I think i need a subwoofer, £200-300

[admin_exported]

hi, i have had my current setup for about 8 months and have decided that i need more bass.. The kinda music i lisn to is stuff they play in clubs,and it would be great to have a sound like that in my room 🙂 the room size is roughly 10ft by 14ft

my current setup is:

Denon PMA-500ae

Denon DCD-500ae

Tannoy Mercury F1 customs

My dad will be paying for half of the sub for a late bday present. He had a Gale Storm 8 in mind, i somehow managed to convince him that this is not big enough for me and have convinced him to up his budget to £200-300. for long i have been reading reviews and had my heart set on a BK XLS200..

does anyone have any sugestions or tips? Whats the difference between a downfiring or foward firing sub? if it makes a difference, my floor is hollow.

Thanks for any help you can give,

Calvin

 

[Anonymous]

BK all the way! ;-)

Ive got a BK monolith and its probably the best value bit of kit ive got,It performs well above what you would expect for the price.

 

[matengawhat]

i'd buy a better pair of stereo speakers for your setup and sell on your f1s not a fan of subs with stereo systems - that would sort your bass problem - 685s jump to mind

 

[Anonymous]

matengawhat:i'd buy a better pair of stereo speakers for your setup and sell on your f1s not a fan of subs with stereo systems - that would sort your bass problem - 685s jump to mind

i don thtink i should change my speakers, my dad probably wouldnt be too happy as they were a christmas present, and im pretty happy with them too. i dont know much about hifi and i may be wrong, but the 685s seem like allot more money than my F1s for not that much more of a performance. I wouldnt call it a bass problem, just a want for more bass, and im not an expert but im guessing that a sub would displace more air and can go allot lower than bookshelf speakers?

im guessing that we have different music tastes too.. 🙂

 

[Anonymous]

garethwd:BK all the way! ;-) Ive got a BK monolith and its probably the best value bit of kit ive got,It performs well above what you would expect for the price.

i feel like i have to get a bk now! lol

before i read up on subs i nearly impulse bought a monolith, glad i didnt now tho as dont think i need that much bass as of yet 😛 id love one tho

my amp has 70w per channel, is that enough to power the XLS200 which is 275watts?

 

[Anonymous]

You probably won't hear any difference between a down or front firing sub as bass at those frequencies is non directional. The quality of the sub does vary though, i.e. how tight and fast it is. I have never heard the BK XLS200 but I'm sure it's great. I use a £300 Acoustic Energy Aegis Neo sub with my B&W 800 series led HT and am very happy with it. WHF rate the Wharfedale SW150 very highly which I'm sure you could get for around £200 though.

You won't be able to get full capacity from you sub though due to the size of the f1's, Matengawhat's suggestion of 685's is a good one and maybe something you could think about next.

All of these subs are active, (meaning they have their own amplifier) so are not powered by your HT amp.

 

[matengawhat]

has your amp even got a pre out on it - im not sure it does

 

[Anonymous]

matengawhat:has your amp even got a pre out on it - im not sure it does

The BK has a high level input im not sure about the others mentioned

 

[matengawhat]

was just reading that on bk website - that would be ok i guess - he will just have to check that what ever he looks at has high level inputs

just one other thing to mention as well - i hope you have a big house or very easy going parents cause as soon as you add a sub the bass with vibrate through the whole house and they will be able to not only hear it but feel it so if they are already asking you to turn your stereo down or a regular basis its only going to get worse!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Why would you get the tiny F1's if you want bass?

A bigger stand mounter would be my choice tbh.

 

[Anonymous]

Standmount and sub can work very well, particularly if you want flexibility. Still, you have to be careful that budget kit doesn't just boom. My REL Quake is a £350 sub and I feel that it's inherently boomy. But hey, hifi is a long journey and a BK might be a superb next move for you.

 

[Anonymous]

i have the F1s cos my dad bought the whole setup for me for a present and as a whole, it must of cost him about £350-400 maybe more for the whole thing, which is allot i guess for a lump sum.. if i had my way i would have put money towards it and got bigger speakers, possibly floor standing, but that didnt happen lol

i dont live in a big house, but more importantly, it is detached!!

i guess that if i wanted a sub to match the performance of my f1s id probably get a smaller sub, say the wharfedale one (or smaller), however, as i may be upgrading the speekers in the near future, would it not be better to get the XLS200, so that it would match my newer speekers, saving me having to buy another sub to match them in the future??

Yes the XLS200 does have high level inputs, i made a point of checking how to set it up before considering it

Are there any subs that are head and sholders above the BK sub? (within the same price range) or isit a resional buy?

 

[Anonymous]

All of the subs mentioned are very powerful. The 'smaller' Wharfedale will have oodles of power and will have the capacity to drown most speakers, regardless of price. Trust me, you need to be brave to turn these subs anywhere past 12 o clock. As I said before in this price range you need to be thinking about quality not quantity.

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo: As I said before in this price range you need to be thinking about quality not quantity.

what is you mean? do i need to increase my price range?

what isit do you think i should buy, or consider?

sorry for all these Qs, i really am a n00b 🙁

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry that was probably put badly, I meant that you should not worry about power with any of these subs. IMO you would be happy with any of the subs mentioned. Choose one, your first choice is fine, turn it down with your F1's then when you get more powerful speakers you can turn it up a little!

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for all your help!

ordered my sub (BK XLS200 in light walnut) and now just got to wait a few weeks for them to build it

 

[Anonymous]

you'll not be disapointed!

 

[Olli1324]

Hi-jack time (didn't want to start a whole new thread

)

"Hi level" connection was mentiond earlier. This is an alernative method to connecting the sub to an amp (if for example there is no pre-out), correct? Does this mean you connect the sub to the speaker terminals on the amp or the output bits? What lead would be required?

(I too need more bass in music and also film and am thinking of getting the 200 squids Epos ELS from Superfi).

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

You can do this by running your speaker cable from the amp into the hi level in on the sub woofer, then from the hi level out of the sub woofer run speaker cable to your speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Olli1324:
Hi-jack time (didn't want to start a whole new thread

)

"Hi level" connection was mentiond earlier. This is an alernative method to connecting the sub to an amp (if for example there is no pre-out), correct? Does this mean you connect the sub to the speaker terminals on the amp or the output bits? What lead would be required?

Thanks

A bit of bell wire connected between the speakers and sub would be fine but don't route the main speakers through the sub unless you use quality cable.

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:You can do this by running your speaker cable from the amp into the hi level in on the sub woofer, then from the hi level out of the sub woofer run speaker cable to your speakers.

It is also dependant on the sub, because the BK XLS200 i jus ordered doest have highlevel out on the sub..

it has a neutrik connector for the high level input that you plug into the amp, similar to how u wire a normal set of speakers. you either plug it into your spare channel you may have, or you plug it into one thats already being used so that you run 2 things out of one connection..

im not sure of the advatages of this or disadvantages or if there are any, but thats how its got to be done lol

 

[Olli1324]

So, to clarify, I basically connect my sub in a practically identical way to the way which I have connected my speakers? (If it helps I am looking at an Epos ELS sub connected to a Marantz PM6002)

 

[Anonymous]

Correct, using the method I said you would basically daisy chain the sub and speakers using speaker cable. I'm sure with whatever sub you choose the instructions will take you through it.

 

[Olli1324]

Super awesome

Ta

 

[Anonymous]

sorry for bringing up an old thread..

My BK XLS200 arived this morning and although i havent really played around with all the settings, (due to my lack of know how) i am very very happy with it!

it sounds great, looks great, and also has a very good build quality!

yet another happy bk customer