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Good cheap subwoofer?

post #1 of 25
3/17/09 at 1:04am
Thread Starter 
Hey all!

I really enjoy the sound I get from my speaker setup (First Octave audio Angelica cabinets housing Hemp Audio Fr8 drivers - with an Antique Sound Labs AQ-1010dt SET amplifier), but the open baffle / SET amp has a serious weakness : it gives incredible amounts of energy at the tradeoff of deep bass. Although it seems to reach quite linearly to the upper 40s, lower 50s Hz (with 1Hz test tones, using my ears - no SPL meter), it has a very sharp drop after that. For example, listening to Massive Attack - Angel, the beginning of the song is barely audible until the first drum hit.

I wish I could have some fast, tight and accurate bass to match with the speakers. I really wouldn't want to spend more than 200-300$ on it, which seems really utopic for these qualities, but there is something I don't really need : power. I really would want something to complement my setup, not add up a whole new world of bass. So, what would be my realms of search for used subs ? I use an integrated amp with no pre-amp out, so speaker ins would be a major plus for the sub, or volume adjustable line ins.

Any help is appreciated.
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post #2 of 25
3/17/09 at 1:21am
with a higher budget HSU comes to mind
but
too keep with your budget LINK
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post #3 of 25
3/17/09 at 1:35am
For music, the AV123 ULW-10 with the latest 600W amp that finally started to ship past month are just great. The price range is where you are looking, and as a sealed 10" driver with lots of power and flexible adjustments (including speaker-level input), the bass is very defined, musical, and fast.



2 downsides:

These are now discontinued, so you must find one on the used market, but the final revised versions (now trouble-free) have just shipped this month.

The ones NOT from this batch with the older amp can have "issues," so only buy the latest batch.
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post #4 of 25
3/17/09 at 2:49pm
Audio Advisor
Import and Domestic Vinyl, SACD, DVD Audio, Audiophile Hardware - musicdirect - (800) 449-8333
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post #5 of 25
3/18/09 at 12:43pm
Thread Starter 

PSB?

Subwoofer PSB Century2i

Has anyone heard of this one?

PSB Century 2i.
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post #6 of 25
3/18/09 at 12:50pm
last year discontinued, but good, Yamaha 1500 (hopefully you can find with very good price and use even 2 pieces same time for more power, if needed)
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post #7 of 25
3/18/09 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Good cheap subwoofer?
Oxymoron. A low quality sub will degrade sound quality, it's not about power in a Hi-Fi system but depth. Since your pre-amp doesn't have low level, then use speaker level. I'm using a SVS SB12+ in the Hi-Fi rig.

Quote:
or volume adjustable line ins.
I thought you said your pre-amp doesn't have pre-outs? Don't use line out otherwise it'll still fixed, you want the sub to change in volume as you adjust your pre-amp volume dial.
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post #8 of 25
3/18/09 at 2:00pm
I just spent a solid week searching around for subwoofers.

HSU STF-1.

It is solid down to around 32 hz, but depending on room and placement, there is no reason you couldn't cover the entire music spectrum.

The thing is, they won't work for HT.

One thing you really need to look out for, is the subwoofer camp is really into their spls and being able to simulate sub-audible levels of sound. The reason why most cheaper subs don't sound good, is the engineers are trying to cater to that crowd, and end up doing ridiculous things in their design to emulate that performance with either small drivers or cheap components. I ran in circles with all the research looking first at the Rel T1 and 305. After combing through all the bs, and really concentrating on my needs, (low hz performance, musical quality, spl not being an issue) I finally settled on a used onix ufw-10.(a little out of your budget range at around $400) It was between that or the SVS sb12-plus, and the used onix just cost less. I would say you a really only looking at a few hz loss and some spl between those options on the stf-1, which really wouldn't be that important in anything but HT.

At that price, I would think that the only thing that might make you unhappy with the hsu is reading e-peen wars on the forums about how your sub won't properly emulate Godzilla's footsteps, or conversely, how the distortion of the much more expensive rel subs is oh so pleasing to the audiophile ear.
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post #9 of 25
3/18/09 at 3:06pm
The Velodyne VX-10 is pretty solid, and the bass is fairly clean and not boomy. Its built very well and has speaker level and line level inputs. It doesnt have a built in crossover however, it just uses a low pass filter to set the frequency for the sub. But in your case that might very well work.
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post #10 of 25
3/18/09 at 3:49pm
T250 250 Watt 10" Subwoofer

I can attest that these guys make decent speakers for the money. These will certainly hit 25 hz solid and from what I have read go lower when properly positioned. The T300 is $350 and probably hits harder than anything you can get under $1000. Sq? Dunno. I would assume it is solid. TSC appears to have their audio heads on straight for a budget company.

A quick blurb from the below linked avs thread.

The T250 on a quick RatShack measurement (C-weighted, table adjusted) seems to be pretty consistent in output from 100 Hz down to 30 Hz, then is 3 db down at 25 Hz and 11 db down at 20 Hz in my room. The room is huge BTW. The meter itself is ancient so it might be off a bit.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post15637713
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post #11 of 25
3/18/09 at 6:40pm
For my nearfield desktop setup, I went with the Dayton HSU 8" Subwoofer...believe me that thing is tight, clean, not or slow boomy whatsoever. Definitely a musical sub, it extends low enough for all of the music I listen to (even the occasional electronica/rap) I purhcased it @ Parts Express for about $160 shipped. For a nearfield setup it's an absolutely terrific bargain
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post #12 of 25
3/18/09 at 7:24pm
If you are feeling a little creative and are willing to DIY,

Parts Express:*Tang Band W8-1363SB 8" Subwoofer
and
Parts Express:*Dayton SA240-B 240W Subwoofer Amplifier with Boost

I believe in about a 1.3 cubic foot ported box should line up with an Extended Bass Shelf alignment (probably wanna model that out as I can't do port length in my head).

I have the 6.5" version of the sub and it reaches to roughly 35 hertz before it starts to run out of steam and 23 hertz before it runs out of xmax. A subsonic at 30 hertz on a 24 db slope works well. I'm sure the 8" would easily beat that, in both volume and extension. Of course it all depends on the size of the room, etc. but mine is perfect for a nice 2.1 system.

Great bang for the buck especially since the amp is on sale.
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post #13 of 25
3/18/09 at 8:03pm
Energy - ESW-8 - Powered Subwoofer - Factory Refreshed-Audio Advisor
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post #14 of 25
3/19/09 at 12:04am
Thread Starter 

energy?

Thanks for all the replies!

For the line ins with variable output, I was wondering if you could connect the line out of the CDP to the line-in of the sub, without having a preamp in between, but it seems like every sub has speaker-level ins and outs, so that's perfect for me.

As for your suggestions, I was thinking more about canadian stores to save humongous amounts of money on shipping and taxes (which can boost the price by up to 50% on cheaper stuff), but was still intrigued by the energy subwoofer for 88$ : is it still worth it, or a sub so each won't really help the bass by making all the other frequencies worse?
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post #15 of 25
3/19/09 at 3:11am
SVS sub cylinder (choose the smallest one). That's what I am using, but they are pretty big :S
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