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View Full Version : Yorkville PSA2s review



conanski
04-19-2015, 05:14 PM
OK the weekend is over so here is my review and observations of these subs. I'm including a couple pics of them setup in front of my garage with the Yorkville TL3252s on top of them, this is how they were deployed for the event but I didn't get a chance to take any pics at the venue. First impressions upon picking them up is they are heavy but the wheels and handles are well placed so levering them into my van by myself wasn't that hard, the one long side of the cab has large rubber pucks obviously designed to keep them off the ground or lock into the pockets on the other side if more than one are stacked. The back panel is pretty sparse, XLR and 1/4 input and outputs, a level control, and a speaker level/line level switch. This last thing puzzles me.. who in hell would buy a $2000 sub and use a speaker level input? That is the first strange thing I found with these but it's not the only thing.. more on that in a minute.
Sound. Oh my these things have some serious output, these are the first subs I have used that can not only keep up with these TL double 15 mains (101db sensitivity and 1500w power handling) but can also outrun them. My first though upon powering them up at the venue was.. they are gonna have to be turned, down because the bass levels were obnoxious, but the groom was a bit of a bass freak and told me to leave it alone.. he is one of those guys with a pair of 12'" subs in the hatch of his car. So I left them set at unity and on classic rock like Bowies China Girl the sound was glorious... thick bass lines you can almost taste and can definitely feel. With hip-hop the bass was stupid because of the rediculous bass boost they master into those recordings but that is what they wanted. I did notice the bass control on the mixer was turned down to about the 9 oclock position at the end of the night so evidently somebody else also though there was a bit too much bass.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7600/17202562212_293703f9a1_o.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7702/17203650681_0f1708a796_b.jpg

These subs also drop pretty low, my expertly calibrated ear(LOL) was hearing some low notes that a lot of other pro subs don't produce, but there was also an over abundance of upper sub range stuff too on some tracks, and it was particularly obnoxious behind the subs so I suspected at that point that the frequency response wasn't exactly flat.. something I also noticed with the PS1As as well. That leads me to the next picture, this is the actual measured response of the sub in my back yard on grass. I have measured other subs in this location and didn't get a response that looked like that, and for the record I have a calibrated test mic, I'm using REW on a laptop with a calibration file for the mic, and I'm going USB into a mixer with a correction file for the mixer soundcard as well. The low response corner at 35hz confirms the box has good extension but what is up with the big 60hz hump? This is something that I could fix with a little bit of EQ in the driverack but you got to ask.. why didn't they do that with the built-in processing? Or does this box have any built-in processing? Seems strange to me that it wouldn't at this price point but what do I know. Whatever the case this isn't a deal breaker for me, I would use these again and apply the necessary EQ, The guests at the event this weekend had a blast so I'm happy and hopefully others will find this info helpful.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8785/17016695120_9bd463334c_b.jpg

Hanginon
04-19-2015, 10:00 PM
When you say "actual measured response of the sub in my back yard on grass", you are not referring to that first picture, correct? Having an enclosed space like a garage, with it's doors open, right behind the speaker would certainly play hell with the measurements.

Yorkville advertises the PSA2s as 30Hz-100Hz +/- 3db. What you measured is over +/- 10 db for the same frequencies - that is a huge difference, and that difference is due to that 60 hz peak. Our ears are always the final test, but frankly, I would not be a happy camper if I just dropped $4K on a pair of subs that did that, if in fact your measurements are correct.

conanski
04-19-2015, 10:48 PM
When you say "actual measured response of the sub in my back yard on grass", you are not referring to that first picture, correct? No.. totally different location and not near any structures. I did measure one in the location in the top pic and also took a bunch of measurements at different distances and positions relative to the box but the big response peak remained in all of them. What is interesting is the box still sounds very good with music despite the fact it appears to have an ugly response, but I am going to double check that I don't have something messed up with my test system all the same.

Incognito
04-19-2015, 10:57 PM
It's possible to pick up low frequencies from outside sources when recording in a none controlled environment, there could be pick up from distant construction work, a railway etc. interfering with the recording. There's something going on since the stated spec from Yorkville state that this sub should be +/-3db from 30hz to 100hz (though true to form they don't provide their own graphs) so a swing of 6db max should be seen between these two frequency points. As we can see in your chart there is far more then a 6db difference between those two set frequencies so I would say your mic was possibly picking up something else or something screwy was going on while you was doing your recording.

http://yorkville.com/downloads/specsheet/ss_psa2s.pdf


https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8785/17016695120_9bd463334c_b.jpg

Hanginon
04-20-2015, 06:34 AM
I think Incognito is onto something. 60 Hz is the powerline hum frequency here in the states. Also notice the other peak at 120 HZ, the secondary harmonic of 60 Hz.

conanski
04-20-2015, 11:08 AM
Manufacturers play fast and lose with specs using all sorts of "cheats" to get a rating and from what I have seen there is no loudspeaker with a perfectly flat response but I agree this response is whacky and not something I have seen before. But it wasn't something the mic alone was picking up the speaker itself definitely had a peaking response.. I could hear it during the tone sweeps so I don't really suspect an environmental cause.. it was Sunday so no construction, I'm nowhere near a railway and it was a beautiful wind free day. My main suspect would be a 60hz boost in the electronic signal chain that I wasn't aware of, I thought I had everything set flat but I'll definitely have to check it.