Greg: My Dad's system is actually quite solid down to 35 Hz and rolls off below that. Given that he doesn't listen to pipe organ music or electronica, he'll simply have to get used to "natural" sounding bass. It may take some time, but after living with stupendously bloated "thud" for years on end, and thinking it was both "good" and "extended", it may be tough for him to deal with initially. As i've already commented though, he is well aware of the phenomenal increase in bass resolution and transient response, so i'm thinking that there is hope : )
As far as the sub goes, that will be used for HT purposes only. This specific model was rated as being -1.5 dB down at 25 Hz and is quite large. Due to using this strictly for special effects on movies, placement of the sub becomes less critical. This is in comparison to if the sub was used for stereo purposes, which would require some semblance of low frequency imaging. The speakers that he's running for mains are actually too large for the given installation in my opinion. Adding two large sub-woofers with the requisite box size required for good performance would be too much for this room and there just isn't enough space to do so. Given that his mains already have an 8" and 10" per cabinet that share the low frequency load, he's not "hurting" in this regard.
Besides all of that, i'm paying for the sub, amp and cabling, so he can't complain about "only having one sub" : )
El: The mids, tweeters and woofers that my Brother is using are Morel drivers. Given that Morel purchased technology from Dynaudio, one can see the similarities in driver design.
Having said that, i agree with your assessment. That is, even with minimal mass and big motors, these drivers just don't move air / respond like a "big boy" can. This is why i've got six 12's, four 10's, six 8's in my HT system and eight 12's in my main two channel system. Even with all of that, i can hear others saying "What ?!?!?! NO 15's, 18's or 21's ????" : )
UncleJeff: If you do some research, i think that you'll find that you'll have better luck building a sub from a kit than anything that you can buy at a brick and mortar shop for anywhere near the same amount of money. Having said that, most sub kits are PHENOMENALLY easy to put together, so don't let a lack of mechanical / electrical aptitude scare you away from attempting such a project. Sean
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PS... The pair of subs that i've got lined up for my next "project" make use of a single 12" and two 15's in large, low Q sealed cabinets. I may use these with my Ohm F's, which should help increase max spl and clean up their transient response a bit. Obviously, active crossovers would be used since passive's do horrible things to the amplifier / speaker interphase : )
