Subwoofer Question


I currently have a Martin Logan Balanced Force 210 sub paired with Dynaudio Contour 3.4 LE speakers and a Prima Luna HP Dialogue integrated amp.  My listening space is fairly small (listening position is about 11 feet from the speakers.  The nature of the room only allows me to place a sub in the front corners of the room near the speakers so I can really only have two subs.  I have been toying with the idea of selling the ML and replacing it with dual subs, one in each front corner.  One particular sub I have been thinking and reading about is the REL t9i.  Why am I thinking about this? No other reason than the itch to tweak but certainly also to improve.

I would greatly appreciate this board’s thoughts and insights.

Thanks,

puppyt
Ag insider logo xs@2xpuppyt

Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

What drivel? He’s right. Call him out on what? You haven’t said anything! Talk about drivel!

Everyone here should be praising Tim. The DBA concept he’s explaining is not an easy one to understand. It flies in the face of all our accepted wisdom about timing and matching and symmetry. There’s no marketing angle because the advantages of using lots of subs overwhelms any one sub however good it may be. Its a hard sell not because it doesn’t work, but because it works so well its hard to believe how well it works!

The only thing DBA has going for it is that it does in fact actually work. Nothing else really does. Not really. For sure not anywhere near as good. Its physics: you put one sub in a room, you get one set of lumpy bass modes. The more subs you put in the room the more and the smaller and therefore the smoother the modes. Its not drivel. Its science. You should try it some time.
Whatever you like. In all honesty what seems to matter most is numbers not quality, not power, not any of the usual stuff everyone says. It is of course better to have four really good subs than four puny weak ones. But four puny weak ones beats one of just about anything. Something like that. Hard to explain until you do it. The minute you experience four or five decent subs in the room, well you won't believe it. The bass is of a quality so much better than you can get with any one or two subs its really hard to explain. Because whatever I say it will be interpreted in the framework you're familiar with, two speakers and one sub, maybe two, and its just not the same.

Now given your particular situation that might not be practical. Even though the additional subs could be fairly small and yet still work quite well, maybe some small Hsu sub that fits behind a sofa, you might really be stuck with just the front corners.

If that's the case then simple, get two of the Tekton subs. These monsters use four drivers and stand tall. Because of the way they are made each one is kind of like having two subs spaced 4 feet apart. Or whatever. You get the idea. DBA works best when the subs are spaced far apart and asymmetrically around the room. The idea being to create more small modes in spread out locations. Well the Tekton sort of does this by the way its made. Plus it is a powerful, efficient, killer sub. Resist the urge to place them symmetrically or in relationship to the mains. Low bass doesn't work that way. Look at my system. They are asymmetrical, no two the same distance from a corner, and yet the bass is wonderfully seamlessly integrated.

Then I would get the Dayton SA1000 to drive them. Perfect amp for this, and you can add more if you want without needing another amp. Yeah I have two but check Tim noble100 he has almost identical setup with one Dayton and loves it to death. 
Keep the ML sub, and add two more.

The physics of low bass is each sub creates its own lumpy bass peaks and dips. Using lots of subs each one creates peaks and dips in different places, and they're smaller because with more they each put out less. The total result is much smoother, deeper and more accurate bass. 

This cannot be done with any one sub. Physically impossible. 
Check it out. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 Search Swarm, DBA. Only way to go.