What do you look for in a subwoofer?

[thedelihaus]

What do you look for in a subwoofer?

Do you prefer 8"? 10"? 12"? Larger?

Do you like forward firing? Downwards firing?

Passive? Powered? 50 watts? 100 watts? 400 watts?

Ported? Sealed?

Do you run separate sub for home theater than the one used for your hi-fi?

Do you run one? Two? More?

Build it yourself?

Funky design?

[Dusty Chalk]

Right now I only have one subwoofer in my home studio environment.

So I need to get a subwoofer. I will probably get the SVS sealed for the office because (a) it's small; (b) of its reputation; (c) it's (relatively) cheap; and (d) the flexibility of its controls (that's probably the biggest point -- I could just as easily go with the Sunfire, as I've heard that one before, and liked it).

For the bigger room, I'll probably get one of them water heater looking SVS units.

[Jack Keck]

Build your own. I have limited carpentry skills and I still had fun doing it. Now I have fun listneing to it.

[Donny]

I look for lots of BOOOM! It's good for games and movies. I have owned 3 subwoofers. My first was a big cerwin vega 15in downfire it always seemed slow as if the front speakers hit then half a second later the sub would hit! I don't like the downfire because for some reason my floor is not the best at reproducing bass lol.It did putout alot of loud bass. Another sub was an audiosource frontfire 10in,I can't think of anything good to say about this one just slow 1note sloppy weak bass. My current sub is a sony sa wx700 10in push pull (2 10in woofers one magnet down and the other front fire sealed) This sub is faster then the cv was,smaller and almost as loud. With polk model 11 it blends in real well (polks are duel 6 sealed with 12passive). It really helps the polks the hpm's however don't blend in aswell so I still get that double bump it's just not nearly as bad. Finding a sub that can really help is tough also you will prob want 2 subs even tho bass is "non directional" you can tell where it is coming from. If I was to start fresh and buy new I would either get 2 cheap front fire 12's like the sony "500" or if I had the green get svs.

[FalconEddy]

My vintage room system required a simple powered subwoofer to add punch in the low end. I picked up a Sony SA-WM250, which turned out to be just what the system needed.

The rear-firing subs in my home theater room are part of the Infinity Overture 3's, and get the job done very well both musically, and for cinematic presentations.

Now, my mastering/recording studio is a bit more earth shaking.

I have two JBL SR-4719A twin 18" forward firing subwoofer cabinets. They're each being driven with a modified Crest Audio V1500 power amp in bridged mode, which feeds each set of drivers 2000 watts. The modification allows the V1500 to handle loads down to 1.65 ohms; which is a great thing for handling those dips when pumping out those big watts. Each amp has its own 120V feed and 30A breaker.

Due to occassional sympathetic vibrations at certain frequencies, they can actually unscrew lightbulbs in the mastering room at much less than full volume.

However, I only REALLY crank them up when a band asks me what their recording sounds like at a 'live performance' level (or higher). I use earplugs at that point.

. . Falcon

[RichPA]

I look for deep, tight bass, without peaks - sort of the opposite of "boom." Though of course I've heard only a small fraction of the subs out there, I've generally preferred sealed, downward-firing subs. In my main system, I run 3 subs - a stereo pair, against the wall behind the main speakers, and a third sub at one end of the listening sofa.

[kfa888]

Transparency and integration. I look for no boom. If you don't know there is a sub but it's going low and has dynamic impact you have nailed it. I have several subs, only one I like and surprisingly it is a old non-powered MK Goliath. Smallish cube with a 12" forward firing driver. I use it with my maggies and it integrates much better than it should. Scott (Dingus) was over Saturday and had i his first maggie experience with the MGII's and MK sub and was VERY impressed. He thought the sub integration was seamless and was surprised he did not hear the sub, just the full spectrum. He has AR9's and ADS L810's so he knows what good sound is. He also brought a compilation CD for reference and said the orchestral track was the best he had ever heard it on any speaker system.

Transparency and integration, hard to get but once you do it's over.

[cubdog]

[QUOTE=kfa888]Transparency and integration, hard to get but once you do it's over.

That just about sums it up.

cubdog

[IXLR8]

Originally Posted by thedelihaus

What do you look for in a subwoofer?

Do you prefer 8"? 10"? 12"? Larger?

Do you like forward firing? Downwards firing?

Passive? Powered? 50 watts? 100 watts? 400 watts?

Ported? Sealed?

Do you run separate sub for home theater than the one used for your hi-fi?

Do you run one? Two? More?

Build it yourself?

Funky design?

My Velodyne SPL-1000 for my home theater set-up in the living room is not visable at all. It is inside of the stand for the Panny. The door has black speaker cloth on the front and the Velo is right behind it. The SPL-1000 is a 10" musical quick recovery sub. I have listened to more than a few subs and this one works well. While being small in size 12.75" x 12.25" x 14.25" it will fill the average size room no problem. If I remember correctly you have moved to to smaller place after you were hurt. Possibily the newer model of this with the remote control might interest you. These have a D class amplifier rated at 2000 watts Dynamic/1000 watts RMS power.

