[Gryphus0204]

  Hey, I recently purchased a pair of Emotiva Airmotive 5S's couple weeks ago. They are big but not anything a desk should not be able to handle. They will definitely give you much fuller sound. I use them with a sub but even without I can tell they make much more bass the my M-Audio Bx5's. The imaging is wonderful. They fill the room with accurate sound, creating a large sweet spot. The tweeter is very good. They are very powerful. Compared to the 4s, unless if space and transport are that much of a concern spend the extra to get the 5s. It will go a lot lower and produce fuller sound. In my opinion their is no competition between these and Audio Engines. That being said they play better in a big room. Small room I have, the benefits over my M-Audio was not huge because I used a sub. I can tell they are better when playing loud, not much when I am listening low. Without any eq they are better than my M-Audios. 
 
Also these speakers look stunning, some of the best looking monitors out there. 
 
As for using them with 230v. You have to replace the fuse. https://emotiva.com/resources/manuals/airmotiv_5s_user_v10.pdf Go to page 7 and they will tell you. Maybe you can call Emotiva and ask them to make it 230v ready for you. Worth a shot. 

Hmmmm i see. I recently emailed them and they said there is a switch behind the Airmotiv 5s that would allow it to switch to 230v, and all i needed to do was to purchase my own power cord. I'm inching closer and closer to buying them. What are your thoughts on the Airmotiv 5s without a Subwoofer? Would they be able to crank up enough bass by themselves? 

 

[BigTerminator]

  Hmmmm i see. I recently emailed them and they said there is a switch behind the Airmotiv 5s that would allow it to switch to 230v, and all i needed to do was to purchase my own power cord. I'm inching closer and closer to buying them. What are your thoughts on the Airmotiv 5s without a Subwoofer? Would they be able to crank up enough bass by themselves? 

I would call them to make sure of everything. When you buy the monitors they do give you spare fuses so I am sure you would have to switch them out with something 230v compliant. 
 
No speaker of 5 inches or even 8 inches can give me satisfaction without the need for a sub. It is not the amount of kick or thump I need from the sub, it is the weight and fullness that it brings to music. I have a sub bypass switch and when I run the monitors by themselves so much life and impact is sucked out. Running test tones, they do go all the way down to 50hz without any drop off. But 50hz is not very low, my previous sub went down to 35hz and I could hear I was missing depth to the bass. My current sub goes to 25hz and you can hear much deeper bass. Upgrading my subwoofer did more for sound quality than upgrading my monitors. 
 
If your ears are not used to having a subwoofer than you will be fine. The day I got my M-Audios I thought the bass was enough. Of course once you go down the road of having a subwoofer you cannot go back. If your listening environment is small I would recommend even getting a $100 sub as it will make the music twice as good. I run my monitors full range and cross the sub at 70hz. 

 

[Gryphus0204]

  I would call them to make sure of everything. When you buy the monitors they do give you spare fuses so I am sure you would have to switch them out with something 230v compliant. 
 
No speaker of 5 inches or even 8 inches can give me satisfaction without the need for a sub. It is not the amount of kick or thump I need from the sub, it is the weight and fullness that it brings to music. I have a sub bypass switch and when I run the monitors by themselves so much life and impact is sucked out. Running test tones, they do go all the way down to 50hz without any drop off. But 50hz is not very low, my previous sub went down to 35hz and I could hear I was missing depth to the bass. My current sub goes to 25hz and you can hear much deeper bass. Upgrading my subwoofer did more for sound quality than upgrading my monitors. 
 
If your ears are not used to having a subwoofer than you will be fine. The day I got my M-Audios I thought the bass was enough. Of course once you go down the road of having a subwoofer you cannot go back. If your listening environment is small I would recommend even getting a $100 sub as it will make the music twice as good. I run my monitors full range and cross the sub at 70hz. 

Hmm... I think I'll probably get the Airmotiv first, and then decided whether i need a subwoofer. Any recommendations for a good and cheap one? And would i need a pre amplifier to connect the whole thing together?

