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Has anyone here set up a system with tiered subwoofers handling different bass spectrums?

Has anyone here set up a system with tiered subwoofers handling different bass spectrums? I currently have bookshelf speakers fully crossed over to a pair of smallish symmetrically placed, force-canceling stereo subwoofers at 160Hz, and I am thinking about adding a big, ported sub and fully crossing that over to the stereo ones at 60Hz. My setup will easily allow me to do it (I have a miniDSP Flex that is applying DIRAC Live room correction to my current 2.2 setup downstream and that preamp is handling the full bass management duties right now, so the miniDSP only sees a pure 2.0 system at the moment--I can just attach the new sub to the second pair of outputs and use the miniDSP to handle this level of the bass management). Am wondering if anyone else has tried this? I am looking to improve bottom end impact and extension with the big ported woofer (looking at SVS PC-2000 Pro) since the stereo ones are not currently reaching down as low as my previous sub (currently a pair of SVS 3000 Micros; before these, I had a single SVS SB-3000).

-Ed

eddnog
eddnog OP
78 posts
 

@mapman Wilson Audio's WATT/Puppy combo is a known example where the top two-way and the bass drivers are essentially separate speakers, but built to be a combination with matching crossover built in.

 

@avanti1960 Take a look at this chart:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?attachments/kef-ls50-meta-measurements-thd-vs-frequency-response-bookshelf-coaxial-speaker-png.145864/

Notice the increase in distortion at 200Hz and down (300Hz-700Hz range is what it is, no reasonable way to resolve that part) at these volume levels and up. By crossing over to a proper sub at 160Hz, I am offloading all of that from the LS50 Metas, and since the mid/low driver is the baffle for the tweeter (being a coaxial 2-way design), this also significantly cuts down on distortion for the higher frequencies as the tweeter's baffle is not experiencing very high excursion in order to produce deeper bass.

-Ed

audiorusty
323 posts
 

I am currently doing what you are asking about. I use an active crossover/DSP unit.

I cross the subs into the mid bass cabs at approximately 77 Hz and cross the mid bass cabs into my bookshelf speakers at approximately 500 Hz.

It works wonderfully in my opinion.

mswale
285 posts
 

Not to beat a dead horse, but run the mains full, not crossover at all. Adjust the subs to fill in, agree, it should be around 80hz or less. 

Adding another sub, in just the lower spectrum would be difficult, hard to integrate. If you are just looking for bass slam, just ditch your subs, and get 2 new ones that will give you what you are looking for. 

sounds_real_audio
1,039 posts
 

I tried that....lots of work. So I took a break and just enjoyed the music...time better spent

toddalin's avatar
toddalin
489 posts
 

I do, but I don't use the subs for music.

The Yamaha RX-Z9 feeds a dBX subharmonic booster and this feeds a Crown PSA-2XH in bridged mono mode producing ~800 WRMS into the 12 ohm load of the 15" JBL W15GTi.

 

But even this doesn't go down as far as my Sunfire Signature and on the second receiver sub output, this is used to fill in from <20 Hz - ~60 Hz using the internal filter.  The levels are set using an RTA. 

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