Need a bargain sub for Soundbar. BK Minotaur discontinued!

[admin_exported]

I'm looking to buy a sub to complement my Yamaha YSP-600 Soundbar. I don't want to spend more than around £150 and the sub needs to be compact and discreet. I was looking at the BK Minotaur only to find it has been discontinued. The only alternative seems to be the Yamaha FSW 100 which is only £100 and is meant to match the soundbar.

Does anyone know of a decent bargain sub or had any experience with the Yamaha? Why has the Minotaur been discontinued!

 

[shado]

Hi Headfi, I have the Yamaha Subwoofer in question and is a fairly compact size compared to others coming in at 40cms Length, 37cms Height and 15cms Depth and sits nicely under my coffee table. The Piano Black finish means it is quite stylish if you want to show it off. It works well with the Soundbar and rumbles aplenty with 130 watts dynamic power. I paid £129 for the PB version but I have seen the silver and black versions for £100 (Sound & Vision Website). Well recommended but try before you buy as I believe Sevenoakes stock it (if there is a branch near you?)

 

[Anonymous]

Shado, did you try your soundbar without the sub? The YSP-600 gives a reasonable rumble in my small living room (true bass turned on) but I thought the soundbar could sound better if the bass was taken care of by a sub. Is the difference quite large?

Did you change the setting on the soundbar so that the sub carries the maximum frequency range?

I can't find any reviews of the FSW 100 but I assume your quite impressed with its performance?

I'm finding that speach is quite quiet/mumbley on the soundbar and then all of a sudden I'll get blasted with an action scene. Just thought a separate sub might solve this issue.

Trying to work out if it's worth the £100!

 

[shado]

Hi Headfi, I calibrated my soundbar with the Subwoofer as I got them both together but yes I do have TruBass turned on. What settings are you using? As I tend to flick from My Surround which really throws the sound out and works well with BD and newer DVDs. Otherwise I utilise the 5 Beam - Movie - (Cinema Neo 6/Pro Logic II/PL II Movie). These work better with Sky HD and older DVDs and I believe the PL II setting is for video games. Be wary of the enhancer mode as this seems to distorts the sound somewhat having high and low settings. Personally I keep it off.

I have not noticed the mumbley sound but I agree the action scene really jump out. As the FSW 100 was designed for the Sound Projector I feel it takes the Bass pressure of the Amp leaving it to deal more with the soundstage area but with no Lab reports to verify this - Maybe one for the What Hifi Team when they next test Sounbars include a Subwoofer. The Subwoofer performs really well with a resonance and vibration deeper than what the 30D muster imho. If you live near the South West region you are more than welcome to have an audition.

 

[Anonymous]

Shado, I just ran the auto setup. It leaves Truebass on etc but I thought that was because I had no Sub. What I need to do is find a way of increasing the centre speaker sound to try and project voices better. I'm not sure how to do this and the manual setup is a bit of a mystery to me as you have to sit in the room whilst it blasts test sounds at 100db! Any ideas?

My room isn't really suitable to get the best out of the soundbar as it is in a corner under the tv and the sofas are on each side wall but I usually just have it on 5 beam as it seems to sound the best with my PS3. The PS3 doesn't seem to have any audio options for dialogue etc. I just wondered if you had tried the soundbar with the sub off and noticed a huge difference in performance?

 

[shado]

I've just noticed that TruBass switches off when I select My Surr. I know what you mean about messing with it manually but when I messed up my settings I just reset to factory settings and then let the auto setup do it stuff and saved the new changes. I would have a try with the manual setup as it does let you adjust each channel. I had a good audition with it yesterday comparing with Sub on and off and I do not appear to have the vocal issues you are experiencing. The Subwoofer adds deeper bass and seems to dominate the bass from the Soundbar. But I would hate for you to buy the SubW and discover it made no difference.

MyBeam localises the vocals into one area with hardly any Bass and is like Mono quality. Stereo really throws the sound out but with no surround effect. 3 Beam I find is nothing special but 3Beam and Stereo projects out quite nicely and 5 Beam appears to be a more controlled sound whereas My Surr is very pronounced effect.

Have you tried the Sur Decode with the 5 beam options and I have something called input mode on the remote that reacts with the sort of lead that is connected to your equipment where you have Auto/DTS/Manual settings which might make a difference with your PS3. Sorry Headfi I am clutching at straws.

 

[Anonymous]

I managed to increase the centre speaker volume using the channel level button on the remote. Seems to have done the job and improved the vocals.

I'll probably take the plunge and buy the yamaha sub and hope it will improve the bass during movies. I noticed richer sounds had a cheapo eltax sub for £40. Wonder if that would have a good impact on explosions etc in a small room, maybe not worth the gamble!

I was just trying to establish if the sub made a big difference on the overall sound as I can't get a demo too easily. Did you set the crossover frequency to the highest on the sub or just allow the autosetup to do its stuff?

 

[shado]

There is no crossover button on the Yam Sub however you can manually adjust from the soundbar. It just goes through the auto setup and I leave the Vol control at 12 o clock. Tech specs are as follows:

Driver 6.5 inch Cone Woofer magnetically shield.

Output power 75W at 5 ohms impedance.

Dynamic power 130w again at 5 ohms impedance.

Input Impedance 12 Kilo Ohms.

Freq response 30Hz - 200Hz.

Power Consumption 70 Watts.

Weight 9kg.

To be honest Headfi, I would buy the Eltax Sub and try it out and if it is no good for your setup then sell it on E-Bay. £40 is a lot cheaper than £100. My PC has Cambridge Audio Satellite spkrs 4 in total and one massive Sub and it does make a difference. I am sure the PS3 will relish a Sub Woofer, and so will your Movie collection.