Thoughts on upgrading from Harbeth P3esr to Ascend Sierra-Lx

[Willem]

It seems like they discontinued the NON pro

It is still being sold by many shops in the Netherlands. SVS have been a bit vague about this - I know in the US they offered a new batch of them some time ago at a really quite attractive price. Here in the Netherlands the KEF Kube series is also pretty competitive and measured well. Anyway, if you are using an external dsp room eq unit you do not need built in filters in your subs. With subs, you have a trillemma with size, price and perfomance: you can only have two out of three.
If all you want is to equalize the subs, the ANtimode 8033 is an attractive option becasue it is so easy to use. For ambitious use with a major effort on your part, there is the Multi Sub Optimizer software (using a miniDSP 2x4HD as your dsp unit).

 

[Francoamerican]

With subs, you have a trillemma with size, price and perfomance: you can only have two out of three.

you’ve been so generous!

MSO does indeed looks complicated so maybe

- 1 sub (either kube 10b or svs SB 1000 pro based on what i can find out there for now and size constraints)
- my dedicated listening spot
- possibly add Dirac live

Could be a good way to go? I have nothing against ANTImode but I like aesthetics of minidsp flex as all in one preamp/dac/processor.

I can fortunately afford 2 subs, but I think with the complications 1 should hopefully get me a good bit forward? If it's really worth getting 2, I would take your recommendations.

 

[MarkS]

Minidsp Flex with Dirac is a great way to go. Room correction is more important than speaker selection in most situations. And one sub should be sufficient. My room is 16' x 24', and I have one SVS Micro 3000. This is for 2-channel music only (no games, no movies) at usually moderate volume.

The main advantage of more subs is that you can get a flatter response at more than one listening position. If you only need high quality sound at one listening position, one sub (crossed at 80Hz or below) is usually sufficient.

 

[Francoamerican]

it looks like Dirac on minidsp doesn't fix the multi sub anyway issue so ANtimode 8033 does look actually a great tool for the job in many cases.

But @MarkS 1xsub for my case sounds great!

 

[Francoamerican]

Received my umik, SVS SB-1000 pro and miniDSP flex. Spent a good deal of time at various stages but quite happy with results

1. Put P3ESR on axis and reduced treble by about 2db in miniDSP (per stereophile anechoic) .
2. Sub in between and back from a bit mains close to wall, 1/4 to 1/3 to left wall.
2. Dirac Live on Mac for 20-300 bass management (experimented with Dirac above 300hz and didn't like results at all)

Still will do some tweaking with levels and measurements but feel like sub bass is not particularly locatable.

Thanks so much this was a lot of fun! Also really think people pursue expensive, larger speakers when it looks like data shows subs are much more important than i knew!

 

[MarkS]

That looks really good!