 

[cel4145]

Hmm... I think I'll probably get the Airmotiv first, and then decided whether i need a subwoofer. Any recommendations for a good and cheap one? And would i need a pre amplifier to connect the whole thing together?

Good and cheap? Depends on what you mean by cheap. A subwoofer is a big driver in a big enclosure with an amp. Quality is not cheap, IMO.

You could always buy a sub with line level pass through. Or split the output to the speakers and the sub.

 

[BigTerminator]

If it is a small room then a cheap sub of $100-200 will suffice. Look for your typical budget home theater subs from BIC, Klipsch, Polk sells refurbished DSW units on their ebay store real cheap.  You do not need a preamp. You could split the audio signal, one going to the monitors, another into the sub and then crossover the sub til you get the sound you want. My subwoofer has a bunch of crossovers and fancy input outputs but all I do is cross the sub at 70hz with monitors running full range. Polk DSW Pro subs come with input outputs for 2.1 use. 

 

[sizzlincok]

I'm a bass head myself and I'm in a very small room. I used to use a Z680 sub and I thought that was amazing. Once I upgraded to an Infinity Home Theater sub, I felt that the bass was so much cleaner.

So I ended up settling with 2 Infinity HT subs in the corner. Bad for untreated room acoustics, but they're for when I want that bass thump anyway.

 

[Gryphus0204]

Crap. I was going to purchase the Airmotiv 5s from Amazon the other day and then i realized that they do not ship to Singapore. I then treid the Airmotiv website, but i decided against it as the shipping fee was 200 SGD, which is insane. I think i might audition the Cerwin Vega XD5 in my country

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

Gryphus - The Airmotivas appear to be based on designs made popular by ADAM Audio of Germany. The Airmotivas are cheap in the US because they are available mail order only and some of the saving on dealer margin is passed on to the customer. ADAM do have a distributer in Singapore. The F5 and A3X are the models to ask about.
 
Other classic entry level near field monitors also available Worldwide and with distributers in Singapore are from Mackie (MR5), Yamaha (HS5) and JBL (LSR305).
 
If these models are still too expensive for you right now take a look at lesser but still excellent models from KRK (RP5), M-Audio (BX5) and similar designs from Samson and Fostex.
 
All these manufacturers have dealers in Singapore. Unfortunately I cannot make the websites quote prices to me here. If you coud be arsed it would be interesting if you could post them up. I would have thought they would be cheap what with Singapore being a free port and all but it all depends on taxes and import duty etc.

 

[GearMe]

Crap. I was going to purchase the Airmotiv 5s from Amazon the other day and then i realized that they do not ship to Singapore. I then treid the Airmotiv website, but i decided against it as the shipping fee was 200 SGD, which is insane. I think i might audition the Cerwin Vega XD5 in my country

Yeah...that's a bummer!

Not sure if you've already explored this for other Studio Monitors but from what I can tell there is a Amazon search criteria (checkbox) called AmazonGlobal Eligible that allows you to see which products can be shipped to Singapore. Emotivas don't pop up but JBL, KRK, M-Audio, etc. do.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201214770

 

[Gryphus0204]

  Gryphus - The Airmotivas appear to be based on designs made popular by ADAM Audio of Germany. The Airmotivas are cheap in the US because they are available mail order only and some of the saving on dealer margin is passed on to the customer. ADAM do have a distributer in Singapore. The F5 and A3X are the models to ask about.
 
Other classic entry level near field monitors also available Worldwide and with distributers in Singapore are from Mackie (MR5), Yamaha (HS5) and JBL (LSR305).
 
If these models are still too expensive for you right now take a look at lesser but still excellent models from KRK (RP5), M-Audio (BX5) and similar designs from Samson and Fostex.
 
All these manufacturers have dealers in Singapore. Unfortunately I cannot make the websites quote prices to me here. If you coud be arsed it would be interesting if you could post them up. I would have thought they would be cheap what with Singapore being a free port and all but it all depends on taxes and import duty etc.

