Looking for the best sub at $650 or less... (1 Viewer)

[Frank Mowry]

James,
The hardest part will probably be the finish. I'm building a sonosub based on the Shiva and I don't really need it to look incredible. I'll be painting it with a Rustoleum "Hammered Black" spray paint. Home Depot had many textured finishes in spray paint cans. I'll be testing out my finish on some scrap wood before applying it to the finished sub.

This kit just came out so I don't think it has a widespread recommendation yet since it's so new. It's the only true all inclusive kit I've seen that doesn't involve cutting and an extensive tool collection. Parts Express does have a few prefabbed enclosures though.

Frank

 

[Albert Damico]

If you go to cgi.audiogon.com and do a search on Infinity. You will find somebody who has (4) band new Infinity HPS1000 subs for sale still in the box. He is aksing well under $1,000 and when comparing specs, this is a sub that is 1000 watts of power, that goes down to 17HZ, and has a host of controls that allow you to tweak it. Specs aside, mine is the most dynamic, deep, crisp, sharp, chest pounding sub I have ever heard. Sure, I know I am biased as I own one. But I did go through a few others including a Velodyne before I settled on this monster. It was years ahead of its time, and easily competes with today's newest crop. Weighs in at around 100lbs and looks great as well. I will now climb down off my soap box and go back to work, but you should check it out.

 

[Brian Bunge]

James,

The problem is, there will always be those people that, for some reason, feel that no "DIY" based sub or speakers will outperform most of the decidely mediocre products that they can find from their local BB, CC, or Tweeter. Those that know better or are just willing to take a leap of faith will find out there is a whole world of stuff out there that can exceed their expectations for similar cash outlay.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Since I built that EX Sub kit I can tell you for sure that its extremely easy to build. I actually built mine in my livingroom on the hardwood floor just to prove that anyone could do it. Given your budget though I'd lean towards going with a tempest, the AV250 and a larger box as I suggested at the bottom of this thread. The only thing you'd then need to buy is some stuffing and some wood glue from wal-mart. Of course you could always just buy two of the EXSub14 kits as well but a single tempest would play lower then the shiva could...either way its a simple way to get excellent performance and get your feet wet with DIY.

 

[Ryan_MF]

If I want a manufactured sub, these are my choices: Sealed - Adire Rava, Ported - SVS 20-39PCi.

A ported sub is best for HT, but I'm also going to listen to music (in many formats) on this system and would like the lowest octave to be as clean and accurate as possible. Do I go with the sealed option instead? What are the best DIY sealed sub options are out there?

 

[DerrickW]

If you want sealed for a tight sound under $650, then you may be better served by a larger or better driver than the Shiva in the Adire Rava. Anyone know of good kits using the Tempest 15" sealed? I personally am about to build a Maelstrom 18" sealed, but there are no kits for it.

If you have a ported sub that is tuned low enough, you probably won't notice the increased group delay. The EBS alignment is very popular and has nearly the same group delay of sealed above 30Hz for most subs. So if you get one of the SVS ported subs that is tuned really low, I think you'll be very happy.

If you were honestly going to consider a bandpassed sub (the Paradigm), then don't even worry about sealed over ported. The ported design will already be cleaner than the bandpass, but less efficient. Sealed will be cleaner than the ported deisign, but less efficient. In addition, the sealed design won't play as loudly at the low frequencies as the ported design, so if its cleaner but you can't hear it, does it matter? I'm just saying, don't rule out ported for what you're looking for (and I personally use sealed).

 

[Andrew Pratt]

A sealed tempest will still get down very deep esp once you factor in room gain. Its true that ported models can go a little lower but they also unload below their tuning freq which can be unpleasant so its not always as clear cut as it seems. I currently have two large ported subs in my HT using the tempest and they work very well...but I think my next sub will be a high output sealed sub using a tumult driver.

As far as kits go there's now a kit with the tempest and DT300 amp that's going for $469US or $679Cdn

click here for the link

 

[James Zos]

Thanks Frank and Brian for your advice!

Does anyone know how the Shiva kit

http://www.creativesound.ca/details....l=EZSUB14SHIVA

would stack up against the Klipsch KSW12? For me the Klipsch sub seems to lack both punch and clarity. It sounds too distorted at higher volumes. Would the Shiva best it?


I know specs are just numbers and should be treated with perhaps some skepticism, but these are the numbers Klipsch offers for the sub I have now:

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 26Hz-100Hz¡À3dB
MAXIMUM ACOUSTIC OUTPUT: 113dB SPL 1/8 space, 1 meter
ENCLOSURE TYPE: Bass reflex via rear-mounted port
TYPE: 12" Bass reflex, tuned port enclsosure
AMPLIFIER: Class A/B discrete MOSFET outputs
AMPLIFIER POWER: FTC Rated Power: 105 watts continuous,
22-100Hz @ ¡Ü 1% THD
LOW PASS CROSSOVER: Continuously variable from 40-120Hz, 24dB/octave slope above 120Hz
INPUTS: 2) Line level/LFE RCA phono jacks and 2) High level speaker terminals
OUTPUTS: 2) High level speaker terminals, high pass filtered at 100Hz, 6dB/octave slope
PHASE: Switchable 0 or 180 degrees
DRIVE COMPONENTS: Subwoofer system using one 12" (30.5cm) down-firing, fiber-composite cone woofer
WOOFER: K-1071-K 12" (30.5cm) Fiber-composite cone

 

[Andrew Pratt]

James I think the Shiva would likely best the klipsh esp if you opted for either the 250 or 300 watt upgrade from the stock 150 watt amp...though even the 150 sounds very good to me.

 

[Ryan T]

A ported sub is best for HT, but I'm also going to listen to music (in many formats) on this system and would like the lowest octave to be as clean and accurate as possible. Do I go with the sealed option instead? What are the best DIY sealed sub options are out there?

I don't know how well a rava will perform for HT. If you could wing a low Q Tempest or 15" DVC you'll get the best of both worlds. I run my Q.577 sealed Tempest for HT and it's incredible. I've been able to play just about any of the bass rich movies scenes louder than I could stand and the Tempest still was going strong. Plus it's sealed so it's very accurate. The down side is a very big box 8+ Cu. Ft. The Dayton 15" DVC performs very similar to a Tempest but works better in smaller boxes. Either way if you go with a SVS, Rava or DIY subwoofer you'll have one heck of a sub.



Ryan

 

[Brian Bunge]

Adire also has a sealed Tempest-based sub coming out called Daeva, I believe. IIRC, it'll be right around the $700 mark.

 

[FrederickR]

Hello,

You could get a Paradigm PW-2200 for under 650$.

Ive bought mine at 680$ Canadian this weekend.
Its a great sub except that the amp make some noise.
12"
250 Watt RMS
Ported design
But its great for music and HT

Thanks

Frédérick Richard

 

[Dean Mar]

Ryan and James,

I can recommend that you talk to Kyle at Acoustic-Visons.com. He can help you a great deal with A DIY sub. Depending on how much skill you have, access to tools etc. , he can do as much or as little as you want. He was a tremendous help to me when I was looking for a sub to use for music and movies.

You might be able to go with something like a Tempest or AV15 driver that would give you excellent results and surpass what you can do with a manufactured sub for the same money. Depending on the percentage of use for HT vs music will help you determine to go sealed or ported. The size of your room will also make a difference on what you may want to look at.

Another very knowledgeable person that can help you with a DIY sub is Brian Rutledge at Rutledge Audio Design.

 

[James Zos]

Thanks for the advice, Dean. I'll check it out.