What subwoofers are suited 4 audiophiles

revel concerta b12?
2 of them cost 2000$ brand new

I think the problem of getting natural-sounding bass in a small room is primarily a room acoustics issue.

Let me give an example. There is one path from the subwoofer to the listening position, and another path length from the subwoofer to the wall behind you then reflecting back to the listening position. At the frequency where the path length difference is equal to one-half wavelength the energy reflected off the back wall arrives 180 degrees out of phase with the direct energy, and a cancellation dip results. At the frequency where the path length difference is equal to one wavelength, the reflected energy arrives in-phase and you have a reinforcement peak. These peaks and dips will move around somewhat as you change the listening position and/or subwoofer location, but they're pretty much inevitable. And they are audible because they are far enough apart to be distinct. At higher frequencies we'll have path-length-difference peaks and dips, but they are bunched much closer together and the reflected energy arrives many wavelengths later than the first-arrival energy so it's part of the reverberant field rather than part of the initial sound.

Equalization can help a lot, but only for one area in the room at at time. Equalization will probably make the response even more lumpy for listeners well outside the "sweet spot".

In my opinion the intelligent solution is an acoustic one. Suppose you had three or four small subwoofers scattered around the room. Now the path-length-delay-generated peaks and dips from the scattered low frequency sources would never be peaking and dipping at the same frequency anywhere in the room. The result is much smoother bass throughout the room.

I don't have any relevant information up on my website yet, but at T.H.E. Show I demo'd with a patent-pending compact four-box subwoofer system (four scattered boxes driven by a single plate amp). The same basic thing can be accomplished with several small independently-powered subwoofers.

Anyone interested in details on the system I showed in Vegas, shoot me an e-mail. I'm out of town right now but will try to check e-mail every day or two.

Duke

Audiokinesis: In my opinion the intelligent solution is an acoustic one. Suppose you had three or four small subwoofers scattered around the room.

In that cae, while 3-4 subwoofers might well be better, it would also seem that two full range speakers would be better than one subwoofer?

Aktchi, I think you are correct.

Duke

I am looking for an accurate sounding subwoofer that will blend gently into my system and not be so noticed

Bear in mind that your ears are far more sensitive at 80Hz than at 20 Hz. 100 Decibels at 10 Hz is barely audible....a mere 30 decibels is audible at 80 Hz!!!

Ideally this requires a subwoofer with EXTREMELY low distortion figures or else you will hear added harmonics or noise in the 80Hz to 120Hz range! (although some will be very satisfied with their purchase when hearing all this overwhelming bass distortion, which confirms the presence of a new subwoofer)

Here is a guideline; distortion will not be audible if the second-order distortion is below 3%, the third-order around 1% and the higher harmonics are around 0.2%. These specs are gruelling and rarely, if ever, achieved in subwoofers! Your should be looking for THD+N of less than 1% at rated output!

With help from Telarc Corporation, Dolby labs tested 12 commercial subwoofers and published their results (no names were given). They concluded that none of the subwoofers tested was able to meet the distortion and noise criteria required over the frequency range from 12 to 100 Hz. (Psychoacoustic data was used to define audible distortion and noise levels) Here is the reference for the paper; JAES Volume 36 Number 6 pp. 443-456; June 1988 "Subwoofer Performance for Accurate Reproduction of Music".

If you seriouly expect similar audiophile quality as your main speakers than I would plan to spend at least as much as your main speakers on a subwoofer, spending a lot more won't hurt either!