Surround Sound Speaker Systems

B&W VM6 Floor-standing Speakers, M-1 Surround Speakers and PV1 Subwoofer

On the Bench

Measurements were taken from 1 foot away at a height equal to the center of the driver.

VM6

THD+N measured 0.68% at 1kHz.

At 10 kHz, distortion was about the same as it was at 1 kHz.

Both results better than I had expected given the design constraints of a wall mount.

Here is the in-room response (from 2 meters).

At 1 kHz, THD+N measured 0.67%.

And, at 10 kHz, 0.55%.

The in-room response (2 meters) is shown below. You can see that the response is not nearly as flat as it was with the VM6.

PV1

For the subwoofer tests, the crossover was bypassed, EQ set "i", Phase at "+", and the gain was turned to 12 o'clock.

At 50 Hz, THD+N was 2.5%, 100 dB SPL.

THD+N across the frequency range was below 10% from about 35 Hz to 120 Hz and below 4% from 40 Hz to 80 Hz (having distortion below 10% has become the "standard" for acceptable performance).

The built in EQ modes performed just as advertized, attenuating the lower frequencies below about 45 Hz.

The PV1 measured 86 dB at 10% THD+N for the lower end of the frequency response spec (21 Hz). (Again, a "standard" for subwoofer performance is how loud it will play at a certain frequency when it reaches 10% THD+N).