Help My wife bought me a sub

I run an REL strata 3 in a similarly sized room and it sounds great. However to make any sub sound great I've found it has to be out towards the middle of the room. At least the REL doesn't look too bad away from the room periphery, especially if you can get one of the wood finish versions.

I'd keep it because the fact that your wife bought it for you, and because it's a great sub.

I would pick up a Crown amp and maybe add a Veoldyne SMS-1 down the road... it will give you 1000 times the flexibility/performance that any "built-in" stuff will.

Congrats on a cool wife!! :)

The Velodyne SMS-1 is a very good idea. Why didn't I think of that !?

Does you wife have a sister I could marry?

Michael

Guys,

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. I knew I was going to get some great help and ideas.

Here is one thoughtful response about passive vs. active subs: “There is one big advantage with passive subs, and that is placement. You can move them around the room to find optimal placement (which is critical for subwoofers) without having to worry where you are going to tap the power for the amp and also getting long subwoofer interconnects.” That makes sense and helps push this question into keeping the CS-Ultra sub plus it was a present from my very cool wife. Now, how best to power it?

Many ideas have come in for that which I really appreciate. I really didn’t want to have several boxes although “component” sourcing often lets you pick the best of breed and really get the best out of your components. The Velodyne SMS-1 looks very cool and I bet works really well although at $749 MSRP that’s cutting into my budget and I still need an amp. There are several BASH amps available with EQ/phase/gain etc. controls that might do nicely.

Here is one that was brought to my attention that looks very nice and seems to have all the controls a sub would need. Any experience with this Class D amp?

http://www.adireaudio.com/Home/ADASubAmps.htm

I’m thinking the ADA600 for $549 would drive the CS-Ultra just fine in my smallish room although it’s back ordered at this moment.

Or buy a replacement SVS BASH amp?

This amp from Parts Express looks pretty good and seems like a good value:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/psho...810&ctab=4#Tabs

O Audio might be nice - http://www.oaudio.com/500W_SUBAMP.html

Or what else would you do different?

Thanks for all your suggestions!