Subs for Salon2

[Rex Anderson]

So, a little bit more about me (trying to get my post count up to 10, lol).

I've been a high end music playback fan since the early '70's when I bought some Advent loudspeakers. Been through a lot of systems, it helped a lot working as the recording/live sound engineer for the U of IL where I was able to buy great gear and not use my own personal funds. Here's a list of some of the speakers I have had the pleasure of using:

Tannoy LGM 12
Genelec S30D
Meyer HD-1
Lipinski L707
JL Audio F112 subs
Snell Type A
B&W 801
Dunlavy SC-V

I spent a lot of time at high end hi-fi shops in Chicago listening to speakers that were way more expensive than I could afford, like Thiel, Wilson, EgglestonWorks etc in my search for speakers that would help me do my best work as a recording engineer.

The control rooms at the U of I were too small for large monitors, so I bought a pair of B&W 801F's for my home system around 1980. I continued to use them until I heard Dunlavy was going out of business and found a pair of SC-V's for sale at closeout pricing.

My wife and I decided to build a house and I was able to include space in the basement for a 5.1 A/V mastering room/home theater. I called an acoustician I knew and he designed it including room treatment. It was 16'W x 23'L x 10'H, an ideal ratio. It had splayed walls, sloping ceiling and 25 custom absorptive wall panels and 25 RPG abfusors (part absorption, part diffusion). I used a Mackie HR626 for the center channel, Mackie HR 624's for the rear surrounds and the Dunlavy SC-V's powered by a Bryston 4B SST for the main L/R. Video was a Runco projector with a 110 inch screen. Preamp/processor was a Bryston SP-2. It was an amazing system and room, I really miss it.

We moved to a condo for a while and I had to sell off most everything. The condo had a small living room and I couldn't play music very loud. Thankfully, we moved back to a house, and I was able to start over, so I did a lot of research and ended up with Revel Performa 3 F208 speakers powered by a Bryston 3B SST2 amp. I'm so impressed with Revel, I think their concept, design team, R&D and manufacturing facilities and the product line they produce are the best. If I had the money and a bigger room, the Revel Ultima Salon2 would be mine.

[scirica]

Originally Posted by Rex Anderson

...so I did a lot of research and ended up with Revel Performa 3 F208 speakers powered by a Bryston 3B SST2 amp. I'm so impressed with Revel, I think their concept, design team, R&D and manufacturing facilities and the product line they produce are the best. If I had the money and a bigger room, the Revel Ultima Salon2 would be mine.

Rex:

Great post. I'm right there with you on Revel! My Salon 2's are in my medium sized living room, powered by a Bryston 14bsst2. It took some convincing (of myself) that they wouldn't be too big and obtrusive for this room, but in the end I went for it and I'm glad I did!

Welcome to AA!

IMG_1477927817.919499.jpg

[Pampero]

Originally Posted by Rex Anderson

Hi Guys (and gals?),

Obviously I'm new to this forum (both AA and Revel). I have a long history at The Gear Page forum because I am a guitar player, but they also have a recording and live sound forum that I frequent. I'm so new here that I can't post on the Introductions page. I worked as the Audio Director for the School of Music at the University of Illinois School of Music tor 32 years. My job involved recording, mixing, editing, mastering and live sound engineering. I retired from that job in 2010 but started doing live sound for a church with a great band about a year ago, so I'm still active as an audio professional.

I'm on the Revel forum because I did a lot of research a few years ago and bought a pair of F208's.

I'll post more when I have time. Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Welcome! I briefly had a pair pf 208s until a few months ago. They were highly satisfying

[Pio]

Originally Posted by Rex Anderson

.... so I did a lot of research and ended up with Revel Performa 3 F208 speakers powered by a Bryston 3B SST2 amp. I'm so impressed with Revel, I think their concept, design team, R&D and manufacturing facilities and the product line they produce are the best. If I had the money and a bigger room, the Revel Ultima Salon2 would be mine.

That's me - the little ones and the room keep me from the Salon2. But more than satisfied with the 208's and a pair of subs...

