Polk SDA 1.2/1.2TL and subs?

thejck

How many of you SDA owners with properly setup/amplified SDA's add subs for your 2 channel pleasure?

I am still thinking about building me some subs and I wanted to see if I should just worry about them for the HT part of my room or try and integrate them into my 2 channel rig as well.

nspindel

Sal has a sub with his 1.2TL's

Toolfan66

No sub for me!!!!!

nspindel

Me neither, and I just have 1C's.

dpowell

No Subs on my 1C's. Do the other forum-recommended upgrades if you haven't already and you won't need a sub.

thejck

dpowell wrote: »

No Subs on my 1C's. Do the other forum-recommended upgrades if you haven't already and you won't need a sub.

Its not that I feel I need a sub. Its just that I am trying to build a plan of what to do.

I have done a few of the upgrades already. I will be trying out DK's inductors soon and I heard that is supposed to bring out a lot more bass in the 1.2's

thejck

nspindel wrote: »

Sal has a sub with his 1.2TL's

Too Sal,
care to pass along your thoughts on the matter.

heiney9

Properly set-up and powered SDA's shouldn't need a sub, unless you are in a very, very large listening room. Even then probably not.

H9

newrival

It depends on what you're after, thejck.

You'll find (and HAVE found) staunch opponents and proponents to subs with SRS's

It comes down to application and personal taste. A sub will add appropriate weight to music and offer a much more reinforced sub-bass frequency response. Likely, someone will come in and argue that recoding studios filter out this information anyways except in the occasional classical/chamber/organ recording, but according to a personal friend who is a producer in Nashville, this is rarely ever the case, and just not that clear-cut.

There are those, too, that will say you don't need a sub because they've been to such and such audio show with hundreds of thousands in gear and none of them had subs, so subs must not be necessary. As I'm sure you can tell it's a logical fallacy. Specifically a hasty generalization. The truth is that MOST high/very-high end speakers are designed as a system with separate stereo subwoofers. But the implementation is based on the end user. It's easier to upsell someone on a sub from a lower price and the promise of better sound then downsell from a high price and a promise of less full sound.

Anyways, a sub is a nice addition to a great set of speakers like SRS's but requires as much forethought and planning/experimentation as does any other part of the audio chain, often more-so. You can't just add a $400 sub, throw it in the room and expect a cohesive sound.

My suggestion:
stereo subs of equal quality to the SRS's and a preamp with dual outs. Although the last part is mostly an ideal situation.

PolkClyde

thejck wrote: »

How many of you SDA owners with properly setup/amplified SDA's add subs for your 2 channel pleasure?

I am still thinking about building me some subs and I wanted to see if I should just worry about them for the HT part of my room or try and integrate them into my 2 channel rig as well.

I have the Polk 1.2's and enjoy my PSW 505 Sub.try both setup,HT and 2 channel and make your own decision.don't let or allow anyone to tell you what sounds good to you.I like both set up in my rig.... PSW 505 Rules.it may not be the best,but it is for me at the moment.

analog97

When I first got my 1.2 TL's, I thought they were a little bass shy, but numerous equipment upgrades proved that to be absolutely false. I have not used my sub in years and this sub is the big Paradigm Reference 15. Truly, it adds little in my 26 X 20 room, unless you want to turn it up and rattle walls. But, I prefer the bass to be flat (db-wise) and not boomy for music. I am going to look for a new home for my sub.

thejck

I have a good amplifer and have done quite a few of the tweaks for the speakers so far.
I am currently working on some room upgrades. I have 5 x 6foot windows that sit behind me. I am trying to figure out a way to kill the reflections of these windows.

I guess after that is done I need to add a sub and see if I like it better.

heiney9

What amp are you running and what tweaks have you done? Source? Cables?

H9

OldmanSRS

If you are considering a sub, it HAS to be a good one or you will degrade the sound of the SRS. Room accoustics, standing waves at low bass frequecies, all play into the decision to sub or not. I run an HSU VTF3 sub crossed over at 25 Hz and just barely on. It adds the extra depth at low and mid volume levels that brings the deepest bass from pipe organs, standup basses, kick drums etc, to tight, impressive reproduction. It's not the least bit boomy and integrates well into the SRS's.

thejck

heiney9 wrote: »

What amp are you running and what tweaks have you done? Source? Cables?

H9

I have a parasound hca-3500 amp. that puts out 350 watts/channel at 8 ohms.
Using some canare star quad cables that I made myself

1. Larrys rings
2. Mortite
3. Dynamat
4. Croossovers were TL's by Ben with sonic caps on the upper end.
5. spikes
6. rdo 198's

I plan to do the new gimpod's boards and new inductors soon and replace all caps with sonic.

My source is lossless flac played out off a pc using an optical cable to an external dac. Parasound p3 2 channel preamp.

I play my music using foobar with the wasapi plugin to enable bit-perfect playback.

newrival

thejck wrote: »

I have a parasound hca-3500 amp. that puts out 350 watts/channel at 8 ohms.
Using some canare star quad cables that I made myself

1. Larrys rings
2. Mortite
3. Dynamat
4. Croossovers were TL's by Ben with sonic caps on the upper end.
5. spikes
6. rdo 198's

I plan to do the new gimpod's boards and new inductors soon and replace all caps with sonic.

My source is lossless flac played out off a pc using an optical cable to an external dac. Parasound p3 2 channel preamp.

I play my music using foobar with the wasapi plugin to enable bit-perfect playback.

Well I'd say you've handily cut off anyone blaming it on the lack of mods to your srs's :biggrin:

Are you able to borrow q good sub from anyone? If not many highend sub makers give you a risk free trial period. If you do it, I'd love to hear a review

thejck

due to my preamp being 2 channel only I dont have any crossover mangement for the sub. The preamp has balanced and unbalanced outputs. I am currently using unbalanced to the amp. I guess i would have to run the balanced outputs from the pre to the sub. I am not sure if they are both functional at the same time.
I guess on the sub I can use the low-pass crossover to make sure its only reproducing those Hz's down low but I wont be able to cut off those lower Hz's to the main speakers.
Would that be a problem?

OldmanSRS

I run the SRS1.2s at full frequency and suplement them at 25 Hz and lower using the 24 db/octave low pass in the sub. Sub placement and phasing are critical to seamless integration of the bass.

heiney9

thejck wrote: »

due to my preamp being 2 channel only I dont have any crossover mangement for the sub. The preamp has balanced and unbalanced outputs. I am currently using unbalanced to the amp. I guess i would have to run the balanced outputs from the pre to the sub. I am not sure if they are both functional at the same time.
I guess on the sub I can use the low-pass crossover to make sure its only reproducing those Hz's down low but I wont be able to cut off those lower Hz's to the main speakers.
Would that be a problem?

I don't believe you can run both single ended and balanced connections simultaneously unless they are two completely seperate outputs as labeled like "output 1 and output 2". Most use Y adapters to split the signal coming from one or the other. Single ended would be easier and most prevelant if you decide to do it that way. Kind of a "make shift" way to do it.

H9

thejck

when you run y adapters dont you get some loss of signal (dB)?

OldmanSRS

Theoretically, yes depending on your preamps output impedance. You are driving twice the load (1/2 the impedance) but in the rearl world you probably won't notice it. Most preamps have a much lower output impedance then most amps input impedance so they can drive the parallel load just fine.