I feel like I am watching a soap opera, AS the Subwoofer Turns.
Larry, once again you are getting your best advice from @bdp24
You say you are primarily interested in music but you are building a HT system. A great HT system will be decent at 2 channel audio but not great, as well as vice versa.
I believe you also mentioned that your main speakers cycle down to 30hz. If this is the case and you are looking for a subwoofer to just reproduce 30hz on down you are wasting your money. From a musical perspective there just isn't that much material that cycles down that low.
Do yourself a huge favor before you buy any sub and purchase the soundoctor test CD. It will set you back $18.00
http://www.soundoctor.com/testcd/
It contains among other things a series of test signals from 20hz to 120hz in ten cycle increments. Listen to the signals so you know what 30, 40 and 50hz really sound like.
Subs can be a wonderful addition to any HT or 2 channel system IF you know how to implement them. Unfortunately most people including most dealers do not. Specially for a music system.
If I was you Larry I would buy a good ported sub (Rythmik or SVS) and connect it to the LFE output of your ARCAM for the HT experience and let your main speakers run solo when your are in music mode.
Larry, once again you are getting your best advice from @bdp24
You say you are primarily interested in music but you are building a HT system. A great HT system will be decent at 2 channel audio but not great, as well as vice versa.
I believe you also mentioned that your main speakers cycle down to 30hz. If this is the case and you are looking for a subwoofer to just reproduce 30hz on down you are wasting your money. From a musical perspective there just isn't that much material that cycles down that low.
Do yourself a huge favor before you buy any sub and purchase the soundoctor test CD. It will set you back $18.00
http://www.soundoctor.com/testcd/
It contains among other things a series of test signals from 20hz to 120hz in ten cycle increments. Listen to the signals so you know what 30, 40 and 50hz really sound like.
Subs can be a wonderful addition to any HT or 2 channel system IF you know how to implement them. Unfortunately most people including most dealers do not. Specially for a music system.
If I was you Larry I would buy a good ported sub (Rythmik or SVS) and connect it to the LFE output of your ARCAM for the HT experience and let your main speakers run solo when your are in music mode.