For what it's worth, I use an SVS sub with my NHT 2.5's. Works great.

Be sure to leave all speakers on the universal player (or whatever player you get) set to LARGE and sub to YES (turning its bass management circuitry to OFF).

Then switch the toggle on the back of the 950 to ON and use the built in 80 Hz analog crossover.

If you leave it OFF and use the player's bass management you will get double bass routed to the sub due to a screw up in the 5.1 analog input's bass management design.

Dan

This is my reference "blow your buddie's mind" SACD. I would get a universal player, take advantage of the 950's bass management, and see if you can get a player w/ bass management (as the level controls on DVD/Super Audio are different then the level controls on Digital/Analog into the 950) see Denon 2900. Go to track #2, sit down, and wait about 5 minutes for a wild ride!

I think you're on the wrong thread...Dark Side maybe?
Yes, that's one of my demo tracks also!

Welcome back, VADER. I think it worth noting that (1) bass management is widely agreed to be important for DVD-Audio and SACD (hence the existence of Outlaw's ICBM), and that (2) JAMMINJC was referring to the 950's digital bass management --



-- which would not be used with DVD-Audio or SACD since they are connected to the 5.1 analog input.

The members of this forum have always tried to be respectful of each other. I would qualify comments like



to be the polar opposite of that respect. This forum is open to anyone, no matter what the equipment or budget. There are quite a few regulars here with extremely impressive systems, but they are polite enough not to be condescending to others. I invite you to follow their lead in the future.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

TVD51,

I'm running Hsu VTF 2 (www.hsustore.com/vtf2.html) which I love. One of the nice features of the sub is the ability to configure it for either lower bass (down to 25 Hz according to Hsu) response or a slightly more powerful bass response which is better for movies. I've never hear the other two subs so I'd be hard pressed to make a comparision, but I would put the Hsu on your check it out list. Don't know your budget but they are running around $449 right now.

My LFM is on the way! I'm using three Mackie full range monitors and two slightly inferior Alesis monitors for the rear surrounds. A Pioneer universal 45A is feeding the 950 via all available outputs. As is, I get terrific sound on 6-channel bypass with plenty of bass. I'm assuming that there's unique material on the .1 channel making the lfm worthwhile. My question? Should the 45A be set to full, sub on since the six speaker/monitors will be plugged into the 950? Should I rewire the system in any way to make the sound better? (I understand that the next step is to program the inputs for SACD, DVD-A and CD separately. Right now I just punch six-channel bypass and let the 45A handle the decoding.)

Thanks for listening and writing your comments!

Jay

Yes, the 45A should be set with all speakers as "large" and the sub as "on." That should be all you need to do for SACD, DVD-Audio, and audio CD.

Some people who use the 950's DACs set up an auxiliary input in stereo mode, separate from the DVD input and the 6-channel analog. If you like using the 45A's DACs for CD's, your current method is fine.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

You may want to experiment with the speaker settings a little, and see what sounds best to you. Some people with full range speakers may prefer setting speakers to "small" and have a crossover of say, 40 Hz, which lets the subwoofer play the bass punch, because even speakers rated at all the way down to 20 Hz +/- 3 dB (which is pretty good for a speaker) usually can't reproduce 20 Hz cleanly as loud as most subwoofers can, even though they may be fine at reproducing 20 Hz softly. Also if you play sounds through your speakers near their -3 dB roll off frequency, your speakers will be rolling off sound that would not get rolled off if the sound were directed instead to your subwoofer.

Best,

Will

In general, that's excellent advice (particularly for the 950's digital bass management), but in this case he's connecting the 6-channel analog ouput of his player to the 950 6-channel analog input and using the 80Hz analog crossover, so it would be best to not do any bass management at the player.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review