Recommend speakers for a large living room

Question, if I were to add 4 sub-woofers, how would that work? Is there a pre-amp that could handle 4 sub-woofers?

Well first off this is definitely the way to go. I tried a bunch of things and going to four is so much better than anything else I have to say its the only real solution. Well, unless you go more. Five now in my case.

Connecting is easy. All the bass down where subs run is mono. But even if for some reason you want to run stereo (which I do, but not for this reason, it really is all mono) that's still easy. The options are too many to list but just to give you my example, two run off one channel, two off the other, and the fifth runs off the bypass out from one of the sub amps.

Mine use the Dayton amp, same one Duke uses and recommends. This amp has plenty of flexibility with adjustable phase, crossover frequency, level, EQ, bass boost, and bass cutoff. Duke uses one amp for four subs standard, with the option to run two. There isn't much reason to run two, the advantage is not for volume but flexibility, being able to adjust two subs independently rather than all 4 together.

Mine are 10" drivers, higher quality but similar cabinets. Doing it again only thing I might do different is go even bigger. Its just really hard to appreciate until you hear it just how wonderful really good deep bass is! Because, whatever you think you heard that was, unless and until you've heard four or more sorry, you just don't know. Its that much better.

Really low bass is so much different than the way things work up higher that it almost doesn't matter how you do it. What I mean is four self-powered subs will work just as well as four passive ones, and the four don't even have to be all the same. Mine for example, two are ported, two sealed, and one is a Talon Roc actively powered. You cannot tell where any of them are, and it all blends seamlessly with the stereo image.

I would second, or third, the Ulfberht's. They would be right at home in a room your size. Together with a distributed bass array, flat-out awesome.

Skip the others. Skip the power hogs. Ulfberht and Swarm. You can thank me later.

I think these threads are generally filled with people suggesting obscure speakers that are 1/5 the budget you have.
Big space, big speakers. I’d recommend at least starting out with some of the larger Focals, B&W 800D3, something in the middle of the Wilson range. Really it’s impossible to say without knowing what electronics you have (or want) and what music you listen to.

Sound Lab Ultimate series is  what I would recommend.

Mcreyn wrote:

"If you were to use the AudioKinesis Swarm system, it uses a single amplifer for each subwoofer. My only concern with using the Audiokinesis would be if it would have enough output capability given the size of your room."

Thank you sir.

And thank you too millercarbon.

Given the size of dpal’s total space and its irregular shape, I would expect the bass to be quite good in there without needing four subs distributed asymmetrically around the room. A distributed multisub system makes a small room behave much more like a large room in the bass region, and dpal already has a large room!

So I don’t think a Swarm-like system would offer as much improvement over two bass sources as would be the case in considerably smaller rooms. When I have done custom systems for similar-sized rooms where aesthetics was a priority, I have just done two large subs.

Imo the sheer size of the dpal’s space calls for a LOT of air-moving capability in order to do low bass at high SPL, so I’d recommend two big subs over my four small ones.

(The Swarm was reviewed by Robert E. Greene of The Absolute Sound in April 2015, and the review is online, in case anyone is interested. It subsequently received several awards from the magazine over several years, most recently this summer, so apparently the concept has a good shelf life.)

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SoundLabs have been suggest a couple of times. Yes they would work very well; it MIGHT even make sense to go with two 90-degree panels per side arrayed to give coverage over 180 degrees, assuming that listening area off to one side is a high priority. But I’d have to do some math to see if that would really make sense.

Disclaimer: I’m a SoundLab dealer.

With MBLs or SoundLabs, I’d suggest diffusion of some sort on the wall behind the speakers so that the early reflections are smeared rather than being strong and distinct ("specular"). I would try to avoid using absorption there because absorption kills shorter wavelengths (high frequencies) more effectively than longer ones, and can thereby degrade the spectral balance of the reverberant field, and in such a large room the reverberant field will dominate the perceived tonal balance throughout most of the room. Both MBLs and SoundLabs do a very good job of creating a spectrally correct reverberant field.

Duke

Daedalus Audio. look into Lou’s biggest.