Sub Woofers ? (1 Viewer)

[Randal]

I'm only into stereo CD's at this point. I have a H/K 3370 stereo receiver and Mirage Frx-7 speakers. The speakers are great and actually have decent bass. But I'm gettin' real curious about the sub woofer experience. How bout some suggestions in the $500. and under price range.

Also, while thinking about where I would put a sub in my little living room, I want to ask, is it really true that it doesn't really matter where you place the sub at in the room? If you put it off in a corner, wouldn't it make the bass guitar and bass drum seem like it was no longer centered like it's supposed to be?

 

[RichardH]

Real quick:
*the* powered sub to get at the $500 price point is the Hsu VTF-2:
http://www.hsuresearch.com
There's also the Adire Audio Rava for slightly less, and the Adire Audio Dharman for slightly more.
If you have a receiver/amp laying around and like the aesthetics, an SVS CS 25-31 would be killer.
If you have the sub crossed over at 80Hz or lower, generally you won't be able to tell where the bass is coming from. But, you will get some signal above 80Hz as the filter is a slope, not brickwall. So, it's usually recommended that you place a sub in a front corner, preferably close to your mains.

 

[Randal]

Thank you Richard.

"If you have the sub crossed over at 80Hz or lower."

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does this mean and how would I know if it's the case?

 

[Len Cheong]

means all the sub would be doing is outputting only everything below 80Hz. Everything above that will be outputted by the rest of your speakers.

 

[Randal]

Ok, and what determines this, the sub or the receiver?

 

[Dustin B]

Depends on the sub and the receiver. In general most recievers have a fixed crossover at 80 (onkyo), 90 (yamaha), 100 (marantz). There are more that fit into each category and a few have variable ones. Sony ES lets you vary the crossover on an individual channel basis from 40-200hz in 10hz increments. The Outlaw 1050 lets you do 60-to 100 something in 20hz increments. Most subs also have a continuously variable low pass filter and a fixed high pass filter built into them. So what does this mean?

If you use the sub preout. Then you will set the sub to yes on your receiver. Then any speaker you set to small will only receive the frequencies above the crossover and it will redirect any info below the crossover on that channel to the sub. If you set a speaker to large it's bass will not be redirected to the sub. Either way the sub will still get the LFE info (the .1 of 5.1).

The other option is to use the subs crossover. To do this you will set the sub to no on the receiver and route the speaker level connections of the front two channels through the sub (or if you can loop back to the receiver or a seperate amp with the preouts you can do it line level). Then the sub will only produce frequences below where the variable low pass filter is set and the mains will receive everything above the fixed highpass. The other way to do this is hook the mains up to the receiver, then run the preouts for the mains to the sub and use it's low pass filter to get the sub to fill in where the mains leave off.

I prefer to use the receiver to do the crossover. Fixed highpass and variable low pass seems like a bad idea to me, so the first option with the subs crossover is out. The second subs crossover option may work well depending on your mains and sub.

The final thing is remember that a crossover is not a brick wall. It's just the point where the slope starts.

 

[JerryW]

My first choice would be to go with something custom built by the guys at Link Removed. Kyle and Rob are awesome at what they do and can build an incredible sealed music sub for quite a bit under $500 (about $380 + shipping and you can get it in any color you want). They built my EBS alignment vented 15Hz monster, it really shakes the house and sounds very musical. It's the best purchase I've ever made in HT.
Also I would look at the Adire Audio Rava: http://www.adireaudio.com/rpd/rava.htm It's quite a bargain for $399 + shipping.
IMO, you really don't need a VTF-2 in music only system. That is unless you really groove on pipe organ music (I do sometimes). Either of the above mentioned subs would sound better with music than the Hsu product, again, IMO.

 

[Randal]

Thanks everyone.

 

[Leon Liew]

Need some feedback from you guys. Just purchased the Velodyne VA810XII sub. Its an 8" Front Driver with a 10"

passive radiator down firing. Dealer says its nolonger in

production by Velodyne. But description and detail is impressive with a Class A/B amp built in.

Question is what's a Class A/B amp ? And does anyone out

there own one ? Appreciate very much any feedback provided.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Hi Randal,

For that system, I'd also recommend the Adire Rava. Unless your receiver has preamp-output jacks, you'd run another set of speaker cables to the subwoofer, and use the sub's crossover and level controls to achieve a good blend with your Mirages. Since it is a stereo receiver, I doubt it contains the internal crossover that was mentioned, so the sub's crossover is what you'll use.

It does matter where you put the sub, as far as the best bass is concerned, but below 80Hz or so the sound is basically non-directional, so you won't identify the sub as a sound source. Usually, a corner is best, especially if it's on the same wall as the main speakers.

 

[Kyle Richardson]

Leon,

Class A/B is the "style" of amplifier pertaining to how it gets it current. Class A/B is the most common type and is found in most of the Adire, Parts Express, & Madisound plate amplifiers.