Big room. What non-tubular sub to fill the void? (1 Viewer)

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

My father in-law is building a 26'x26' room with 12' vaulted ceilings. This is their family/great room. It is completely open and it is a very large square. But it's going to be beautiful.
The room will have an 11'x18' rug on top of hardwood floors. The normal furniture will be in there and the windows will be treated with heavy drapes.
His current system is an Onkyo receiver (don't know what model), Bose acoustimas speakers and Bose sub. The system sounds pretty good in his current living room but I am sure that once he moves it into the great room he is going to notice a lack of bass. But I could be wrong.
He's not big into music but loves movies and TV. What non-tube type subs are there that would match his Bose speakers? I believe that he will not part with those speakers. I have two 25-31CS's but I know these won't fit in with the decor of his room. It would need to be a sub that could fill the room, yet have an elegant look to it and not draw attention to itself. He believes in quality of sound and not quantity. I believe in both.
Or, and I'm going out on a limb here, do you think that the little Bose sub will fill the room?
Any and all responses are definitely appreciated.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

do you think that the little Bose sub will fill the room?

NO.

What is the budget?

He would probably like a small Sunfire sub that he could tuck in a corner or under furniture and not be obtrusive, yet still have very good output.

 

[george king]

Hsu Research VTF 3 or two of the VTF2s

Hope this helps.

 

[Dan Hine]

Well, if you think you might want to DIY then head on over to the DIY section and you'll find lots of helpful folks as well as a good FAQ thread and links to many other proven designs. Otherwise, I would get in touch with Kyle Richardson of Link Removed and give him your budget, goals, and requirements (size, finish, etc..) and let your father in-law sit back and enjoy the fruits of Kyle's labor.
Dan

 

[John Garcia]

Bose does not make subs, they make "bass modules" - labeled as such because they do not cover much of the bottom octave.

 

[Ben_wood]

I'll second George K's suggestion. You can't go wrong with a Hsu VTF-2 or VTF-3.

 

[Chris PC]

I would not rule out the SVS. Also check into Mirage BPS-400 and Paradigm Servo 15.

 

[Martice]

Link Removed
Good Luck

 

[Colin France]

Can not go wrong with the excellent Hsu Research VTF-2's or the VTF-3's. Great for Music and for Home Theater.
They are avaliable direct from Hsu Research with lots of reviews on this site.
www.hsuresearch.com

 

[Luis C]

Aerial Acoustics SW12 is a beautiful piece of furniture besides being an incredible sub. Its available in a slew of finishes and its visceral qualities in the low end are indescribable.
It will easily fill the room...

 

[Greg_R]

Shawn,
You've gotten suggestions ranging from $500 to $5000. What price range is acceptable? Adire's Rava has a nice wood finish and is ~$400.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

and i quote "I would not rule out the SVS. Also check into Mirage BPS-400 and Paradigm Servo 15." pffft. Come on. This is a BOSE acoustimass system we're talking about. Sure, the servo 15 and the others would totally rock the house, but who wants 90% subwoofer? If i had a Bose system like that with a paradigm sub i'd just listen to the sub.....the speakers ruin it all I say get a small but capable sub and spend all that hard earned cash on better speakers... A $1500 sub with speakers worth 50 bucks just doesnt cut it.

 

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies.
Actually I'm not sure what his price range is. As an example they walked in to a hand made area rug dealer and only wanted to spend around $3k. But yet walked out spending 3 times that. So I'm not sure what he will want to spend. I am actually waiting for him to see that his movies just aren't going to sound the same in that super huge room. This is when I will calmly suggest that he look at the various subs you all have recommended. I'll let him make the decision. Let's just assume that it would be around or up to $5k. But more than likely in the $1k - $3k range.
So far what has been recommended is darn near perfect. And I forgot that SVS does have the wood exterior SS subs.
If he does decide to go with different speakers I was going to suggest Paradigm or Klipsch at first.
Then again all this might be pipe dream for me as I live vicariously thru him.

 

[Dustin B]

Mating a multi thousand dollar kick ass sub with acoustimass cubes That would be enough to make me cry.
If he can get the SVS dual SS then he definately needs to look into seperates and better speakers. There are lots of small bookshelves out there. Not Bose cube size, but not big towers either.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

My dream setup is using 2 separate subwoofers that are located in a room so that they cancel out almost all room modes. Then finish fixing the response with bass traps and I'd get an anechoic response for bass.
Together the subwoofers can handle peaks of 123db at each seating location (which is the costly part).
No need for electronic EQ though.. wouldn't that be sweet?
Dual SS can probably produce those peaks i'm looking for.