Best type of Sub to consider?

bdp24 - You have suggested that my system may benefit from the OB/Dipole Sub, but it seems like most users are driving these with planar loudspeakers. This post also acknowledges the pairing of these subs with planars.

For matching, why do you think these subs would match up so well with my Horning Aristotle speakers?

Thanks,

Kenny

Good catch Kenny---your thought had occurred to me after my last post. One point of stating how well the OB/Dipole Sub works with planars is because they (planars) are so notoriously difficult with which to get a sub to blend seamlessly. If a sub will work with a planar, it will have no trouble doing so with any speaker is the logic. But is it true?

The OB/Dipole Sub has been successfully mated with a pro sound high efficiency 15" coax driver on an open baffle (in the Rythmik Super-V loudspeaker)---read reports on the RMAF from a few years ago to see the reaction at the Show to it's bass capabilities, with NEO 10 and NEO 3 planar-magnetics (in the Serenity Acoustics Super 7), with sealed and ported box speakers, with open baffle/cone monitor speakers having either a 5" or 6.5" midrange driver and dome tweeter, with Eminent Technology magnetic-planars, Quad ESL's, horn-loaded high-efficiency direct radiators, and by Ric Schultz in his own EVS speaker design. Ric is one of the Subs biggest fans and proponents.

If a sub sounds extremely clean and non-boomy, with no overhang, no box resonances, and an ability to excite fewer room modes than a box sub, why WOULDN'T it blend well with any loudspeaker you could name? As to working with your loudspeaker to your satisfaction Kenny, you would probably be the first to try! If the Sub sounds at all promising, I would suggest going to the AudioCircle GR Research Forum and reading the threads dedicated to the discussion of the Sub. There you will find not only the opinion of the Sub by those who have bought it, but also pictures of many different builds, some of them quite interesting to look at. In all the discussion of the Sub, I don't believe there is a single instance of disappointment by an owner.

Gradient designed and built an OB/Dipole H-Frame sub for the Quad 63 in the 80's, and REG at TAS loved it. Loudspeaker/crossover design expert Siegfried Linkwitz offers a DIY loudspeaker incorporating an OB/Dipole bass section in a W-Frame, a frame rather flimsy and under-braced in comparison to the very robust H-Frame offered for the GR Research Sub. And there are several other designers catering to the DIY crowd offering Open Baffle subs (not in a W- or H-Frame, but on a flat baffle) for use with OB speakers. Open Baffle subs have long been known to provide a unique, very different sound from "normal" subs, a sound characterized as "lean". As in no boom, no bloat, no overhang, no box resonances, and less excitation of room modes. And the Direct Servo-Feedback design of Rythmik itself is known for IT'S unique sound, one that prompted loudspeaker designer and manufacturer Jim Salk to incorporate it---the product of another speaker designer!---into his top models. It is the combination of the OB/Dipole design combined with the Servo-Feedback woofer control provided by Rythmik that makes the Sub so special. Really special.

bdp24 - Again, thank you for the enormous amount of quality information that you provided regarding the OB/Dipole design type by Rythmik/GC Research. My next step would be to speak to them directly and take it from there.

I also want to thank everyone for their contributions to my post. I now have hit the limit for what I can absorb and I need to start doing. From the various sub types available, I will start to request try-outs from key brands, and this may help to eliminate some who do not have a lending policy. For me, it's not about price, promises, or proclamations, but proof-of-sound in my system.

Kenny