Affordable musically fast subwoofer

I have a Parts Express $100 special in my basement home theatre system. After breakin I have to say that I like it in that capacity, a lot. Now, I don't listen to music in that system - only movies. YMMV

I have a REL Strata III in my main rig and it certainly blows away the cheap sub. But the REL wouldn't work in the home theatre system at all. Each for it's purpose according to its strengths.

Enjoy,
Bob

Used Velodyne servo sub F series (e.g. fsx 12). Not real small, but definitely under 100 lbs. Run my Spicas full range, keep the crossover low and its closer to audio nirvana than it deserves to be.

Subs don't have to be "fast" (a bass note is quite slow in attack) they have to be "clean".

A lot depends on where you are crossing over. If you are crossing over at, say, 70hz or below the HSU VT3 is invisible and has great deep basss at around 800 bucks. If you are crossing over at a higher frequency I might rather go to a sealed box type. The Martin Logan ones are very nice (if pricy).

The trick is, the decay characteristics of the sub have to match the mains or it just doesn't gell. For instance, my speakers only sound integrated with ported subs; sensor-controled and sealed boxes just would not match no matter what I did. On the other hand my friends sealed box speaker sounded best with a sealed type sub.

I am currently using the NHT1259 subwoofer that I built myself, Madisound has the parts that are needed to build a low cost subwoofer, I like the sound of it for music, for home theatre? it could be better, but for the price I think that it is the best. The cabinet size may be a drawback, it takes a 3cu Ft enclosure. Check it out.

Velodyne is really good and not expensive