More Power or use subwoofer to boost bass for music

(At RMAF 2017, Schitt was displaying in the room next to ours. I proposed a trade: a pair of my speakers for one of their amps. They declined; apparently my speakers aren't worth a Schitt... sorry, couldn't resist... )

@audiokinesis - Well Duke I think you lucked out, sometimes the best trades are the ones that are never made. Had you gone through with it you probably would have felt like Schitt afterwards.

@erik_squires - I feel you. In fact there is one particular "swarm" user whose posts I entirely skip now.

As a happy DBA user I don't propose it is the answer to all things bass related, but I also don't feel room treatments is the answer either (and let's face it @erik_squires you do propose it as a solution quite a bit and in the process always mention GIK - whose stuff has never wowed me). In fact in my opinion room treatments invariably do more harm than good, mainly because of the suspect claims some manufacturers out there make regarding what their products can actually do. Getting rid of my room treatments and replacing them with a DBA is probably the best thing I ever did. Don't even get me started on DSP.

Duke is one of the good guys around here and I would like to thank him for his assistance in helping me pick out some new 10" drivers for my next DBA adventure when he had no financial gain in doing so.

@erik_squires wrote: "Maybe there’s a different way for swarm fan boys to behave more respectfully towards others and try to answer the OP’s question without asking him to triple the number of speakers in his home??"

"Swarm fan boys" are not perfect either, and neither am I. I have seen "swarm fan boys" come across as mocking other solutions, and hope I have not done that. But I didn’t see them labelling others as a "cult" or accusing them of dishonesty.

Erik: "Invariably, the swarm people attempt sideline any other solution that is not swarm."

"Invariably"? This is an exaggeration. As far as "sidelining any other solution", that’s a judgment call; could such terminology be applied to your posts advocating room treatments? In practice nobody has time to make a truly comprehensive post so we focus on a few things.

"My perception of the intent of the swarm promoters has gone from thinking they are merely happy fanboys to something entirely different as a result of enough interactions."

This is innuendo, and assumes the worst about a whole group of people based on interaction with a few. And in case you are implying that there is some sort of "promotion" effort by "swarm promoters", I have NEVER asked any of my customers to either post, or not post, anything. I seldom even thank them.

"The combination of lack of acceptance of previous knowledge and science as well as the attempt of fitting into every system..."

These are exaggerations.

"... and random people showing up trying to make up reasons why only swarm could possibly work".

I have not noticed these alleged posts by random people, can you point them out? And did they REALLY say that "only swarm could possibly work"?

"... and misquoting experts..."

That’s possible, but not necessarily evidence of nefarious intentions. Can you show me?

"I cannot imagine this type of behavior as coming from sincerity anymore."

When we assume the worst about someone else, who does that say the most about, them or us?

"Maybe there’s a way the swarm cult can stop thinking I’m a fool who would not notice?"

Name-calling, and assuming facts not in evidence.

Erik, I do not question your integrity. I think you are sincerely pissed off, and I think you are seeing what you want to see. I also think that’s a choice, but of a type we tend not to be aware of.  I think you are defending something which does not need defending. 

"Just spit balling."

Me too.

Duke

Thanks @jl35 @bonsai15 for suggesting REL subwoofers. I just checked out their website and they seem very nice. I was thinking about trying out SVS SB16-Ultra. It seems to get a lot good review. But somehow REL got mentioned quite a bit in this discussion, so I will trust your recommendations.

One thing about REL that might be a show stopper for me is the down firing passive driver. Let me just share a quick story with you guys. Just a couple of days ago, I decided to give my old 1990’s era DefTech subwoofer (250 watt & 15" driver) a try and hook it up to play music with my B&W speakers, and I also pushed the subwoofer farther into the corner of my living room. I was messing with the gain switch a little to get some good thumping out of it. Later that evening the building manager sent out an email to all residents that he received a complaint from some residents that they hear very loud bass music coming through their wall, and reminded us this is against condo rule. I’ve been using my subwoofer for TV and movies for years and this is the first time I get a complain so I need to be very careful going forward. I think pushing the subwoofer farther into the corner might be the main culprit. Anyway, I immediately ordered a pair of SVS SoundPath Isolator from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NCSQ5GK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Does anyone have experience with these? Do you know if they work?

Anyway, back to the REL subwoofer, I’m afraid the downward passive driver might be a problem in my situation. Unless maybe I can stack it on top of my old sub.

Xcool wrote: "Later that evening the building manager sent out an email to all residents that he received a complaint from some residents that they hear very loud bass music coming through their wall..."

My guess is that the heavy passive radiator moving up and down was effectively transmitting its vibrations into the floor itself, whereas if that motion had been in the horizontal plane the vibration transmission to the floor would have been much less.

In addition to avoiding vertical cone motion, you might consider the use of an isolation platform such as the Auralex SubDude. It is designed to very significantly reduce the transmission of vibrations to your floor.

Air-borne vibrations are more of a challenge because that’s what sound waves are. One possible strategy would be to place the subwoofer as close to the listening position as possible, so that you don’t have to turn it up quite as loud.

Duke

Hello @erik_squires ,

     Well, I guess we’re all fan boys of something. You seem to be a big fan of acoustic room treatments in general and GIK in particular. I’ve read many of your posts over the years praising both. I’ve always considered your posts interesting, informative and earnest. I’ve always just assumed you had treated your room most likely with GIK products, experienced very positive results and thereafter often recommended them to others due to their efficacy.  I never thought of accusing you of having ulterior motives.
     Have you ever considered that members of your imaginary Swarm Cult may have just independently followed similar paths as you after experiencing very positive results with their DBA systems?

Tim