20-40 Hz.
LD - Laserdisc, grandfather to the DVD. Still capable of great pic-
ture and sound. Increasingly going the way of the 33 1/3 LP.
LFE - “Low Frequency Effects” are the “.1” channel in 5.1 sound
tracks. If you have a sub selected in your system, any LFE signal goes
to the subwoofer. The sub may get bass from other channels as well
however, depending on the “size” of speakers in your set-up.
RMS - A common and accurate way to rate the power of an amplifier.
Literally “Root Means Squared”. Typically measured in “watts”.
SPL - “Sound Pressure Level”, a fancy way of saying “Volume”.
Usually measured in dBs.
Sub - Short for subwoofer
“5.1” - Reference to 5 full range channels and one bass only channel.
Warranty:
45 day money back warranty. If you are not completely satis-
fied with the performance of your subwoofer, return it to us for
a full refund of the purchase price. Just a few minor stipula-
tions should you choose to do this:
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Subwoofer must be returned in original shipping box.
E-mail for return of merchandise number (RMA) and dis-
play this on the outside of the box.
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Subwoofer must be insured during shipping,
Shipping costs are not refundable.
3 year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship
for subwoofers, 1 year for electronics. Sub must be returned to
SVS shipping pre-paid. SVS will repair or replace any item at
its discretion and return to the customer as soon as possible.
Naturally, this warranty does not cover any product subjected to
misuse or accidental damage.
Except as provided above, SV Subwoofers makes no other war-
ranties express or implied. Some states do not permit limitation
or exclusion of implied warranties, so exclusions may not apply
to the purchaser.
The bottom line: We’re proud of these subwoofers and want
you to be as happy owning one, as we are selling one (or more)
to you. E-mail us if you have any warranty question.
SV Subwoofers
SV Subwoofers LLC
P.O. Box 8423
Reston, VA 20195
Fax: 330-793-8183
Email: [email protected]
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