2. speakers
  3. 138419-74679

SPEAKERS, SPEAKERS AND MORE SPEAKERS.. BUT NEED BASS.?

Greetings audiophile fans,
I am in a challenging dilemma with SPEAKER selection and need a advice.. Budget 4K and less!!
Currently my setup consists ps audio pair mono amps, Jew Rowland pre and Oracle Delphi turntable..
I am mostly listening records (Jazz, folk....) I honestly prefer not to use sub due to space but prefer ful size tower SPEAKERS with enough bass to satisfy my need.. “IT’S ALL ABOUT THAT BASS” 
Soooo what have you heard and recommend for me??
Thanks and happy listening....
Cheers 

128x128shinemaster
slimpikins5's avatar
slimpikins5
191 posts
 
My personal experience with the SVS subs was not good at all. I had multiple failures (all covered under warranty at least), but they just didn’t hold up so I changed brands. But before replacing the subs, I played with a pair of Bryston Middle T’s which had tremendous bass. I liked them so much I decided to just go for the gusto and purchased a used pair of Bryston Model T’s, which are monsters and with monstrous bass out of the 6 bass drivers in the pair. I was so impressed with the Bryston speakers that I decided to purchase two subs from Axiom Audio who builds the Bryston speakers. I really cannot say enough about the performance of the EP800 and the EP500 subs; they use robust linear power supplies with huge torroid transformers and massive capacitors (not switching power supplies as used in most other subs out there). These subs put out the most musical, tight bass I have heard and phasing them is a snap. And after almost a year of constant heavy use, no issues at all (I lost 5 SVS subs inside of 6 months).

Look up Axiom Audios’ website and if the budget permits, go for the dual 12 inch driver EP800 or the single 12 inch driver EP500 (two would do the job nicely) My room is a very large 10,000 cubic feet with an 18 foot vaulted ceiling. One of each works wonders.

I agree with using multiple subs.  I started with one EP500, it was wonderful, then I added in an EP800 and yikes.  At some point, I may add in another EP500 into the mix to really liven things up.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,084 posts
 
Dear @audiokinesis : "  works best depends on the specific situation. "

Maybe I'm missing something but I just can't imagine any situation in a passive design speakers where subs can't help to lower speakers IMD that comes with additional benefits as lowering the speakers THD and gives the amps to works way better when are liberated from the low bass range even helps to increment the headroom of the amps.

When the system amps are tubes the subs is a vital condition " sen equa non ".

Even the top Sonus Faber that crossover 50hz and 100hz will be benefited if  frequencies from 80hz down are handled by a dedicated woofers/drivers with a dedicated amps designed to cover the low bass range needs of those woofers/drivers externally.

Till today there is no regular amplifiers that its designs fulfill the low bass range and at the same time all the wide frequency range in any audio system.

At least that's what I learned by first hand experiences in my and other audio home room/systems.


R.

audiokinesis
2,738 posts
 

@rauliruegas said, "I just can’t imagine any situation in a passive design speakers where subs can’t help to lower speakers IMD that comes with additional benefits as lowering the speakers THD and gives the amps to works way better when are liberated from the low bass range..."

This was in response to me saying "I think that what works best depends on the specific situation."

I’m NOT saying that lowering intermodulation distortion and liberating amp and speaker from the bottom two octaves isn’t beneficial. IT IS!

But in some situations, the circuitry necessary to high-pass-filter the main speakers causes more degradation than it’s worth. For instance if the mains and amp have 10 dB of headroom beyond whatever peaks they’re likely to see then the benefits of a protective high-pass filter may be negligible, and if the speakers are particularly revealing any resulting degradation in the signal path may be audible and objectionable. So imo, "it depends".

Also in many situations budget is a factor. Maybe a really nice high-end signal processor would make a great and super-transparent highpass filter, but is that always going to be the smartest place to spend the next however many hundreds, or thousands, of dollars? Once again, imo "it depends".

Finally there is this possible consideration: An intelligently distributed multi-sub system can significantly reduce room-interaction peaks and dips in the modal zone, and an unusually capable pair of main speakers may have enough useful low-end to contribute to this modal smoothing.

In my experience a fair number of people who are using a protective highpass filter, be it digital or analog, end up pursuing whatever offers the next level of transparency. This may mean hot-rodding the parts inside their device, or it may mean replacing it altogether with the latest-and-greatest. Anyway this tells me that protective highpass filters do have audible downsides.

By building "satellite" speakers that arguably don’t NEED a protective highpass filter under most conditions, I’m giving people the OPTION of not using one. Budget is an issue for most of my customers, so maybe they can defer the expense of that high-end processor for a while, if that’s what they want to end up with.

Duke

Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,084 posts
 
Dear @audiokinesis : """  This may mean hot-rodding the parts inside their device. ""

This is what I'm doing through a teflon cap inside my 20.6 monobloks. As a fact I received several improvements because I only change/replace the ML input cap for a way better and lower value/uf teflon/Cu cap along a resistor replace for a top TX2575 Z-foil one that gives me the high pass frequency I need it: around 80hz. I don't have to add any passive device only replace the ones I need to.

In my case was a : " win to win ".

R.
audiokinesis
2,738 posts
 

@rauliruegas wrote:  "In my case was a : " win to win ".

That's GREAT!

Using a very-high-quality cap in series with the amp's input as a high-pass filter is probably the most transparent highpass filter format.

The theoretically possible downside is, in the octave above the calculated -3 dB point the output is diminished by an average of about 2 dB, and by almost 1 dB average in the octave above that.  Also the best blend in the crossover region with the steeply-filtered subs might be where the mains are minus more than 3 dB, which increases the region where you are losing energy due to the broad nature of that first-order highpass.  THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY BAD!  It might be an improvement, and it might not; room effects will play a major role in this region so it's impossible to predict accurately. 

Duke


More to discover