Short list of musical subwoofers
I plan to invest a "musical" subwoofer to augment the music listening experience of my current two-channel sound system. After a few digging over the acting forum and on-line reviews, it seems the following budgetary sealed (primarily) subwoofers are often mentioned and raved:
- Rythmic L12 (18Hz; sealed, servo controlled; 300 watts RMS; $609);
- RSL Speedwoofer 10S (24Hz; front ported; 350 watts; $428);
- Rel T5x (8 in; 32Hz@-6db; 125 watts; $680)
- SVS SB 1000 (24Hz, sealed; 300 watts; $450) or 2000 (19Hz; sealed; 500 watts; $600);
All above claim to have quick, accurate bass that is good for music listening. Rel, although not being able to extend to 20Hz, has been highly rated for easy integration into the sound system. I am not even sure if being able to get down low and/or the wattage of the active amp are critical to the musical application. My living room is about 25 ft wide and 20 ft deep. I do have limited budget but if others are warranted for a higher price tag in your opinion I am willing to bump up the budget. You inputs are highly appreciated.
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@mijostyn no issue w accurate. I live w accurate and flat to 20 hz every day I am in Seattle. with a push pull 12” aluminum honeycomb driver in a carbon fiber wrapped cabinet within a cabinet. 11 bands of analog EQ on both channels. YMMV, and unheard i would never make a claim that your system isn’t perfect, wonderful or exactly suits you. I am a robot that believes in a large sample size before making claims of “ best “…. |
I recently decided to go with two subs and started at the bottom pricing of companies that had free trial and return. Got two RSL Speedwoofers. Never returned them as I thought they integrated beautifully with my transmission line Atlantic Technology AT1s. Source is Naim, but my Unitiqute is underpowered for filling a large room with necessary volume, so I'm running through an NAD 268 power amp. |
Describing a sub as "musical" is odd. Turn everything else off except the subwoofer and play a record. Does that sound musical? Aside from the sub moaning and thudding away you will also get to hear the rest of your environment buzz and rattle. The music masks it. Subs add visceral impact to the music and when used correctly unload the bass from the main speaker increasing headroom and lowering distortion. I suppose you could say they make the main speakers more musical. None of the subs mentioned incorporate a high pass filter for the main speakers so one might assume that none of them are musical. ============================================================= First, at least I know SVS SB 1000/2000 has a built-in HPF fixed at 80Hz. If you connect RCA line out from preamp/DAC to SW line-in and then connect the SW line-out to power amp, the power amp will filter out anything below 80 Hz (at some slope) and only send the higher freq. to the speakers. Second, being a "musical" SW is also to do with the connection based on my understanding. A SW aimed to provide more musical application should have a high-level connection, like Rel T/ series all have high level input via a Neutrik connector, which allows the amp puts out the same analog signal to SW as to the speaker system to achieve better integration. On the other hand, the Rel HT series (for Home Theater application) do not have a high-level connection. Mr. Paul Mcgowan provides better explanation for it as below.
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