System

There are basically two types of subwoofer sound. The under $1000 home theatre boomers and thudders and the over $1000 (probably more like $1500) for real subs like Velodyne, JL and Martin Logans that can actually integrate well into a music system. Physics and your budget relegates you into the former category, so my advice is to skip it altogether until you can do it right. Otherwise, you're throwing your money away and you will not be satisfied. Trust me, I've still got my old sub in a box somewhere collecting dust....

I admit I was speaking in generalities, and I freely concur that exceptions do exist, they are just rare. Glad you found some. I think a key to your happiness in this situation may be that you have a pair. This always seems to give better results to smooth out the room responses. Sub guru's (which I am NOT) will tell you that they would prefer two cheaper and smaller units of lesser quality than a larger single of higher overall quality due to the way they interact with the room. Happy New Year all!