Subwoofer hunt

Imo a decent sub in a treated room will perform better then a pricey one in a untreated room . Vandy subs are great but the setup can get costly . Its all in your court buddy 

@oleschool: thanks oleschool! :) noted....im trying to decide between E110 by JL and F12SE by Rythmik

thanks for the detailed post hifiman5. one quick question, wouldnt the current on the speakers drop if you connect subs to them in parallel? because current would decrease for parallely connected components right?

No, there would be no effect on the current delivered to the main speakers.  When a powered sub is connected to the output of a power amplifier or integrated amplifier, what the amplifier is driving is the sub's amplifier, not the sub's driver, which means it is driving a very high impedance that will draw negligible current.  The Vandersteen sub Hifiman5 referred to, for example, has a specified input impedance of more than 100,000 ohms.

A consequence of that, btw, is that the cables used to connect amp outputs to a sub that can accept speaker-level signals can be much narrower in gauge than typical speaker cables.

To address your question more generally, adding a load impedance in parallel with another load impedance will only affect the current delivered to the first impedance if the voltage across the paralleled impedances becomes different from what the voltage across the first impedance would have been in the absence of the second impedance.  And that voltage will only change as a result of the addition of the second impedance if the effective output impedance of the component providing the current is high enough to be a significant fraction of the second impedance, or if the component is not capable of supplying the total amount of current that is drawn by the two loads in response to the voltage it provides. 

Very few power amps or integrated amps have effective output impedances of more than a few ohms, and most solid state amps have effective output impedances of a tiny fraction of an ohm, those numbers obviously being insignificant fractions of 100,000 ohms.  So none of this will be an issue with a powered sub.

Good luck.  Regards,
-- Al
 

@spoutjack Did you try the E-110's before, and didn't like them? Or were you just avoiding them based on concerns of amp failure? I don't have any experience with the Rythmik, so it's hard to say. I think it's hard to go wrong with the JL's, but if you have the time and patience, there's lots of alternatives out there to try! Even better, buy both, and sell or return the one you like the least.

Also, regarding connecting the sub either line level or speaker level, I'd try both. I've heard arguments both for and against, the best is to try both and see which you like better. If you're using an integrated amp, speaker level inputs are almost a must (unless you're like me, and only use the subs for home theater / digital music).

Rythmik allows you to audition any of their models in your system, and to return them if unsatisfied, paying only shipping. I would wager you wouldn’t return the F12---it has been found to blend seamlessly with Magneplanars, Quads, BG ribbons, OB’s, and with whatever speakers Sterling Sound Mastering in NYC has in their monitoring systems. Servo-Feedback design which left the twelve woofers in my Infinity RS-1b’s eating my pair of F15’s dust!