Thinking I need a Sub...


I have some Nola Boxers that sound awesome but some of my favorite music has some fairly deep synthesized bass. At times, I hear the driver distorting and 'doubling over' is that the term?

So, my local high-end shop sells REL subs and I like the idea. I've been thinking of the T-7 or the R-218...

Advise would be great. I have McIntosh MC-60 amps and an Audio Research LS-3...and use an NAD CD player.

Aaron
neo-luddite
Post removed 
Thanks Bob, that does help.

Well, I bought a REL T-7...I'll get it installed and post my thoughts. I was back and forth on this but adding a sub seems to be the consensus..and the REL seemed like the best for the money. Always a gamble!

Thanks,
Aaron
Johnnyb53,

Personally, so with my ears, subs have always sounded strangely additive, but they may not have been set up properly. Or, maybe they were'nt matched correctly. So, my listening winners have consistently been coherent full range speakers. Recently, there has been one exception, and that was the Volti/Border Patrol room at RMAF 2013. The sub, was simply not there, so I was not aware of its presence, so coherent.

Regarding, "Going full range "may not get a perfectly smooth sound" either..." I completely agree with you. Not all full range speakers are created equal. This is why my advice was to listen to the different setups within the same brand of speakers. So, compare for yourself and pick your own preference. Not the easiest thing to do, but the only way I trust to evaluate.
I agree that 2 subs are the ticket. I can tellwhere the bass is coming from with just one sub. My single svs ended up dead center between my speakers and sounded best there. I've had issues with integrating a sub into my system but will try again. I have heard subs integrate seamlessly, so I know its possible.

I would think that having control over your bsss seperate from your mids and highs would actually be beneficial. So a speaker measures flat from 20hz-20khz in an anechoic (sp?) chamber, doesn't mean it's going to have that same resonse in my 11x13 room or your 20x25 room...
A single sub needs to be positioned properly to disappear...if you place it too far off in a corner or someplace you might notice it being out of the ballfield, so to speak. My setup has the sub directly behind the left speaker and since it's set to about 51hz it blends perfectly with the mains and all the aural cues for stereo come from the mains anyway when you're sitting it the sweet spot. If I had another sub with the right side speaker it would be too close to the gear rack which doesn't need any more vibration, although everything is on vibration absorbing pods and such. All of this follows natural laws of physics regarding bass rolloff which can be read in my famous white paper, "subwoofers and the tawdry overuse of them by unsophisticated boneheads overloading their rooms and being forced to use digital room correction"...by request, $12.95.