Good thoughts on the six pack, but…
All rooms do have nodes. Using several subs placed around the room “averages” the nodes, true, and it does spread the possible listening spots, true. This is all good for a one “dimenisonal” height bass set-up with a more lenient seated position choices. Hint, I sit in ONE spot, thus I now have other options to better fine tune the holograpic illusion thing we call a sound stage.
The six pach adds a VERTICAL DIMENSION that low floor placed subs cannot. And they have two channel prametric EQ, and my T+A P3100HV also has an eight band separate per channel parametric EQ function, too. Tuning my listening spot, not two, five ten or twenty spots but ONE, by taking an ordinary office chair with wheels and move the seat slowly away from the speakers and measure the bass nulls and peaks. I pick the spot nearest the speaker for the elimination of the room (quasi near field) about 10 feet out in my case, and where the bass is at a natural spot between a peak and a null.
Most rooms have ONE real peak and a secondary one off that. You DO NOT need DSP for a sub running at 26 Hz and below! Your mains might, but not the sub. Sure, the curves show stuff up to 300 Hz but that’s bunk, you never run a sub that high. My room has ONE significant peak at 25 Hz in a 40 foot long room, and I use the subs level to adjust the SPL to blend that peak. The next peak is around 50 Hz and is attenuated out by the cross-over slope in the sub. The mains speaker really influence that 50 Hz peak, and it isn’t bad. The preamplifier’s parametric can be used to tune that one out as needed and at that ONE frequency. Trying to wrestle the room flat is a fool’s game as the DSP tends to be overworked and sounds bad in every attempt I’ve experienced over a more natural parametric EQ. Enjoy your room, don’t fight it. Most audiophiles overdamp the living “life” out of the room and the sound is the same, dull and lifeless. It looks cool, but sounds bad. Our ears ENJOY natural and expected room ambiance.
OK, the above describes why I don’t need or have used DSP with subs. The six pack does far, far more than just lower harmonic distortion and dopler distortion by cutting the bass cone excursions, which it surely does. What it does and that I’m paying for (two stereo subs have me covered on bass in general) is the VERTICAL HEIGHT DIMENSION of the sound stage. Not more bass, but where it is perceived. Have you ever heard a six pack at the show? Amazing sound stage height. This is what I want to hear here at home, too. We shall see. I tune for ONE spot to optimize the illusion of a sound stage most precisely and you can’t do that spreading stuff all around. Physics allows ONE “best” spot. I’ll take it!
Is it worth it? Money wise noting is in this hobby, really. So a big no on the money argument. This is a luxury purchase for sure. Is the SOUND worth it and everyone would acquire it if they could? Absolutely. Our cable products are like that, and they do cross an expense bar all can’t afford, but if they COULD get our cables to be at their financial means they sure would by better products. We have held prices to bring these amazing cables closer to more and more people’s affordability range. We are VALUE for the quality you get.
We do this value trade-off every day. As trickle down improves stuff at our financial limits and we can get better things. Do we spend LESS money to hold the performance at the same level and buy cheaper? Some do, but most of us leverage UP performance to a higher level as the entry price for that performance drops. Most will buy a 911 over a GTI at the same price! Fewer would spend less and get the GTI if we wanted the best car we can afford. We all tend to spend our budget!
Can you do this six pack effect cheaper? Sure, but subs that are a better value also exchange that value for performance. Not a new concept. I wanted the best, and I took that route. Tonality of a proper air suspension sub required a LARGE box (no vents or passive radiators). But, I have plenty of room UP. One sub eats up the floor space already.
No, this isn’t a financially logical route, and one few will take. To better hear into the effects of cables, I need to hear as much as I can. It doesn’t hurt to place the sound stage more naturally in front of you. This isn’t about the POWER of the bass, but location of the bass, and in ONE spot. My bass “node” is already optimized where I sit with the proper placement of the TWO, and the VERTICAL soundstage required four more. This isn’t multi seated home theater…here your explaination is valid.
Best, Galen
PS- tighter bass isn’t afforded by placement if the sub can’t get you there. Yes, it can get the best out of the sub, but most subs leave a lot on the table in tonality or power. Passive radiators decrease size and manage TONALITY with lower efficiency and ports also allow a smaller box and have bass POWER, but neither are as accurate in the bass as true full air suspension designs. Air suspension comes at a PRICE with that bigger box. Thus, we have that value equation to work out. POWER or TONALITY in a smaller more affordable package but not both or…get HUGE air suspension subs that do both. No easy way out. Smaller boxes are also much less power efficient and as the frequency drops, this gets far worse.
In fact they came in last place, and will mess up my cable arrangement forever. I consider that’s a sin.
