I dunno, try a Bose sub and a Vandersteen and tell us what you think.
Sloppy loose bass from a cheap sub is worse than no sub at all IMO.
Sloppy loose bass from a cheap sub is worse than no sub at all IMO.
Ruining music with a cheap sub
Hi, just want some general consensus on subwoofers. Will a cheap but decent subwoofer ruin a good system? The sole purpose of a sub is to supplement the lower octave of the spectrum by pushing air through. Please correct me if I am wrong, from a tech perspective, bass is non-directional, it can't be listened but can only be felt. I agree that a high quality fast sub is needed to reproduce good tight bass when listening in high volume. But in moderate volumn, there shouldn't be any significant difference between a $100 sub comparing to a $5000 sub. Your thoughts?
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I don't think a cheap sub can ruin a good system as long as it is left off, maybe OK for movies. For music you will need to look for a sub that is both tight & tuneful maybe like Velodyne or Polk Audio which are not extremely expensive. You are correct about bass being non directional as my neigbor & I spoke some time ago & he is still looking for that jerk who is playing the bass too loud. I just didn't have the heart to tell him that it was me. But I did tell him I would keep an eye/ear out. |
There are huge differences between bad/cheap subs and good/expensive subs. It's called distortion. And no, low bass is not *just* felt. Besides, a sub that's reproducing the bottom octave is rolling off in the second (and maybe into the third) octave, so it's going to affect your perception of a lot more than just that bottom octave. I don't know of any good $100 subs, but there are some good $500 subs out there. And I'd say the point of diminishing returns hits well below $5000. YMMV. |
"Sloppy loose bass from a cheap sub is worse than no sub at all IMO."In my opinion too. With respect to subwoofer directionality, there's a wonderfully funny thread where some of the participants get into a SPIRITED debate about that very topic. It also seems to have some pretty good info. Here's the link: Stereo versus monaural subwoofers debated right here on Audiogon |
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