Part II:
To sort of cut to the chase of tuning, I did a 20-100Hz plot of the room before any BFD tuning. Below you will see a graph (hand plotted, no REW) of the results, as well as the results after BFD tuning with only 3 filters. I probably could have gotten by with 2, but I added one more at 33.1Hz to make it flatter.
As you can see, the pre BFD tuning was very good. It was +/- 3.5 db across the 20-80Hz spectrum (80Hz is my crossover point on my receiver. I have the subs crossovers set at 150Hz). The post BFD tuning was amazing. Just a hair over +/- 2 db across the same spectrum. Keep in mind that this was done by hand, and by using only the SPL meter. When I can get my laptop here and do a proper calibration with REW (like Jason did), I'm sure I can do even better!
Impressions - I brought the family down to the "Bass-ment" to listen to the new speakers. I chose to listen to music first, and picked songs we were all very familiar with. I have to say, the changes for music were very subtle. The EP800s sounded musically very similar to the EP500 setup I had before (which is a good thing!). I noticed that the music seemed to be "tighter" (for lack of a better word) in the low end. The bass was not overpowering, but is was definitely there, and definitely tight and fast. My wife said she noticed very little difference as well. The kids of course just ran around in circles and danced. After several songs, we both agreed that the new speakers performed just as well, and a bit better, than the EP500s.
Next, we chose a couple of movies to check out the differences in LFE. THIS is where the big changes occurred. I picked "Apollo 13" and "V for Vendetta" as our two test cases, again because we were both very familiar with these movies. For "Apollo 13", we played the takeoff scene. Even moments before the ship took off, there were points where I could feel my seats shake. This is a first for me in this theater because, since it is in the basement, it sits on a concrete foundations. I've had no problems in the past getting my walls, furniture, and dishes upstairs to shake, but getting the floor or seats in the theater to shake was next to impossible! My wife noticed the difference right away. I told her that the extra 8 or so Hz the new speakers were providing were mostly in the subsonic range, but definitely in the range that would provide the "shake" and "punch" that we were missing from the old setup (I would like to provide a small caveat on the EP500s. They are fantastic speakers! In most any other setup, they would provide a bunch of shake or punch as well. Basement theaters are tricky however.)
Next, I played the domino scene in "V for Vendetta". Again, the floor and seats shook when the LFE effects were played. I pulled out the SPL meter and read peaks of approximately 100db during the scene. There was never a distortion of sound, it always seemed tight and punchy, and for the first time (well, second now), the theater seemed to actually shake during the scene. I asked my wife what her impressions were, and she agreed that the new setup (and sensory feedback) added a greater sense of realism because you felt more like you were in the scene.
Well, that's my initial impression in a nutshell. I'm extremely satisfied with the new speakers. Sending the EP500s back is sort of bittersweet however, because it's sort of saying goodbye to good friends. They were fantastic subs, but the EP800s are musically equivalent to them, and on a different level when it comes to LFE.
