Both came the same day .
I needed another Isoblue shelf for my Antimode Dual Core 2.0 and Graham Slee Accession MC. I decided to try dual subwoofers with the Harbeths to even out room response at LP. I’ve never had dual subwoofers, so after reading about the potential benefits over the years, I finally pulled the trigger and am really glad I did. While there’s not a night-and-day difference in output after running the Antimode room correction sweeps on the Dual-Mono setting and adjusting settings on the SVS SB-2000 Pros within the app, I can honestly notice the more visceral impact and depth within the room, and the soundstage seems consistently more stable. Whether electronic, upright or electric on several of my go-to artists, bass comes across almost ethereally; piano is also quite impressive and more ‘there’. Why on earth didn’t I do this sooner? Just thought I’d share some quick impressions, and would enourage anyone to go the dual subwoofer route.
Out of interest, where in the signal chain do you have the Antimode Dual Core 2.0 installed? Do you just use it for bass management or do you use its full room correction ability?
Hi AlexP.
I use it for bass-correction/management only (500Hz limit of the unit—down), as from my understanding of the Antimode DC if I was to switch to listening to records (off digital), the readings/correction would be rendered useless/inactive if that makes sense. My room measurements (taken from the Stereophile test CD) from 20Hz-20kHz are impressively flat, save for a marginally nasty dip around 75Hz, which the DC does a pretty good job minimizing.
Thanks for the reply. So you use it on the pre-out/sub out of your amplifier/pre-amp? Does the unit only apply DSP on its digital inputs or both analogue and digital - I read from your initial post that the DSP functionality would not apply on records - perhaps I have misunderstood this?
Yes. I have a SuperNait 2 and use RCAs on the Sub Out—>DC L/R Input; DC L/R Output to Sub A L/R Input; Sub A L/R Output—>Subwoofer B Input (daisy-chained). My understanding is if you use the Dual Core to correct bass from 500Hz on down, it shouldn’t matter switching from digital to analog if using it in this regard. It’s when you have it run the full sweep as a full 2.0 system (it would use DSP on my Harbeths as well) that though bass is corrected, it sounds digitized throughout the spectrum. This is what I wanted to avoid at all costs. I only use it for bass management (not as a preamp or a DAC, even though many use it as such). I hope this helps.
@jsawer09, any links/reading you can recommend reading on the dual sub subject? I have a very small listening room (like 2.3m x 4.2m) , so my take is that 2 subs will be overpowering… But then I never believed in soundstage depth beyond speakers either, until 2 days ago.
I would say the four better sites I’ve visited on the subject as far as successful integration is the AVS Forum, AudioGon Forum, Audio Asylum and Steve Hoffman Forum. Each has their own takes—some very technical, while others are more in the realm of theoretical. You can do a search on each starting with low pass filter settings, volume, phase and so forth; subjects/threads will overwhelm you, but if I’m reading you right, it sounds like you’re more interested in whether or not two subwoofers would overpower your room. I’d say 100% of the time if you’ve integrated a second subwoofer correctly, that is the last thing you would discover or have to deal with in your system. It takes time and patience, but it is well worth the effort; and if you have REW or DSP (in my case the Antimode Dual Core…even the 8033 unit does wonders) then it is nearly a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor, I’d suspect, with simple tweaking from there.
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