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Initial impressions on B&W ASW610

Posted by JBen (A) on November 8, 2011 at 01:34:49

In Reply to: RE: Rel T3 and 1.7 posted by Stony2275 on November 7, 2011 at 09:55:45:

The chance to bring the B&W 610 subwoofer home came out of the blue late on Sunday.

On this first session, there was no attempt at tweaking other than verifying distance at the receiver(& volume level for "starting point" by ear.) The B&W plate amp settings were left as I had originally adjusted them for my friend's room. The B&W was placed right where my 10" (vented) Velodyne subwoofer normally sits. This is at the center on the floor (carpet on concrete), nested within the equipment rack, under the plasma TV. The B&W's front is aprox. on the same plane as the MMGs. The room is 12x25', with a slightly under 8' flat concrete ceiling. The MMGs are 4' from wall and 2' from sides.

This B&W subwoofer is very compact but its size is measleading. My room never felt too large for the B&W ASW610, even without the benefit of corner placement. Leaving other qualitative aspects aside for now, its bass output seemed so extended that I felt compelled to confirm it by measuring. The weekend had been set aside for some unrelated tests of my system/room configuration. Thus, I had part of my measuring setup already in place.

However, I did not need to measure to know that this B&W subwoofer eats my 10" Velodyne alive. Contrary to the Velodyne, which I very seldom use for music, there were no worrisome speed/texture issues with the B&W. The slot-loaded 10" Velodyne adds good bass but the lowest-register textures go down the drain very quickly. In addition, where it overlaps the MMGs' low end, no amount of tweaking can get it past a certain point in terms of clarity. Luckily, I get very good bass from my MMGs alone. So, I can live without the subwoofer for much music. This way, I enjoy the low-end textures down to the MMGs physical limits.

Impressively, on both the overlap and on the extension, the B&W never fully failed integration in this limited testing. In fact, I had a hard time believing that the sub was at work in many test music passages where both it and the MMGs overlapped. In other passages, I could easily see that tweaking things should get the job done fully. At no time did I hear the MMGs sound being too impaired by turning the B&W subwoofer on. Then, of course, the extra low end added by the B&W was welcome and very seldom discontinuous.

I have asked my friend to allow me to keep the B&W here for a few more days on which I may be able to tweak it properly.

For now, in saying that it sounds great even before adjusting it, I am understating how impressive it seems so far. To put it in some perspective, I have been thinking of eventually getting a Rhythmik F12. [Although the notion of cone diameter going higher than 10" for music worried me, the F12 is very well-regarded for this purpose.] Yet, the B&W ASW610 began to integrate with the MMGs so well -- with no tweaking -- that it got me wondering. Perhaps I should try to borrow the F12 first, because this little cube from B&W is displaying the goods already and it is cheaper.

Now, about the quick frequency scans I made on Sunday evening. All the traces are with the MMG channels set as "full range" (Large) speakers in analog "Pure Direct" mode, undergoing no bass-management on their own circuits. Bass-management for the subs is separate. The calibrated microphone is at the listening (head) position, about 11 feet away and aimed at middle between the MMGs. Thus, the sub lies directly under this line...not that it matters much. Smoothing is set at 1/6 octave.

1. Center traces are with no subwoofer. Left(purple)/right(blue) [modded] MMGs. These center traces reflect true SPL values during this read. The other traces were shifted up or down by 40db for display purposes.

2. The upper traces are of the right side MMG with both the Velodyne (purple) and the B&W (red) subwoofers. This is for frequency range; level matching was not attempted. Rather, the Velo is set the way I normally use it and the B&W's volume is set where I first liked it for several test music pieces. Both subwoofers' plate amps are set at 80hz and so is the receiver's bass management.

3. The lowest traces include the B&W 610 for both channels. The right side channel is green, left is yellow. On this one, while the subwoofer is set at 80hz, the receiver is set at 110hz. Again, the MMGs are set to "Large".

(Not all the stuff under the chart is directly related to the subwoofers.)

Edits: 11/08/11

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