Affordable subwoofer for music cont'd

Don't let the "audio snobbery" cause you to spend more than you comfortably can - it doesn't have to cost megabucks to be good.

All the other responses read your original post and considered your budget in their recommendation. If it sounds good to you and suits your ears then low price makes it that much sweeter.

I've seen some of the PSB subs come up in the $200-250 range. Like all PSB pieces, superb value for the money.

Erik,

It seems the "voice of reason" has taken over the later part of this thread. Bravo! It's great that you have a budget and aren't going to let others talk you into spending more money than you have readily available to you at this time. I commend you for sticking to your guns!

If you are going to stick to around $200, you might want to look at the PartsExpress DIY sub. They sometimes show up here or you could buy a new one and assemble it. I think it is $200, but it may be a bit more. Sorry if I'm recommending something over your budget.

Both the NHT and Pinnacle Baby Boomer will be out of your budget at about $350-450 used.

I do sometimes see a less expensive Pinnacle sub on AudiogoN for $199 new. I'm not familiar with it myself, but I've heard good things about it.

Good luck and enjoy,

TIC

I second the Dayton 10" Titanic from Audio Express. I use two of them and although they dont go much under 30hz with any power they certainly provide the rich weighty foundation that most monitors cant deliver alone. They feature a phase a control as opposed to a phase switch and when dialed in can keep up without sounding like they are lagging behind.
Sure we all want to call inexpensive stuff "junk" and buy the best, but in the real world sometimes "cost effective" will have to suffice.

Blkadr, Your response reminds me of a parallel situation with cars. I love Subaru's. I drive a '97 Impreza Outback Sport. Decent car. I'd love to be driving a 2005 Impreza Sti. Too bad it costs 3x as much, and I'm still paying the '97 off. Sometimes we have to sacrifice what we want for what we can afford.
And anyway, a stereo isn't "my all" in life. I also DH/freeride mountain bike, hike/backpack, rock and mountain climb, and drive my car on gravel roads very fast for fun. These are also money-gobbling pursuits. If I only sat at home and listened to music and watched movies, I'd have nicer stuff. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your outlook) I'm a very active person, and only a fraction of my play money can go to a stereo. So, I buy as high end of audio as I can afford and appreciate after a long night in a storm or after a hard mountain bike ride.
I have checked out those Dayton Audio DIY subs on ebaY. I looked them up on Parts Express, and they were out of my price range new. I'll keep an eye on ebaY for them, or maybe parts, and build an enclosure myself I am just afraid of getting the right frequency response out of a particular driver/amp/sealed box combo. I have modeling programs that you can input T/S parameters into, and get a response graph, and I could use a woofer's parameters combined with the box size to get what I desire. I would just need to make sure that the amp was up to par as well. For that I would like an on/off switch, phase adjustment, LP crossover and a single RCA input jack. I can't think of anything else I'd want for music, though it'll probably have speaker-level inputs, outputs, and RCA outputs as well.
The main problem with all of this though is that even if I get the parameters right, the box right, etc etc... it could still be a mediocre sounding sub that cost just as much as a reputable manufacturer's offering that DOES sound good. So, I'd like to try DIY, but I'm just skeptical that it will turn out as well as something "engineered." I'm not afraid, or even uneducated, just wary.
Anyway, I'm rambling on, so any more advice on the subs I have available to me would be great, and I'll check out Dayton.