Vandersteen Sub woofers v Rythmik Subs

Hi Tim,
I have a vintage $30 Scott AM FM Stereo 355R receiver and a $50 KLH Model 17 pair of speakers that I purchased at the ’antique shop’ years ago that has been sitting in my ’Hi-Fi storage closet’ that I had planned to restore but never got around to. They were to be for my garage setup. You know, so I can get rid of the ole ’boom box’ I use when working on projects out there. When I saw the SVS PB12 Plus/2 sub for sale on ebay I had a ’flashback’ of the time I had owned one before and sold it and wished I hadn’t after the fact later. Not to mention it had the rare dual down firing 12.3 woofers too! Yep, it was a pure impulse buy, but I knew it would work with my Scott receiver. So there won’t be any ’sub crawling’ going on in the garage. I’ll put it in a corner and fine tune it there.

@bstatmeister, On my main rig I have dual Power Sound Audio (vented) V1801’s. I ended up buying them because they:

1) Were used and at a good price for the both which came to a total of $300 off the list price, if new.
2) I got the full as if new 5 year warranty.
3) Free shipping.
4) 60 day trial period with shipping paid by PSA upon return in the 60 day time frame.
5) American made which I’ve found is much easier to deal with if something goes wrong with your sub (or any other audio item) you can ship it directly back to the manufacturer where the only thing they do is build subs for PSA, instead of sending it to a dealer cause Rythmik (or any other sub manufacturer) subs are built in China, and you hope and pray that ’Johnny tech’ has the requisite experience and parts to work on your Rythmik sub.
6) PSA has a trade in and trade up policy which helps PSA in keeping your business.
7) Customer service is second to none.
8) PSA has a ton of information and free software on how to fine tune a sub and sub placement on their AVS Forum for PSA subs.

I don’t know of any other sub manufacturer that has such generous purchasing and warranty policies.

I did some digging into the Vandersteen subs and I seems they are built to last a long long time! Which is very rare indeed and also are American made. I think you’ve made the right decision. Check and see ALL of what policies RV has, you will never know until you ask. Also ask if there is a history of certain times of the year RV may have sales on his subs. You might get a good price on that Sub Three you want after all, especially if you want to buy 2.

I hope this helps.

tyray

“RV is hard on the wallet”...

omg that is funny, I will let the frugal Dutchman know....

funny ( pucker story ) when our 7’s were being delivered the truck driver had to surf the pallet jack with brake down a short but steep section of the street. As we looked down the hill, the driver asked me “ new speakers, huh ? Expensive? I said all the stuff on that single pallet is about a new Corvette... driver grinned and said He$$ yes I can do it !!!!
they arrived safely

have fun

My main speakers are in front and to the sides of a gas fireplace that protrudes nearly 2 feet into the room (Klipsch Heresy III horn speakers so the fireplace has zero effect on the tone, and they’re 7 feet apart). The corner made by the fireplace behind the left one has the smaller REL Q108II downward firing sub. That little corner is GREAT for that sub...a fake plant sits on top of it (I care). The larger sub is to the right near a corner, but I have vinyl "spikes" and long enough cables on it that I can move it around...put it in the window for outdoor subbing, move it closer to my listening spot, more toward the corner...this works as all recordings are a little different and the possibility of tripping over it exists. However, having the 2 subs on the same page (not in stereo) makes for great sound in my room, which is maybe 20X30 feet with a very tall sloped ceiling.

gdnrbob stated:
" The Audiokinesis swarm makes sense, but then if you could put 4 or more subs of any brand in your room, you would probably get the same result. The whole idea is to balance room aberrations."

Hi Bob,

Correct, a distributed bass array system can be constructed using virtually any 4 subs. The concept is based on the proven theory that multiple generation points of bass sound waves (subs) in any given room significantly reduces the number of bass standing waves existing in the room. This results in more accurate and smoother bass response throughout the majority of the entire room with fewer points in the room that have peaks (exaggerated bass) and nulls (lack of bass).
It’s a choice the user must make: do they want to go all out using 4 of the best subs or a more reasonably priced set of 4 very good but smaller subs that are specifically designed for use in a distributed bass array configuration.
I’ve never heard an ultimate array system using 4 large hi-end subs but would certainly like to.
      After using the Swarm system for the past 2 years, I tend to doubt an ultimate bass array system would sound more accurate, natural or life-like but I do believe it would likely produce more bass. I know I don’t desire more bass either for music or ht in my current system.

Tim

Hi again good folks here, can you all expand on the type of headroom the Vandy’s have? How do they sound when everyone is away, you’re the only one there in the house and you really crank them up playing the best recorded music stuff you have? I was very intrigued after chatting with you folks here and checking out the Vandy website...Thanks