Subwoofer Advice

[drichardb]

Can't believe its been over 3 years since my last post...

Anyway after years of rocking my Logitech Z5500 speaker system (with B&W 600 series fronts and center) I stumbled on a bargain over christmas.

Well I hope it was a bargain!

Picked up a Pioneer SC-LX72 in cracking condition for the sum of 100 beautiful british pounds.

Its doing a superb job with the speakers, but the z5500 sub is not playing nicely when running music from my PC via the multi channel inputs.

I'll be the first person to admit that the bass was muffled and lumpy at best but it sounds even worse hooked up to the 72's sub out connection. I've tried upping the sub volume on my sound card and in the 72 to minimal effect so it looks like my sub upgrade is going to be sooner than planned.

So after all that rambling the next question is, what would be a suitable replacement? Budget is pretty restricted at the mo so I could probably stretch to £200. Has to be a good performer with music, especially heavy metal.

Cheers All.

 

[CnoEvil]

At around 200 Quid, I'd get this: http://www.bkelec.com/hifi/sub_woofers/gemini.htm

https://www.whathifi.com/bk/gemini-ii/review

 

[scene]

At around 200 Quid, I'd get this: http://www.bkelec.com/hifi/sub_woofers/gemini.htm

https://www.whathifi.com/bk/gemini-ii/review

The Gemini is a great sub - all the BK subs are good, and very good vfm.

If you've got floorstanding B&W 600s, you could live without a sub for a while and save up for a bigger sub.

Also, just to check - have you set the front speakers to small and checked the crossover frequency on the SC-LX72? If the crossover frequency is set too low, you won't get enough bass to the sub. Also, I seem to remeber to get decent sub output on the Pioneer, you need to set the speakes to small and sub to yes, or speakers to large and sub to Plus - also worth just checking the setting for the LFE channel on the amp, just in case it's been set to some quiet setting. Just worth checking amp set up, before you splash out...

 

[drichardb]

Cheers Both - BK Gemini is on my list of potentials, good to see it get two recommendations, means I'm barking up the right tree at least.

I wiped the 72 back to factory defaults before setting it up for my requirements (channel names etc), checked the speaker size and they were at the default small position.

I've had a play around with the lfe xover without any joy, though I wasn't expecting much success as the Z5500 has it set to 100hz with no way of controlling it.

Just tried upping the fronts to large and the sub to plus, little if any change. Pumped the sub channel level as high as it will go (+10db) and still barely more than a distant grumble from the swine. Pretty much resigned to getting a new one (oh what a shame!!).

The 600's I'm using are 601S3's which have served me well. Given my space limitation I could possibly go for some 602's in the future but right now getting that sub right is top of the priority list.

 

[CnoEvil]

I can't think of anything that will match it, for the price.