What 4 subwoofers to buy?


I am using a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls from 1984 and a pair of Klipsch Heresys stacked on top of the Cornwalls. I recently bought a Klipsch R-115SW subwoofer and could not get any satisfaction from it. Too many room placement issues. So I kicked the subwoofer out of my listening room, being that I get better results all around without it.But I still desire an upgrade on bass performance and would not complain if overall speaker performance was increased. I have been reading alot  lately about the DBA thing, and without even trying it, I am positive that it will be the best thing for me. But I have come to a brick wall sort of speak in my search for which subwoofers to buy. I am not rich, so buying 4 of Rels best is out of the question. I know that Miller Carbon is always saying that quantity over shoots quality, but when I use manufacturer subwoofer mating tools, the results always comes back with their most expensive subwoofer for my system. One of my main concern is will 4 lower end subs be an enhancement to my system? I was going to buy 4 SVS SB1000s because they are very good priced for the quality and they also have the high level speaker input which I will need for hooking up to my vintage integrated amp. But as I was researching all of their other models, I noticed that only their 1000s had these hookups? I emailed them and asked why their other upper models did not have high level speaker inputs? They said that none of their customers have expressed the need for them? I am not sure how to understand that? Maybe most of their customers main interest is in home theater and not 2 channel stereo? I do not know? This is where I have come to a stand still in buying my 4 subs. Will 4 lower end subs work for enhancing my system or do I need to go higher up in the chain as far as quality is concerned? Any ideas, knowledge, experience and or opinions will be greatly valued. Thank you.
Ag insider logo xs@2xelate
williewonka,

By cancelling out room nodes, i.e. peaks within the room, the bass decays faster, not to mention you get a more consistent room interaction. Keep mind mind we are talking subwoofer frequencies, i.e. below 80Hz, where you can't tell where the sound is coming from. A smooth frequency response, without room nodes works best, or at least as an alternative to a lot of room acoustic treatment, perfectly positioned speakers (for bass), etc. 


Velodyne and SVS are a good match with Klipsch. I was at one time using Khorns front, KLFC7 centre, Hersey II's as rears with a Velodyne FSR18, a true beast back then. 
williewonka,

Based on your budget of around 4 x $599 you could do much better with just two subs at @1200 each.
Respectfully, I’m not here to argue a point but to offer up a different way of thinking ’out of the box’ to get good bass. The 4 sub SVS SB1000’s would be a killer set up to augment elate’s Klipsch mains as those ’little’ 12 incher’s are quality mechanical devices for producing bass with a good price to performance ratio too. 

And the SVS SB1000's with the high level speaker input are actually $499 all day long, not $599. https://www.svsound.com/products/sb-1000

elate,

The SVS SB1000's would take some time to find the right placements in your room but with their small size and high level speaker inputs you would have more options and ease of placements. Read what Duke was gracious enough to write here on Agon:

Tyray asked: "Can a customer use their own passive subwoofers of choice?"

You can totally use your subs of choice, active or passive. Here is the amplifier that I use to drive my passive subs, note that it has a single band of EQ and a switchable 25 Hz "bass boost" circuit, which may come in handy with sealed subs:

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-sa1000-subwoofer-amplifier-rack-mountable--300-811

Tyray: "Or do I have to use AudioKinesis designed passive speakers for best results?"

I think the subs I designed work well for this application, but they are NOT required for good results. I don’t like to make claims like "best results" because in this hobby there is always something better... I’ll only claim "best I know how to make at my price point given where I think the goal posts are."

Tyray: "As I’m trying to understand if you would need to ’customize’ your swarm peripherals, amps, speaker wire, crossovers and any other hardware to work with the subs a customer may propose."

I don’t really "do" custom Swarm systems wherein I don’t at least supply the passive subs, but it’s not rocket surgery. Briefly...

Spread your subs asymmetrically around the room, perhaps with one (but no more than one) in a corner, and bonus points if you can raise at least one sub up off the floor such that it is closer to the ceiling than to the floor.

(If you prefer, you can also use a symmetrical configuration - see Todd Welti’s "Subwoofers: Optimum Numbers and Locations" on Harman’s website.)

Any subs which are fairly far from the main speakers, you want their top ends to be rolled off fairly steeply no higher than 80 Hz, so they don’t betray their locations by passing audible upper bass/lower midrange.

I usually find that reversing the polarity of the sub farthest from the main speakers tends to improve the in-room smoothness, but in a very large or open-floorplan room the result may be deficient in the bottom octave.

If you don’t have test equipment, when setting the controls on your subwoofer amp(s) by ear, the sequence is: First set the level, then the frequency, then the phase. Cycle back through this sequence several times to fine-tune. Credit to master acoustician Jeff Hedback for teaching me what the proper sequence is.

Duke


As it may help you ’wrap your head around’ something that at first does seem counterintuitive, that 4 smaller subs can sound so good. And of course you could also buy one of Duke’s kits, but I do understand the bug to try to do it yourself.