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Who makes the best Subwoofer?

M

Mastergunnar

pfm Member
Hi y'all,
don't know if this subject has been done before, if so apologies, if not then who do you think makes the best subwoofer for musicality and depth that you either own, drooled or salivated over? I would like the discussion to be aimed at hi-fi (two stereo speakers +sub) rather than 4,5,6,7 or even 8 speaker systems.:)
Rock on........................................
 
Sub woofers are vulgar and have no place in a proper hifi.

However, they are pretty cool for home theater.

Your Pal
Louballoo
 
If you r idea of a subwoofer is a wooden box then without a doubt REl make the finest subs, their Stadium and Stentor models are first rate, not sure what the current equivalents are. If you fancy something unconventional and have the green to spare the Wilson Benesch sub is very good indeed. If you aren't UK based then there's plenty of other brands, sadly most of the US based ones can't make a decent music sub.
 
If money is no object then these 2 are worth a look:

Velodyne with built in EQ are meant to be one of the best.
B&W DB1 looks like it might compete with the DD18

I personally use a Bob Carver Sunfire 12" 1000w sub which pretty compact and powerful. The beauty of this sub is its musicalilty its not ultra low but is able to be more precise because of it.
 
Greg said:
REL are completely overrated IME.
Click to expand...

FWIW I had a REL Stentor and maybe because it was ported it never worked well for me. I now use a very small unported 10" BK sub with my IBL's. This works a treat. Maybe it's a horses for courses thing..?
 
I think it's fair to say REL use pretty basic bits in a nice box. IME, just like you, I could never get them to integrate properly. I assumed it was the model - maybe not enough headroom or whatever - upgraded and still the same. I believe Merlin (Mike) had the same experience and also abandoned them after ending up with a pair of the very top model.
 
Yep, I can second BK Electronics. May not be the best, but certainly very good at a very good price.
 
Another vote for BK. My BK 400 sub (forget the actual model number right now) is a 12" unported sub which works very well for music (at the expense of the very deepest notes in comparison to a large ported sub such as its sister Monolith model).

I've also run REL Stentor(s) in the past - once had two at the same time, that was fun - and I'd say that the BK400 is a better choice for general music duties. Bear in mind that the Stentors were mkI models, though, and that the BK400 is less than £500 whereas a Stentor must these days run well over £2k.... no question in my mind where the sensible money would go.

All this said and done, I've not felt much of a need for a sub since going active (those Adams do go surprisingly low in my room)...
 
Unless you are very lucky there is not much point in adding a sub to a conventional pair of speakers. To get a real benefit you need a proper crossover and phase alignment between the two.
Properly extended and aligned bass sounds rather different to the majority of subs in my experience, and vastly better.

A pair of Rythmiks and an active crossover is heading in the right direction.
 
Martin Logan Descent for me.
They have two sets of inputs, one filtered and the other not so you can connect one input to a cinema processor and the other to a stereo pre-amp at the same time.
Works like a dream, sound great
 
S-Man said:
Unless you are very lucky there is not much point in adding a sub to a conventional pair of speakers. To get a real benefit you need a proper crossover and phase alignment between the two.
Properly extended and aligned bass sounds rather different to the majority of subs in my experience, and vastly better.

A pair of Rythmiks and an active crossover is heading in the right direction.
Click to expand...

IIRC my BK has a phase alignment knob. This is great to tune the sub with the IBL and in the room. This is what made it work so well compared to my early REL Stentor that didn't have this, along with the REL's port.
 
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