Oh, and WELCOME Rex Anderson!!

[MainAnalog]

Hi - My salon2's are in a vaulted ceiling 2nd floor room approx 15 x 18 feet - ciling peaks at 20 feet. Love them of course. I have a Velodyne DD12 subwoofer in the home theater downstairs but never felt I was bass shy with the Revel's. I walk downstairs and can feel the LF running through my 1870's house. My Velodyne has a mike + SW but disconnecting/lugging/setting up and using it's SW etc is a major snowstorm project at best Curious what people use to measure freq response and pressure in the room where the LF fall away?

[Pampero]

I have a few instruments including an (antique?) Ivie IE30 third octave analyzer and a ubiquitous RS SPL meter but I usually reach for my Audio Tools app these days. Another very interesting option is REW.

[Rex Anderson]

When I worked for the School of Music at the University of Illinois, I had a Hewlett- Packard sine wave oscillator and a Radio Shack SPL meter. The oscillator was great to use because you could control the sweep rate and level manually. I could find all kinds of issues with cabinet and room resonances. I would get a reference level at 1 kHz and do slow sweeps.

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/hp/209a.htm

These days, with test gear like SMAART and TEF, you need a course in acoustics to learn how to use the equipment and interpret the data.

I have the Mobile Fidelity Alan Parson's Test CD https://www.discogs.com/Alan-Parsons...elease/3082207 that is very useful too.

[Pampero]

Originally Posted by Rex Anderson

These days, with test gear like SMAART and TEF, you need a course in acoustics to learn how to use the equipment and interpret the data.

I have the Mobile Fidelity Alan Parson's Test CD https://www.discogs.com/Alan-Parsons...elease/3082207 that is very useful too.

I was the rep for Crown's test instruments (Clay Barclay's BADAP and later, the TEF package) for a period of time when my company represented Crown. Without a doubt one is going to need training and experience to get the most out of TEF.

I knew Don Pearson (a great guy, he is missed) and of course Sam Berkow (of SIA) when SMAART was first introduced but I can't say I'm remotely expert in using the the latest iterations of SMAART and have not kept pace with the latest updates and changes. However, FFTs and their associated programs are now available at a fraction of the cost of the original TEF. I reckon SMAART was the package that made practical on site measurement/acoustic diagnostic capabilities available to a wide group of users but you still have to be pretty committed to get the full benefits.

That's why I recommended Audio Tools as it provides a good starting point and decent capability for most of us hacks. It does require the additional commitment to a decent measurement microphone if one wants to really make the most of it, but for the cost of the basic program (20 bucks) you get most of what you need without breaking the bank. If you want real accuracy, you will need to add that microphone but that's a one time buy. It's amazing to me how reasonable such sophisticated capabilities are today when you consider how much a decent third octave analyzer cost just a generation ago.

[Pampero]

By the way, I will be receiving an SVS SB16 in the next day or two. Their program makes a trial easy and pain free. Initial user reports are encouraging. If it pans out for me, I'll probably get a second one. If not, I'm off to JL land for F113 v2s.

I'll report my experiences with the SB16 here after I've had some time with the box. I opted for the sealed version with the understanding that it will likely be more compatible for music. I must be crazy because, really, the Salon2s hardly lack for bass.

[Rex Anderson]

Can't remember what year, but we bought a Crown RTA2 when it first came out. One of the guys on my team had an early version of SMAART (maybe version 5?) that we used to dial in a pair of JL Audio F112's with some Lipinski L-707's in one of our control rooms. That was a great full range monitoring system.

We hired Doug Jones (Heyser award winning acoustician) to help with room treatment in our facilities and he used TEF so I got to learn a bit about that.

I always wanted to get further into it, just didn't have the time before I retired. I need to do some work tuning the PA system at the church where I mix live sound, but they need to buy a crossover/processor to make it possible to do any further adjustments. If they want to lay out the money for gear and send me to a training course, I'm willing to put forth the effort and learn more. We're meeting in a few days to discuss plans for next year and it's on my list.