Doug in Doug

Movie fanatic Doug from NY discusses his journey to an end-game home theater, which went from two ported 13-inch subwoofers to 10 sealed 17-inch subwoofers on his journey as his listening preferences evolved and he gained a deeper understanding of in-room bass response.

With a dedicated space and careful planning for everything from the power to the acoustic treatments, Doug has achieved “…pant leg waving, hair moving, cheek shaking, neck and eyeball pressure fun,” and a completely immersive escape into his cinematic experience.

Questions And Answers:

When/Why did you first start getting into high-performance audio?

I always had some kind of theater system, but it wasn't until 2017 that I started to plan a dedicated home theater. I really enjoy watching movies, but local cinemas were not very immersive to me and I knew I could build a better theater and have a much better experience.

What made you choose the SB17-Ultra R|Evolution subwoofers?

I needed a company that made great products and that I could grow with. I started with 2 x PB-2000 Pro in 2021. Loved them and added 2 more. About a year later, I upgraded them to 6 x PB-3000. I was always a ported guy, but I tried my PB-3000 in sealed mode. I liked the results and then upgraded them to 8 x PB16-Ultra. I used them in extended mode for a while then switched them to sealed mode. I really started to love the sound of sealed subwoofers.

At this point, I was very pleased with the 16-Ultras and since a lot of time passed since my first SVS PB-2000, I was able to experience other brands of subwoofers. There were several reasons why I chose the SB17's. The smaller footprint of the SB17-Utras led to more placement options which, in turn, led to greater output, deeper extension, and better overall frequency response. Also, with the room gain I get in my sealed theater, there is no comparison. SVS subwoofers, along with the customer service, are hard to beat, so the upgrade to SB17-Ultras was easy and the logical choice.

Why 10 subwoofers?

Well, it's actually 12 now. I have 2 different subwoofers on loan. Having the 8 x PB16-Ultras was a lot. You get used to having a flat frequency response across all seats and serious output. Because it’s a sealed theater, I got the benefit of a large amount of room gain when the 16-Ultras were sealed. I figured since I was upgrading to the SB17-Ultras, I would increase the subwoofer total to 10. This gives me the deep extension I am looking for and headroom to spare. In my opinion, subwoofers are the backbone of the home theater. More is always better.

How would you describe the low frequency and overall experience of your home theater compared to what most people have?

From a subwoofer comparison, the SVS SB17-ultra will compete with any 18-inch subwoofer in my opinion, and others with different brands agree. In my theater, I’m lucky to feel frequencies below 16 Hz. This isn’t always the case. We have other very capable theaters, and it seems with some of them, it's wasted on the back wall. My theater's low frequency ranges from reserved to violent when it's called for.

Frequencies below 20 Hz to the single digits are felt with the pant leg waving, body shake, hair moving, cheek shaking, neck and eyeball pressure fun. The kick drum/gunshot chest pressure is punch-like. Yet the fine details of bass notes in music just sound right. I turned my theater to be more dead-like, with very even low decay times. That's what I prefer. The sound is still spacious but there's more pinpoint accuracy. When doing a demo of Ant-man, it's fun to see people swatting at the flying ants, or ducking when a movie has a fly over. From a vocal standpoint, I pass the Christopher Nolan test we use with flying colors. The vocals in Tenet (one of my favorites) are crystal clear. When it’s called for, my theater is like being on a motion ride at Universal Studios. Yet my favorite compliment is when people say it sounds like the walls just disappeared.

Have you reached the end-game, or are you still looking at upgrades?

I am currently running 12 subwoofers. 10 x SVS SB17-Ultra and 2 other sealed subwoofers on loan, so there's a good chance I will go up to 12 x SB17 at some point. Other than that, I love the sound from my speakers. My electronics fit my needs and the projector gives me a great picture. So yeah, I guess I reached the end game with everything else. I am going to switch out all the grey curtains with black velvet panels. That was always in the plans for the end.

What were the greatest challenges when setting up your home theater?

I started to build my theater from the ground up in 2019. I guess the biggest challenge was being patient. I did about 2 years of research before starting the build. I built everything in the theater to be completely modular from the seating positions to tuning the acoustic panels/bass traps/resonators, dedicated electric service, etc. I knew that from the start of construction, there were going to be many changes (seating-screen size-speakers-subwoofers-etc), so I needed the ability to move, remove, and install on the fly. I finished the actual frame construction in early 2019. It took about 3 months. Learning how to use REW and how to read the data was priceless and a necessity. We didn't watch a movie in the theater until early 2021 so that was a challenge in itself. The theater wasn't truly finished until 2025 (except for some cosmetic work that still needs to be done).

Favorite Demo(s)?

My demos have changed a bit since getting the SB-17 Ultras. There's the system test at the beginning of Edge of Tomorrow. Quite a treat at reference, plus the whole movie is a demo. The movie Dread is a full-range beast. Pixels is another full range beast. The lawn scene from Olympus Has Fallen is stellar and you need a big sealed system to render it. The Quiet Place movies are all good.

The Star Trek movies with Chris Pine and both Dune movies are some of the best. The opening of Overlord gets a lot of "my god". Battle Los Angeles and scenes from Lone Survivor and The Hurt Locker are awesome. The catacomb scene from John Wick 2 has some of the most intense gunfire you can get in a movie, plus in no particular order: Black Hawk Down, Alita Battle Angel, Tenet, King Skull Island, Atmoic Blonde, War of the Worlds and I could go on and on, there are so many great experiences.

Did the SVS support team assist you at all?

Absolutely. From early on when I had the 4 PB-2000s, SVS support helped me with some technical questions. Ed Mullen and Gary Yacoubian helped me when I upgraded to the 6 PB-3000s. In all my upgrades from the PB-3000 to the 8 PB16 to the 10 SB17, Ed Mullen always went above and beyond. Whether it was the pricing to technical questions or handling the special delivery, he was always super helpful. I think we ended up with a publishable book of emails and a few phone calls throughout the whole process. The SVS support team should be commended on their email response time and ability to handle and fix any problems that arise.

Anything else you’d like to share with the SVS community?

Sure, one big thing I learned from this whole process is taking time to enjoy your space. It's a journey, not a race. While it's a hobby to me and I enjoy tinkering with stuff, I still get lost in the movie I’m watching. I use two movie rental services so we watch/demo over 20 movies a month. It's a great feeling when you put one of your favorite movies on and it makes you smile from ear to ear.