Another ARO question

[stollen]

I was thinking about JL's ARO feature the other day, the instruction manual for my F113 says to bypass all crossovers when running ARO. My question is, since ARO really only fixes the largest bump in frequency response, what good is ARO if it "fixes" a hump that is above the normal crossover frequency? Say it finds the worst frequency anomaly at 85hz but my crossover is set to 42hz for normal listening. Wouldn't running ARO using only the frequency range the sub will be used for be the way to go?

[stollen]

So I had some free time today and went ahead and tried to run ARO with the xover active and set to 45hz. Short answer is it didn't work as I always got the slow blinking lights signaling the level too low error (even with the volume turned up to the max). I did however get it to run with the xover set to around 60hz. It sounds great in my opinion, can't say it sounds better than before because I also went a step further and moved the F113 out of the corner to a spot just to the right of my left channel speaker (re-ran ARO again after moving it) and have been just generally playing around with it all afternoon. Overall though I think the net of today's activities is better bass, I guess my only advice is if you were wondering the same thing I was just try it out and see if you like it better....

The motivating factor of doing this today was a visit to my local dealer where they offered me a screaming deal on a Gotham and I want to find a reason to not buy it

[jdandy]

stollen.......In my opinion, you would be better served to have two f113's rather than a single Gotham. The Gotham is fabulous, no doubt about it, but to take full advantage of your two channel system a second Gotham would be needed, not for more bass energy but for localization reinforcement and sound stage reinforcement. You will move just as much air with two f113 Fathoms and have the ability to fine tune the left and right channels for an improvement in your sound stage width and depth.

If you haven't yet read Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound, you will benefit from the chapter on subwoofers and why two are better than one.

[stollen]

Dan, I totally agree with what you are saying, it was just a brief moment of weakness before realizing a Gotham is just too large to put in our main living room and have it be visually pleasing. For now I will continue to enjoy the sub I have, moving it inward of the left channel speaker really has made a nice improvement

[KingRT]

Originally Posted by jdandy

stollen.......In my opinion, you would be better served to have two f113's rather than a single Gotham. The Gotham is fabulous, no doubt about it, but to take full advantage of your two channel system a second Gotham would be needed, not for more bass energy but for localization reinforcement and sound stage reinforcement. You will move just as much air with two f113 Fathoms and have the ability to fine tune the left and right channels for an improvement in your sound stage width and depth.

If you haven't yet read Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound, you will benefit from the chapter on subwoofers and why two are better than one.

Great advice.