Stereo Sub Recommendations for my Adagios . . .

SolidSqual

After seeing all the woofers Trey has aimed at him, I'm feeling a bit inadequate. What would be a good pair of dual subs to accompany my AZ Adagios? Any recommendations?

Early B.

Well, VMPS, of course.

What's your budget? Are you looking for active or passive subs? For music only or music and HT?

SolidSqual

Active, 80% Music. $1000 - $1500

SolidSqual

i've always wanted to try the SVS 25-31 PC Plus, but I hear they are not so good on music.

dkg999

Give the SVS SB12+ a try for music! I am running one with my Magnepan 1.6's and it keeps up with the planar panels and has great bass SQ. I compared it to a REL sub (Storm) and it was very close in performance.

SolidSqual

Are you running one or two? Is the base seamless? Can you tell from where it is coming?

SolidSqual

What do you guys think of th e HSU subs? How about dual VTF-1s?

dkg999

I'm running one, and the bass is pretty seamless. I've been really impressed with it.

Early B.

SolidSqual wrote: »

What do you guys think of th e HSU subs? How about dual VTF-1s?

Do you mean dual VTF-3's?

Hsu makes excellent subs for music.

If you're gonna go active and have a budget up to $1,500, you should focus on the quality of the amp. Standard plate amps suck, and they're on 95% of the subwoofers out there, including SVS and Hsu. The best plate amp I've heard is the 1,000 watter sold by Parts Express.

If it were my money, I'd go with dual Epik subwoofers, but have them swap out the amps. If you wanna stick with brand names, there are the usual suspects -- VMPS, Vandersteen, REL, blah, blah, blah...

Also include as part of your budget a bass optimization system.

SolidSqual

Right good suggestions . . . I want to go mainstream. The VMPS subs look sick.

SolidSqual

How do you guys feel about the DEfinitve TEchnology Supercube I?

Early B.

SolidSqual wrote: »

How do you guys feel about the DEfinitve TEchnology Supercube I?

I thought you were actually interested in good subs?

schwarcw

I like the little Carver Sunfire subs. They are a bit pricey ($1,000) but the performance is surprising. I like my HSU better than the SVS PB-12NSD for music. For HT, the SVS can't be beat. The Ultra 2's are scary!:eek:

SolidSqual

I'm not ready to jump in and buy another SVS sub. My Martin Logan Grotto was leaps and bounds above the SVS PB-12 NSD. SVS doesn't have the finesse in my experience. Have you ever heard a JL Fathom or a REL Brittania B3? They make any SVS sub cry.

dorokusai

The REL T series is very nice for music. I've heard the REL Brittania and it didn't make me want to sell my SVS but perhaps your experience was more life changing. The only SVS series I've found "musical" were the tubes. My HT SVS is not a musical subwoofer, its a bone crusher.

Smaller subwoofers have always been more seamless to me but it's another subject filled with subjective BS. If it sounds good, it is good....why overthink it.

VR3

VMPS for the money is hard to beat...

Original subs -- 480 in a kit (very easy to put together)

Then a nice used amp with 200 watts.... then a Paradigm X30

Should be more than enough

If it is just music, the dedicated subs would work too

Push Pull, Sealed, Low Compliance, all the things that can make a terrific musical subwoofer

SolidSqual

Know where I can get a Paradigm x-30 and a kit?

dorokusai

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

VMPS for the money is hard to beat...

Original subs -- 480 in a kit (very easy to put together)

Then a nice used amp with 200 watts.... then a Paradigm X30

Should be more than enough

If it is just music, the dedicated subs would work too

Push Pull, Sealed, Low Compliance, all the things that can make a terrific musical subwoofer

This coming from someone who had a poor, public experience with that company....breeds confidence.

SolidSqual

I just don't think I have the time or the tools available to me to put a kit together.

VR3

All you need for the kit --

1) Parts Express -- (Brian's binding post jacks SUCK) -- so get some of these

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=091-340

Then you will need these --

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=095-290

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=095-287

No soldering -- just a wire stripper/crimper and a screw driver

Kit?

http://vmpsaudio.com/

Contact Brian -- He's an ****, but the price of the kit is good...

215 Sub w/MegaWoofer --- $649.00 (Kit $479) --

Kit, shipped is 479

Thats a 15" with a 15" PR

Oh yeah, kit took me roughly 20 minutes to assemble...

VR3

Paradigm X30 --

Saw a few myself on EBay... around 50-100 bucks

SolidSqual

How does it all go together? I've never built a speaker before? The most I have done is made speaker stands and my own acoustic treatments.

dkg999

The little SVS might surprise you, it's been surprising a lot of people.

VR3

Well since there is no internal crossover -- its pretty easy

The PR goes on the bottom, have 8 screws, no wires ---

The binding post comes on a MDF block --- remove those post, and reattach the ones I recomended---

Then, position the binding post block through the hole, take a hot glue gun -- very fast -- put a light track of glue along the rim of the block, put it in place -- then go around the outer edge and put glue, and to further secure, predrill some holes, get some wood screws and put attach them about every 2" or so - block is roughly 6" x 4" x.5"

There should only be one for the original --

From there, take the disconnects, crimp them to the supplied cables... positive goes to red, negative goes to black ---

Take the other end of the cable, I believe the 15" megawoofer uses binding post instead of disconnect terminals -- so just twist the ends, then secure it tightly on the binding post...

Put in all the stuffing included

Put in the 15" woofer with supplied screws

From there, the base is packaged seperately, and MAKE SURE YOU TELL BRIAN TO ATTACH THAT BASE TO A PLYWOOD SHIPPING PLATE!!! , take the supplied wood screws and attach the base...

And your done...

SolidSqual

I'm not disagreeing, but I have never been as impressed with SVS as some others on this forum; moreover, many of the people to whom I regularly look for advice have steered me away from SVS as my system has become more spphisticated and geared towards authentic music reproduction.

SolidSqual

Thanks for the info. Trey. I am going to look into it. What kind of amp should I get to run the sub?

VR3

I'm running a Crown XTi1000 -- $500.00

I wouldnt recomend it if you can't hide the amp... basically because it has ocasional fan noise, but not constant -- but its processing abilities are limitless as far crossover, phase, eq, etc etc go

With that in mind, Brian's subs are like 93 or so db 1w/1m --

so just about any 100+ watt amp will rock its world

Adcom GFA-545, 555, etc etc

SolidSqual

So the Crown acts as your crossover?

VR3

Yes sir

I have the Paradigm crossed at 120hz --

Then the Crown at 55hz for the actual xover point

I also have mine high passed at 20hz

SolidSqual

Why do you need the Paradigm if the Crown is doing the crossover?

VR3

volume