subwoofer for music

[neil fd2]

Speakers in my current system are Monitor Audio PL100`s which i love. Recently lack of bass drove me to buy a pair of ex dem Usher CP6371`s. Once i manhandled them into position & fired them up i was quite impressed, deep bass, easy to listen to, just the ticket i thought. Last weekend for some reason i decided to reconnect the pl100`s & realised i`d made an expensive mistake. If the ushers provided a window into the music with the pl100`s it was opened. I`ve now decided to use the ushers to fund a decent sub which i`ll also use in my home cinema system although that`s secondary to it`s musical ability. Any ideas what to shortlist & how do i go about setting it up properly? Any help appreciated.

 

[matengawhat]

if you can wait till tom can give you some real thoughts - have same speakers as you and an epos m sub that was trying to sell on ebay but hasn't gone yet that i used to use with my focals 908s but thought would wire back in tomorrow to try with the pl100s just for fun as off work - just out of interest do you have the matching stands and have you loaded them?

 

[neil fd2]

Thanks for the reply.Yes i do have the matching stands but haven`t loaded them. I thought they were sufficiently well damped as they were. If you tell me different i`ll give it a try. I`m not too well versed on what hot & what`s not on the sub front. I know how they should be connected but unsure as to how to integrate them properly with the main speakers. For music would a pair of subwoofers be better than a single or better to just use a better quality single unit?

 

[jaxwired]

Oh how I wish the promise of a sub for music was real. I've been at this hobby for a long time and I see people go down that path and almost always end up eventually abandoning the sub. It's very hard to get a sub to sound integrated and clean with a music system. Subs almost always end up bloating the bass or making it muddy or boomy. Or on the other end I've heard people brag about how you can't even tell it's on...so what's the point then, LOL.

Ideally you want the sub to be providing bass such that you can't tell it's on, but when you turn it off it's immediately noticable. That requires a very special sub, days of position tweaking, crossover tweaking, and volume level tweaking. And if you do ever get it right, you will find yourself continuing to play with all those as different music will sound better with different settings. Very annoying.

However, if you want to try it, there's only 2 brands I would consider. I'd look at an REL B3 or B2. These are designed specifically for music and they look good to boot. The other sub I'd consider is a vandersteen. This company makes a sub for music that is highly regarded. I like the REL bettter though since it does not require an external crossover, but's it's pricey. Good luck. Please report back.

 

[caddyhound]

Try listening to a Velodyne SPL 1000 Ultra.I have just added one to my AVI pre/power driving Linn Akurate 212's.The DSP set up takes a couple of minutes and there is a remote so you can experiment with the volume.After a week of listening I settled on the volume and am now enjoying the set up immensely.Also has the advantage of being a reasonable size with an excellent finish.

 

[neil fd2]

Thanks for the replies. After reading them i`ve decided to try my bk electronics sub that i use in my home cinema set up. It`s not the best but uses a decent drive unit & i`ll hopefully get an idea whether i can get it to work before i go spending an amount on a better sub.