Setup

While the SB13-Plus provides ample tweakability, I can’t say it provides easy access to that tweakability. The IFC display and knob are on the back, and the sub’s heavy enough that you don’t want to be scooching it to get to those controls.

One really smart thing that SVS did with the SB13-Plus is set the defaults to work with systems using a receiver or preamp/processor for bass management. It worked just fine the moment I plugged it into my system, needing nothing but a level adjustment.

Adjusting the room gain compensation and parametric equalizers accurately requires measurement gear. If you do it by ear, you’ll likely end up with settings as bungled as the tone controls found on the average rental car radio. The manual explains the process thoroughly. Your measurement gear can be as simple as an iPhone or Android phone running a sound-pressure level meter app, or you can step up to using a calibrated microphone and a laptop computer running TrueRTA or Room EQ Wizard software.

My listening room has a broad peak of about +6 dB centered at 40 Hz. I was easily able to eliminate that response bump using just one of the P-EQs. The only control I needed to tweak was the Q, which took some experimentation to get perfect.