Outlaw Audio RR2150 sufficient for Monitor 70s?

The combination does not need much if any bass boost. Nowadays I listen to either Jazz, folk, piano, soft rock with female vocalists, or Christmas stuff.

However, when I played my old alternative rock CDs from the late 90s, almost every one of them sounded not deep enough at the lowest frequencies of bass no matter what the setting on the Outlaw.

If I start listening to rock more often, a sub will be mandatory with the Polk Monitor 70s, whose bass comes from two 6.5 inch speakers.

Is the Velodyne VR-1200 a good subwoofer for this system (Monitor 70s)?

That one has a 12 inch speaker and is good down to 29Hz, which should round out the Monitor 70s for lower frequency bass.

ohskigod wrote: »

if you feel that the system doesnt need much boost, I would say avoid a sub until your ear changes and you get the feeling that you really need a sub. a sub for 2 channel is a big hit or miss thing.

Well, I was very happy with jazz, acoustic guitar, orchestras, and FM easy listening. However, that is only 75 percent of our listening habits at home.

There are times, maybe once a week, when I really like to put on the old rock from the 70s or else the alternative rock from the late 90s. At that point, the speakers just don't produce the right balance. And I can't see having a system that forces me to avoid listening through the speakers to one genre of music and put on my Sennheiser headphones, particularly when rock music is designed to be played open-air for the world to hear!

If the sound doesn't couple perfectly with the Monitor 70s using a 2.1 system, then I can always turn off the sub for other styles of music. The Outlaw RR2150 I'm using has a simple switch to turn off the internal crossover whenever I would like to only use my main speakers without subwoofer.

So I ordered a Velodyne VR-1200 (130 continuous wpc, 195 peak). I suppose I might have got better sound with a Polk PSW-125, but I also read lots of happy satisfied customer reviews with the former, and I got it for 2/3 the price of the Polk sub.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up tonight and tweak it up for listening.

Well, I talked to the Velodyne representative.

He said that the VRP and VX series have a problem with a lot of 2.1 systems because those systems deliver a lower level signal feeding the subwoofer compared to the surround sound systems. Therefore, he said I'm probably doing the best I can given that product. However, he told me that at a volume setting of 100%, the Velodyne amp may be compressing the signal because it thinks at the higher volume setting it must protect the speaker from clipping. OF COURSE, the only solution he recommends is that I'm supposed to exchange it for a more expensive Velodyne sub.

As usual, it boils down to more marketing to get the consumer to shell out more money. The Velodyne representative thinks I should be spending AS MUCH on my subwoofers as I spend on the main speakers. He actually said that.

However, I will never turn up the volume on my 100 wpc Outlaw Receiver farther than 9:00, so it is unlikely I will be sending that much power to the subwoofer's speaker. Hence, the problem was in the INPUT level being too low, which I ALMOST, not quite fixed by using the Outlaw Receiver's 6 dB boost for all signals below 55 Hz. Even though, I still had the subwoofer volume set to 100 percent.

The Velodyne rep also tried to talk me into a higher power subwoofer, given my room size of 3100 cubic feet (25 x 15), using highly efficient main speakers with a lot of midrange power (total of eight 6.5 inch speakers) at moderate listening volumes for those speakers. However, I'm not convinced I need a better setup because with the subwoofer corner-located in the room, I had no trouble hearing good bass at any listening location.

In my opinion, the proof is in the sound. I like the sound now that I have restricted the bass to below 60Hz, so only that portion is sent to the subwoofer, and I have increased both input signal level and internal gain volume for the subwoofer. So what if the volume is at 100 percent, because my ears don't hear compression distortion in the subwoofer's output, although the Velodyne rep said there would be some. I'm thinking the subwoofer's internal signal compression doesn't kick in until the subwoofer's total OUTPUT signal sent to it's speakers goes beyond a certain level, but that might depend on the circuit design. At least it seems that way based on my listening. And right now the sub volume is well balanced to the main speakers' volume, and I'm unlikely to EVER NEED to turn the system volume up higher than 9:00 because the Polk Monitor 70s are extremely efficient.

In a perfect world I would just buy a sub like the Polk PSW-125 to replace the Velodyne VR-1200.

One small hitch --- spousal approval. She barely accepted my spending $540 on the Polk Monitor 70s, and when I discussed ordering the $650 Outlaw Receiver, I had to do some fast talking and say it was a deal because it replaced 3 separates in my previous vintage system that cost $2500 over 30 years ago.

So currently my system is around $1400 and change. She didn't really complain when I discussed buying a subwoofer for $160, but then I actually bought a higher model costing $250. So it is out of the question to trade that in for one that costs $350.

My spouse and I both love the current sound, too, so based on listening experience it is hard to justify a sub upgrade purely based on the volume control being in a "bad" setting of 100 percent. Last night we were listening to the deep bass of Sarah McLaughlin's band from her "Surfacing" CD, plus various old jazz tunes and certain Christmas tunes like "Let it Snow" which have a nice melodic bass.