Subwoofer voice match?

Rickmaan

This is probably a newbie question, but does a sub need to be voice matched to the rest of the speakers in a home theater setup? I want to add a 2nd sub to my system 'cuz my PSW250 just sounds too boomy instead of the tight, clean bass I desire (probably because it's too small for my living room and is being overdriven to compensate). While I enjoy the sound and build quality in my other Polk's I'm not terribly impressed with their PSW's and the numerous reviews citing port turbulence, rattles, and warm amps that cut out doesn't fill me with confidence in getting a 2nd Polk sub. I'm considering a JBL 150 watt powered sub but I was wondering if the different tonal qualities would be very obvious, or if JBL's also suffer any of the problems mentioned about the Polk subs (JBL doesn't have a forum like this on their site). Does anyone have a better suggestion for a quality, tight sounding sub that will blend well with Polk speakers and won't cost more than my house payment?

michael_w

I would say that no subs don't have to be matched with the system. As for what sub to replace the 250 with that all depends on your budget. I love polk but am not really super impressed with their ht subs. There are many brands to choose from and I'm sure you'll get the usual "get an svs or hsu and be done with it" from here. Not sure if it's your thing but you can build a budget sub for a bit cheaper as well as have something unique. If you want to build a sub just ask as there are a large amount of people, including myself, who are into diy audio and can help you out.

welcome to the forum.

edit: here are some links for you to check out...
HSU Products
SVS stuff
Nice Martin Logan sub but only if you want to go really fancy and save space
Adire Audio for making a diy sub

Rickmaan

Thanks for the input. I haven't considered building one, but if I had easy to follow plans I'm confident I could put one together. My main concern would be the cost of good quality parts and where to get a suitable amp to power it. My 2nd concern would of course be sound quality. I don't have any experience or education in acoustic design or engineering, but have tried many D-I-Y projects in the automotive hobby and that experience has taught me that most often you can build it cheaper than a production item if you're willing to compromise performance or quality, and you can build it better than a production item but it will cost a lot more, so my 1st instinct is that a professionally manufactured sub will probably be better than one I could build unless I spend a lot more than it's price on the parts I need to build one. As I said, I don't have any experience in this area so I could be wrong. That said, I'd be curious to see what others have spent on DIY subs and how the finished sub sounded.

Toxis

please don't waste your money on a JBL. They sound worse than Polk IMO.

Sell your Polk, save some bucks and get a good sub like the Martin Logan or SVS or something equivalent...

michael_w

If you want to go the diy route just ask and I'm sure all the diy addicts can chime and and help you design a box specific to what driver you pick and what you want out of it. Heres a link to the sub I built - link - That was pretty much my first diy audio project and it turned out really nice. I doubt I could have bought a better sub for the money I put into it. If you want details on it or building a sub say the word.

BTW I agree with toxis... a jbl won't be much if any of an improvement from the polk. Where do you live? That can help us give you some suggestions as to where and what to shop for.

Rickmaan

Thanks Michael, I have to say your sub looks excellent. You have definitely peaked my interest in the DIY route. I've spent a lot of time looking on ebay and there are a number of new, name brand subs that I believe are adequate for my room size that are selling around the $200 mark (I found Infinity, Yamaha, and Polk plus I'm sure there are others), so I don't want to spend more than that on a DIY sub. I've been wrestling with the idea that I simply can't afford the quality sound that I want, but I'm willing to compromise some as long the sub I end up with is an improvement over what I have and stays in the budget I have set. I just bought a new Yammie receiver and CSi3 speaker. With that purchase my wife is already screaming about the $$ I spent so if I go over my $200 limit on the sub it may cost me a lot more than just the $$ ;-). As far as my current sub goes (PSW250), the bass isn't as tight as I would like but it is acceptable as long as I keep the volume adjustment on it relatively low. The problem with that is it won't produce enough bass for my living room. I have to stick it in a corner and turn the knob over 1/2 way up to get a noticable increase in bass over just using my main speakers, at which point the audible bass is simply an unpleasent boom. My room isn't real big (14ft x 15ft) but it's open on 2 sides and also has a vaulted ceiling going from 8 to 10 ft. That produces enough room area that the Polk sub selector recommended a PSW404 for adequate sound volume, the PSW505 if I play it loud, and even suggested 2 subs might be needed to reach desired volume levels with acceptable sound quality! So as you can see my little 250 is grossly undersized, however not wanting to toss out a perfectly operational sub I'm going to move it behind the couch when I get my next sub and run the surround's wires through the speaker level inputs on it and change the surround speaker setting on the receiver to large. That should relieve some of the pressure on the new sub and hopefully allow both subs to perform better. I like alot of bass presence in music but I like it very tight and clean. The same goes for movies, although special effects involve some level of boominess by nature I want the sub to be tight enough that it won't muddy the dialog on the odd occasion that a voice might dip into the subs range. Sorry for getting so wordy, but let me know if you think a DIY sub will meet my needs or if the budget I set simply isn't doable on this project in which case it's back to ebay for me. :-) BTW, I live in the Orlando area in FL so if anyone has some suggestions on where I'd find the parts for a DIY sub please let me know.

tryrrthg

You won't be able to make a DIY sub for $200. $300 maybe but $200 would be a tough budget to meet.

For a $200 budget I would HIGHLY reccomend getting two of the Dayton Audio subs from parts express. They are very good, especially for $100 each. You should be able to find some threads at the Home Theater Forum about them.

michael_w

It will be hard to stay under 200 but I'll start looking around. I was thinking maybe a shiva from adire audio but that will be around $150 in itself I belive. Maybe you can find a decent used sub locally or a member here.