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Sub woes... (1 Viewer)

Holadem

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I had an SVS 20-39PC for 7 years, lived in 5 apartments of various sizes during that time, and never once wanted for more in the bass dept. This was a first generation SVS, long before the Plusses and PCis and powered boxes and what not showed up. That sub was a monster, and I was utterly satisfied (it did develop these bizarre loud minutes-long random hums in the last couple of years, when it was off. I would wake up in the middle of the night with the whole place shaking and run to the living room to unplug it. I am guessing the amp was going bad.)

I've had to unload it as part of an emergency wholesale liquidation of my system a few months ago.

Now, I am slowly rebuilding, got a pair of Paradigm Atoms v5 at the front for now. So far so good, they actually sound better than the older generation Paradigm Monitor 7 they replaced (as much as such things can be ascertained without A/B comparison. Last time I heard the 7s was a few months ago. Maybe I am just "sound-starved", and any speaker sounds heavenly after a few months without, who knows. But I frankly feel the new Atoms are better.)

Needing a sub, and a new SVS 20-39PCi being out of my budget for now, I somehow convinced myself that I could easily downsize. I eyeball my current room at 10 x 12(15?) x 20 -- I should really measure it I know. There is a staircase opening, pretty small one, but into a much larger room upstairs.

After a couple of days researching budget subs, I found the Dayton 100 (10") for $60 on craigslist (ships for $150 or so from Parts Express.) I thought I would start there, for that price I don't have a whole lot to lose, and I should be able to unload it on craigslist again for the same price anyway.

Um -- WTF was I thinking -- what a piece of shit. When I turned it up loud enough to hear anything at all, it was a boomy mess that muddied up the clean tight sound of my little Atoms. I quickly realized that once you are used to deep clean bass, it's hard to settle for anything less. I need a sub I can hear only when warranted, and accurately so.

Budget still being what it is, I settled for HSU STF-2 for $38X shipped. The thing should be here Friday or Saturday. The HSU site and customer service guy said it should be fine for my room. Now that I have looked at the actual dimensions of the sub, I am quite skeptical. It’s pretty small, and now I am wondering if I shouldn’t just have waited till I could afford the SVS.

I am hoping for a miracle, but I don't know how I am gonna be happy with a sub that has a smaller woofer and a far smaller enclosure (and same power amp power, 200W-HSU, 190W-SVS) than my old faithful... The HSU are said to be fantastic for “music” (quotes because I am skeptical of that music/movies distinction. A good sub should excel at both. The SVS did.) Since I watch few movies nowadays, hopefully it will be adequate for now with “music”… No pipe organs, but some of the classical and jazz stuff to which I listen has some deeeeeep piano, I am guessing in the 20s (Hz). Also bass heavy raggae and hip-hop sometimes when I have people over.

Just sharing -- I have no one with whom to talk about these things :D

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Robert_J

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Dr. Hsu is a great sub designer and you will probably be very happy with your new sub when listening to music. With movies, you should lower your expectations. It can't compete with your old SVS.

As old as your SVS was, did you upgrade the driver when that was available? If you did and you still have the old driver laying around you can DIY a pretty good sub for a minimal budget.

-Robert
 

Holadem

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No, I never did bother upgrading the driver. I vaguely knew it was an option at some point but never looked into it, as I was happy with my system as it was (I essentially stopped visiting this section of the forum) and had no interest in what I assumed would be an incremental upgrade.

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Holadem

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You're right Robert, the HSU is awesome. I only have a 2ch setup right now so I can't speak for movies, but on music, it rules. Frankly I think it sounds better higher up than my old SVS, but at the same time it's missing the very very bottom still. But I finally have something in here that shakes the room again, and it feels good, I missed having a real sub :) The amount of bass coming out of that small box is unbelievable. It is so much better than the Dayton it's not even funny. But then again it costs nearly 3x as much so it's not a fair comparison.

The Dayton would be fine in a small room, just not mine.

Now, I would absolutely keep the HSU except I scored a SVS PB12-Plus for the unbelievable price of $400. I will be picking it up over the weekend. Is there such as thing as too much sub? :eek:

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Robert_J

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Good score on the 'new to you' SVS. The + line of subs is a big jump. More amp, much more capable driver and less distortion. Does it use the old TC Sounds sourced driver (silver cone) or new driver (dark cone)? Either way the same guy had a hand in the driver design and I am a huge fan of his.

You don't know who you are asking. I have dual 15" subs with a 2,400w pro amp in my theater and that isn't enough. I'm almost done building the manifolds for my quad 18" IB sub. Just sitting in my office I see four 18" subs, three 12" subs two 10" subs, one 8" sub and enough magnets to build six more subs.

-Robert
 

Holadem

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We clearly don't have the same problems! :laugh:

I am in an apartment, there is a limit to loud I can go. The HSU would have been fine but I would be silly to pass up the PB12+ for a handful of dollars more (while remaining in budget.) There is the piece of mind of knowing that I cannot possibly push the PB12 to it's limits in these confines.

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Holadem

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Well. It looks like that's not gonna happen -- I was supposed to show up today to pick it up but just saw an email from the seller, he sold it yesterday to some other lucky dog. He works weird schedules and I live 2h away so we had some coordination issues; he probably went with a more local buyer. Or maybe someone here saw this, looked up the sub on craigslist and undercut me. :eek:

Ah well. I should be terribly disappointed, perhaps it's a case of not knowing what I am missing, but really, I am fine with the HSU. Had a little get together last night, played some music, everything sounded heavenly. As I said, I would keep it if it weren't for the PB12+, and now, I am :)

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gene c

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Now this worries me. I have to keep the bass volume kinda low so I use a couple of original Dayton 10" subs (supposedly good to 25hz, but who knows) and thought they were fine for what I needed.

But I've always wondered if I was missing out on something. Almost bought a couple of OutlawAudio subs (designed by Dr. Hsu) a while back but didn't. Maybe I should consider getting them, or something else, again.
 

Holadem

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Thanks but I am not :) Seriously it's OK. Plus, I charged the HSU whereas I would have had to pay cash for the PB12+. In retrospect, I like things better this way :p

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Holadem

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After more extensive auditioning, I remain happy with the STF-2... but I miss some of the really deep bass in R&B songs and the like, and the VTF-3 is like $150 more and goes down to 18Hz. So I am thinking that maybe toward the end of the 30 days period, if finances allow...
htf_images_smilies_blush.gif


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