[Hillman]

I built my own, kind of, used a JBL PSWD112 Subwoofer box. (The amp went bad after 1 hours use. Problem was I had it 4 years, still in the box and never opened, so no warranty) It is a rear ported, front firing box, 17.5 " x 17.5 " x 19.1. I replaced the amp with a Model A370-SE plate amplifier from Rythmik Audio. Then I replaced the woofer with a DAYTON DVC310-88 12" DVC SERIES SUBWOOFER. The vos is not perfect but the amp has many adjustments on it and can be tuned to a room very easily. I have been very pleased with its performance over the past 2 1/2 years. I only use it for home theater. I also use a small downfiring sub behind the couch hooked to the the rear channels. Gives good evect.

http://www.rythmikaudio.com/nonservo_product.htm#350se

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=295-185

[dnewma04]

Originally Posted by thedelihaus

What do you look for in a subwoofer?

Do you prefer 8"? 10"? 12"? Larger?

Larger (15" is a good size because once you get into 18" drivers, price becomes a factor). Not ony do I like larger, I prefer at least 2 and preferably 4.

Do you like forward firing? Downwards firing?

no preference to speak of, but I suppose i'd lean towards a driver not firing right into some obstacle. Or, whichever works best.
[quote]
Passive? Powered? 50 watts? 100 watts? 400 watts?[quote]
Powered (active crossovers) are the only way to go, passive crossovers at freq that low are a bad idea for a multitude of reasons. Cost, performance, customizability, etc.

Ported? Sealed?

If I had a ton of room, i'd probably go with this order.

Infinite Baffle
Transmission Line (and other 1/4 wave designs)
Dipole
Ported
Sealed
Bandpass

I prefer low distortion performance and with subs, one of the easier ways to do this is to keep the excursion low. Sealed designs require more excursion and unless you are using some modern subs that have flat BL and low distortion performance for a majority of the excursion of the driver, it's tough to get loud and great sounding performance. In every case, more subs properly placed will result in better performance than a single sub.

Do you run separate sub for home theater than the one used for your hi-fi?

for me, they are typically one in the same. I have more than one system because I like equipment, but I feel like I might be unusual in that I don't feel that a good HT system can't be a good music system.

Do you run one? Two? More?

2 now, preferably 4.

Build it yourself?

Absolutely.

Funky design?

I have fun with this stuff, so why not?

[Donny]

If you can demo some subwoofers using test tones. This will help show the spikes in frequency that will prob be around 50hz you will also get to find out if they go as low as they say.

[archie2]

10" or 12", sealed, tight musical bass, no boom.

[Bogie]

I look for bang/buck...

Let's see... acoustic/jazz/blues type music, and better recorded rock, I want sealed, with a Q of about 0.7ish or lower. With rock and stuff where the producer had his head in his baggie, I want a higher Q sealed box, 0.9-1.0. Upstairs, I have a pair of 0.7 boxes holding up my maggies. In my basement, I have a pair of 0.9 boxes holding up my Infinity Entras...

BIG drivers move lots of air.

I also want a low f3 sealed. I'm not looking for thump - I'm looking for fill-in down low.

For home theater, I want LOW. WAY low... So I'm ported, and big... 12 cubes for two 15s, tuned to 18.5. You also want big ports, so that you don't get wind noise...

Get some sticky stuff, and do all your picture frames, etc., etc.

[Arkay]

The realistic side of me wants -for Hi-Fi/Music- a tight, realistic bass without flabby boom-iness. For that, I prefer a large woofer (12" or larger) in a sealed box. [Infinity Watkins are fine enough by me! ] I'm saving to add a separate two-channel subwoofer amp with built-in low-frequencies equalizer I saw recently.

However, my HT set-up currently has a 10" woofer in a ported (port faces downward) box with built-in amp, because I'm less picky about sound effects. Explosions can "boom" a little and not bother me. I don't use this for music listening, only for HT. I also have a Yamaha 15" driver I've been thinking of making into a new HT sub-woofer, but have no clue when/if I'll actually get around to it, with all the other projects in line ahead of it.

Now, the unrealistic side of me wants a 56" sub-woofer 'cannon' that puts out infrasonic tones down to 1 Hz, the kind of thing that sends elephants screaming away in panic. As one author described such infrasonics:

Infrasound produces varied physiological sensations, which begin as vague "irritations". At certain pitch, infrasound produces physical pressure. At specific low intensity, fear and disorientation. Nazi propaganda engineers methodically used infrasound to stir up the hostilities of crowds who were gathered to hear their madman. The results are historical nightmares.

At a very specific pitch, infrasound explodes matter. At others, infrasound incapacitates and kills. Organisms rupture in its blast. Sea creatures use this power to stun and kill prey.

The swelling bass tones of the cathedral seem as though they can burst the very pillars, which uphold the ancient vaults. Stained glass windows have been known to erupt in a shower of colored fragments from the organ's basso profunda. Impulsed ultrabass tones ... thunder. Somewhere in the almost inaudible roll of these basement sounds there was a devastating and fearful power.

Yep, part of me wants to really FEEL those low organ notes... [Oops! better watch how I word things... ]