From Vandersteen 2CE to Devore Gibbons 8 or Focal

I would wait to hear from John DeVore for sure as I am sure he has dialed in many subs with the Gibbon 8s and Super 8s and so should be able to make very appropriate suggestions. Congrats on your new and excellent speakers. They are truly very musical.

DeVore 8s are fabulous speakers but designed for a small room. They will lack deep bass in any room and will sound unbalanced (thin) in a larger room. Yes, a sub or two is just the ticket.

I spoke with John DeVore and he said I don't need a subwoofer as the Gibbon 8 provide plenty of bass. He said to make sure the speakers are directly coupled to the floor. Since I have very thick carpet, I sliced the carpet (hope wifey doesn't find out) where the spikes mated the carpeting and now the speakers are directly coupled to the floor. I didn't hear any appreciable difference.

I bit the bullett and ordered a Paradigm 10" sub dsp-3100. It is a 10" ported subwoofer with a 200 watt rms class d integral amp. I also ordered a MIT cable to connect from the preamp to sub. The subwoofer has adjustable cutoof frequency of 25-150hz so I will start at 80hz and work down from there. It also has a fully adjustable 0-180 phase switch. This will be useful as the subwoofer will be located across the room (12' away) from the speakers, next to the couch in the corner.

My goal is to integrate the sub as seamlessly as possible. I just want it to fill the sound in a bit to take away some of the thinness. Last night, I played Muddy Waters-Folk Singer on a mobile fidelity cd on my Raysonic tubed cd player. His voice was so dead center and mesmorizing and everything sounded so right. It brought tears to my eyes. I should have the sub within a week, I will post an update once I have it set up.

Bob

Hey Bob........I'm sorry that you're stressing out so much over this. Remember to keep the goal of our hobby in focus, which is to ENJOY THE MUSIC !!! Your Gibbon 8's are wonderful speakers, and it seems as if you have a terrific system. So relax, stay cool, have fun, and enjoy the tunes !! Happy Listening.

NEW UPDATE:

I set up the Paradigm DSP-3100 subwoofer on Friday afternoon. After much tweaking I pretty much have the sound dialed in, but I may tweak just a bit more in the next week or so. I have the subwoofer cutoff frequency set at 60hz and the gain control at a little more than quarter volume. The Subwoofer is set 180 degrees out of phase with the DeVores.

The sound has filled in quite nicely and I have retained the huge soundstage and pinpoint imaging. Overall, I am quite pleased with the setup. I will get around to installing the spikes for the sub this week after I receive my MIT AVT3 audio cable this Wednesday. Right now I am using a cheap Radio Shack cord. Once the new cable is applied and the spikes are put on, I may tweak a little more. I am quite pleased with the sound and I think it will only get better in time.

Stay tuned.