SUB Question

bdtae5656

When looking for a sub....what should I be looking for other than the size of the speaker?

apphd

btd, I am far from an authority on subs, but some of the things I picked up while shopping for mine may help.
Some of the things you need to start with is knowing your room size in cubic ft. (LxWxH) making note of any openings to other rooms, hallways etc.

Then you want to know what you want out of performance. Is this for HT, music or both?

Then when you know that try to determine how well you want it to do those tasks, and if the physical size of the cabinet are any concerns.

The size of the speaker while an indication of what it can do would be the last thing I would look at.

For HT LFE use you want something that can go low with authority. Look at the lower freq. response and hopefully what is claimed to be the SPL output at that point. 18 Hz and below with real useable output is good. Also try to see how flat the output is from there to the upper freq. range.

For music you look for some of those specs/characteristics, but unless you are looking to do heavy bass music such as pipe organs you do not need a sub do go much below 25 Hz but you would be looking for a faster responding speaker that many times would be described as "fast and tight".

Usually subs that come in a large cabinet with large powerful amps will be the ones that give you the low and loud many like in their HT. But if you are in a smaller room you would not need that as much as a large room. You should also keep in mind what your main speakers are capable of as well. The less they can do the more sub you may want.

The better a sub is at performing any and all of these the higher the cost just like anything else.

Remember you can always reduce output from a killer high performance sub, but you can never get more out of an underperforming, or poor choice for application sub.

thsmith

apphd, you sound like an authority to me. I have nothing I can add.

Rooms cubic feet is critical, and budget of course.

cnh

Apphd,

Has pretty much covered it all. The only thing I would add is that if you want to double the loudness of a sub you have to have 10x the power. Hence if you want a really room filling sub for a big room you would need to get up into the 1000-2000+ watt RMS range.

Rule of thumb is smaller drivers are better musically, larger better for HT. But that isn't always true. Finally, it's best to buy a sub from someone that basically specializes in Subs, i.e., Velodyne, SVS, HSU, etc. Sub companies. Although Polks new high end line is also pretty darned good!

Budget is important. You can get a good sub for about 5-600, but for a great sub you're going to have to cross the 1000 dollar threshold....I, myself am in the former level.

cnh

Toolfan66

I have the DSW 500 (10" sub) i use for music, sometimes i don't use it at all cause i like the sound the A9's are producing. I also have the DSW 600 (12" SUB) but i use both sub's for HT. I really want a Velodyne, had i known about the Velodyne when i purchased my sub's i would have gone that route. it's on my list to try out just not the top of my list just yet.

Good luck with finding the right Sub that works for you.

Larry.

Ron Temple

All good points...

Caveat...power claims on subs can be suspect. Some companies quote peak power (2000w), some are more conservative. For instance, SVS uses a 750w RMS Bash amp @ 4ohms. Bash sells this platform as a 1000w RMS amp to subwoofer OEMs. On the bench it puts out ~ 860w RMS. Peak on this amp is about 1700w. SVS originally was going to call their amp a 900w RMS amp, but then decided to understate rather than overstate. Velo also is accurate about their amp claims. If you notice their retail subs are actually spec'd far lower than most competing amps in the same class, but they perform as well or better (I wonder why )

Anyway, just some food for thought when checking things out. Get a few candidates and do some research. The sub's the most dramatic addition to an HT rig.

bdtae5656

Thanks that diff helps out alot!