My Polk Lsi 705's needs an economy subwoofer

Trevorj800

Not a lot of money, and I have to order them because I live in a place with no audio stores. What's a good sub in the $150--250 range? I am particularly looking for something that performs well at relatively low volume. It will be in a large rectangular room with 11 foot ceilings and lots reflections -- a glass door and bouncy concrete walls.

tonyb

so...you want a miracle then ?

Big room, sub to hit lower than the 705's, for under 250 ? Maybe Dayton subs, but I won't commit to the quality of the sound as compared to others.

Subs don't usually do well for low volumes.
My guess is your problem is elsewhere in your system, those 705's can belt out some decent low end. What are you driving the 705's with ?

Trevorj800

An Onkyo 626

F1nut

There's your problem. Well, that and the room.

Trevorj800

What's wrong with my amp?

F1nut

I've got CD/SACD players that weigh a lot more meaning your AVR doesn't have much of a power supply and it all starts with the power supply. AVR's are good for HT use, not 2 channel music.

Emlyn

https://www.amazon.com/Bic-Acoustech-PL-200-II-Subwoofer/dp/B074131NKS/ref=pd_sbs_23_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B074131NKS&pd_rd_r=SM0P8T7AG7XC78PPF91W&pd_rd_w=plFX6&pd_rd_wg=bAM1J&psc=1&refRID=SM0P8T7AG7XC78PPF91W

There will be compromises in a budget subwoofer, but they can be minimized for $249. At $150 there isn't much worth looking at. Check out Amazon for other offerings like the Polk PSW505, Elac S10, Klipsch R-10SWi.

A subwoofer and low volume tends to not make much sense. Why have a subwoofer at all if you're not going to crank it up and use it? The LSiM705s will not benefit from an added subwoofer at low listening levels.

If you decide to upgrade to better gear later to better suit the large room, move the bargain subwoofer to an office or bedroom system.

rooftop59

Hey Trevor, do you have a full surround setup or are you just running two channel? If two channel, I would definitely look at selling the avr and adding the $250 to what you get from the avr. Get a used integrated or a used pre amp and amp (like a B&K reference 30) and you will be much better off.

Or, shameless plug, my yamaha that I am selling is much heavier and much better sounding than that onkyo. http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/179720/yamaha-rx-a1010-and-parasound-hca-1000a#latest

tonyb

Trev,
Obviously your losing bass response at lower volume levels, which for the most part, is somewhat normal. A sub isn't going to help with that. More power will help some, and that receiver is pretty weak when it comes to power.

Your choices as I see it, is....

A- buy a better more powerful receiver. Make sure it has preouts to be able to add an amplifier down the road. Yours doesn't, which limits your abilities.

B- if your system is just for music listening, move away from receivers and get a pre-amp/amplifier combo when the 'ol wallet allows.

you can add a subwoofer if you want, but in your price range finding one that will dig deeper than your speakers is going to be tough. Especially if you have a large room. Bigger the room, bigger the sub needs to be to pressurize that room.

As for what you have right now, some things you can check is....

Are your speakers set to full range ?
Are speaker levels set to 0 or slightly in the + side ?
Is your receiver set to "no subwoofer" or none, if you don't have one now.

Hope that helps ya out some, let us know how it goes.

mhardy6647

There are plenty of cheap (powered) subwoofers. I think that one gets what one pays for in that regard.

Parts Express kind of runs the gamut vis-a-vis subwoofer options: from the ridiculous to the (relatively speaking) sublime, FWIW.

https://www.parts-express.com/cat/powered-subwoofers/95

FWIW, I have (had) a cheap powered subwoofer for a long time -- a 10" ported powered "Atlantic Technologies" brand buyout from Parts Express. It did its job, but was kind of one-note and not particularly 'musical' (for lack of a better term).

Recently upgraded to something in another league entirely, though.

Emlyn

Concrete walls, glass, and high ceilings also make it hard to achieve good controlled low frequencies. It may take two subwoofers to get decent sound, and I would be thinking in the $500 a piece range for subwoofage. A new receiver alone may not do much to control the room reflections.

tonyb

Maybe Trev just wants a little more oomph when watching movies late at night at lower volumes.

Still, imho....a big room, lower volumes, and a cheap sub = you just wasted your money.

jeremymarcinko

I’m really interested in the new Monoprice Monolith subwoofers. I know, I shouldn’t be, but they appear to be awesome for the money.

VR3

the 705, properly powered will deliver enough bass. Their bass would be better than any sub under 500 bucks new