 
 

Yeah...that's a bummer!

Not sure if you've already explored this for other Studio Monitors but from what I can tell there is a Amazon search criteria (checkbox) called AmazonGlobal Eligible that allows you to see which products can be shipped to Singapore. Emotivas don't pop up but JBL, KRK, M-Audio, etc. do.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201214770

Alright thanks guys for all your help! I will probably be going around the few distributors show rooms these few weeks and then I will decide!  

 

[relaximjoking]

  I would call them to make sure of everything. When you buy the monitors they do give you spare fuses so I am sure you would have to switch them out with something 230v compliant. 
 
No speaker of 5 inches or even 8 inches can give me satisfaction without the need for a sub. It is not the amount of kick or thump I need from the sub, it is the weight and fullness that it brings to music. I have a sub bypass switch and when I run the monitors by themselves so much life and impact is sucked out. Running test tones, they do go all the way down to 50hz without any drop off. But 50hz is not very low, my previous sub went down to 35hz and I could hear I was missing depth to the bass. My current sub goes to 25hz and you can hear much deeper bass. Upgrading my subwoofer did more for sound quality than upgrading my monitors. 
 
If your ears are not used to having a subwoofer than you will be fine. The day I got my M-Audios I thought the bass was enough. Of course once you go down the road of having a subwoofer you cannot go back. If your listening environment is small I would recommend even getting a $100 sub as it will make the music twice as good. I run my monitors full range and cross the sub at 70hz. 

How do you hook up a subwoofer to your emotivia 5s? I was having trouble figuring out if that's even possible.

 

[BigTerminator]

  How do you hook up a subwoofer to your emotivia 5s? I was having trouble figuring out if that's even possible.

To see how I do it, look up my subwoofer model (Presonus T10) and you will see its bass management system. For a subwoofer without bass management you can do a couple things. First is split one of the audio channels from your speakers and run it to the sub with the subs crossover set to whatever, your speakers will be running full range. You can also buy an external crossover to handle low and high pass filtering. You can buy a set of these http://www.parts-express.com/harrison-labs-fmod-inline-crossover-pair-70-hz-high-pass-rca--266-272 if you do not want your speakers running full range. 

 

[relaximjoking]

are there other subs like this or is the one you have the best for that price range?

 

[BigTerminator]

  are there other subs like this or is the one you have the best for that price range?

The only subwoofers in a reasonable price range with bass management are "studio subwoofers" (look up the term on google). Out of the sub $400 subwoofers I would "imagine" the Presonus being the best. Compared to the KRK 10S subwoofer, many people have said it is better. Compared to others I do not know. Spec wise is it the most impressive. The most impressive thing was that I only paid $265 for it at ProAudioStar. For $265 you really cannot do much better especially with the cool features it has. I love mine, completely overpowers the room. It goes LOW which I love. Will probably buy a SubDude platform to take away wall rattling at high volumes. For a small computer setup, get a studio subwoofer if you can for below $300. If the room is big, than look into home theater subs. I already convinced one guy here to buy one  

 

[cel4145]

The Def Tech Pro Sub series has 80hz high pass filters on the speaker level outputs for use with passive speakers and an amplifier.

I would probably be wary of the FMOD inline filters. I've heard very mixed reviews about them, with some people speaking negatively about how they affect the signal sent to the speakers.

But I caution thinking more about what you want to achieve with your sub before buying.

If you only want a sub to add to the natural roll off of your speakers (as opposed to setting a higher crossover), then consider the Outlaw Audio M8 subwoofer. Great little sub for a desktop setup with a small footprint.

For a big powerful budget sub for big room filling sound, the JBL ES250P is on sale.

Got a small budget? The Polk PSW505 is on sale through this weekend.

Got a budget around $500 to $600? You should be looking at HSU VTF-1 MK 2 (no high pass filter), SVS PB-1000 or SVS SB-1000 (80hz high pass filter on the line out pass through).