Musical subwoofer under $2000
I’m looking for advice on what vendors to look at as l’d really like to add a subwoofer to my 2 channel setup. The room is c. 30x15 feet or 42 square meters with low ceiling of about 7.5 feet or 2.2 meters. Budget is c.$2,000 and my 2 channel speakers are Sonus Faber Sonetto VIII. My amp offers pre-out connection. I’d like REL but their S range is now too expensive, so something close in musicality would be great.
Lemonhaze is giving good advise. The Rythmik subs are a great value. Danny at GR Reasearch has a video on the subs that is worth watching. IMO subwoofers and subwoofer setup are the most frequently misunderstood and poorly executed areas of the audio realm. Two is better than one and four is a swarm. Save up and buy an Audiokinesis Swarm and you will have the best bass extension attainable, there’s nothing like it! And you won’t be spending money on acoustic treatments for the bass. |
@gotvinyl, thanks for the compliment. Yes Duke's Swarm or Debra are great and great value. However although the multi-sub approach is amazing I find that the lower frequencies in some rooms take too long to decay and some help from bass traps help reduce the decay time and provide even greater improvement. Measurement using REW or similar is the icing on the cake to really dial things in. The CSD or waterfall plot clearly indicates where any problems or resonances lie.
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@lemonhaze Great advice on room response. Some don’t have tools to use to dial in the sub or subs if more then two so they play it by ear. Luckily I have REW but I use more with DIv2 a Rational Acoustics software and for this purpose it is great. For my situation, I have Vandersteen 2ci speakers which has the bass couplers that has enough bass so one sub for me is more then enough to reinforce the lower bass response. I have read the links that was posted earlier and really has some great information. Peaks are easier to tame then nulls as long the nulls aren’t more then 3 db difference. |
I hate to offer another way, as you seem to be narrowing down options, but, in my opinion, using the Vandersteen subs would be best way to integrate a subwoofer into your system. The use of a 1st order high pass filter doesn't introduce any delays in the time/phase of the signal. It also lets you amplifier do more by eliminating the demanding lower notes. I have used other subs in my system and they just don't integrate as seamlessly nor easily as the Vandy subs. The main constraint is that you need to buy the crossover (either fixed or the M5-HP which allows you to change impedance load from the amplifier). Older models like the 2w/2wq can be had quite reasonably used. The new Sub 3 has an equalizer built in, and can be tuned to the room. Bob |
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