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My experience adding subwoofers to 2 channel

My Kappa 9 speakers are rated to 29hz and they sound pretty good in my 18x24 room...powered by McIntosh mc1.25 amps...l was looking for another layer of bass to enhance the sound..my first experiment l took my SVS pb16 ultras from my theater room and tried them first...it sounded terrible,didn't blend well..couldn't hear a difference until you turned in up then it rattled the room apart........my final experiment worked..l used 4 Velodyne minivee subwoofers(1000 watt rms class D sealed 8 in.) and after hours of calibration l hit it......lve got the bass response that exeeded my expectations. ....l should have done this along time ago....can anybody tell me of another subwoofer that may work even better?
128x128vinnydabully
clio09
3,355 posts
 
@bdp24, the Beveridge amps were not Roger's design, only the RM-1, RM-2, and RM-3 which mad up the rest of the components in the Beveridge system which if I recall was the 2SW.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,800 posts
 
@mijostyn I've heard the direct drive version- that speaker never seemed to bring home the bacon the way the one did that was easily driven by the M-60s (which replaced an ARC Classic 60; this was a good 15 years ago).
I wish I knew which model that was as I've heard Acoustats that looked just like it but needed a big amp to make them play. The first time I heard an Acoustat though I was very surprised at how well our amps and the speakers worked together. IMO they worked quite a bit better than the Quads, which at the time were also easy to drive.

By comparison the direct drive model had a bit of a trashy sound on top and we got better bass with the regular speaker (it had no hint of trashiness!). But I think there was a good possibility the power tubes in the direct drive model I heard were simply shot. That was a tricky speaker- you really had to be careful around it due to the very high plate voltage on the power tubes.

Of course I've heard Sound Labs many times. Something like 80% of all our MA-2 amplifier production has gone to Sound Lab owners.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 
@clio09, thanks for the correction and clarification.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Clio for $12,000 as listed on Roger’s web site does that include the amps? Why doesn’t he put a page up for the speakers and all the other neat stuff he makes like the 300 watt mono amps?

Atmasphere, those amps got damn hot. They were also easy to over drive if you did not cross to a sub. They hated doing bass. The best sound I got out of unmodded Acoustats was 2 + 2s driven by KMA 100s. They even did bass! I got rid of Acoustat’s interface and hooked up one huge 1:100 Sowter transformer which is crazy to drive but boy do they sound great. Yes, Soundlab owners love your amps. The question is should I do MA-2s or MA-3s:)
clio09
3,355 posts
 
@mijostyn, yes that includes the direct drive amps and bass amp with active crossover. As for why it's not on the website the main reason that Roger doesn't have the time to bother with it.
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