CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

I am in the market for a subwoofer. The most I can spend is about $600.00 (and I am going to have to hide that expense from my wife, somehow. Shocked

)

My main speakers are Klipsch Synergy III front, sides and rear. I don't like the reviews regarding the Klipsch subwoofers that match the mains.

So, I am thinking SVS, or ??? Don't know. The SVS I am looking at is: PB12-NSD.

Room size is: 16'x13'.

Any other suggestions?

EDIT: Also, how about some suggestions for subs without their own built in amp? I have a NAD2200 amp that will move mountains if needed.

wallace

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

Look at PSB Subs. http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/Subwoofers

Or NHT 12. http://nhthifi.com/current/products/speakers/twelve.html

nuttall_chris · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject:

I purchased a Velodyne DPS-12 a few months ago and am quite happy with it. Including taxes and 9 year extended warrantee was $400 at Futureshop.

http://www.velodyne.com/products/product.aspx?ID=9&sid=662p490a

Chris.

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

If you want to go ghetto, you can do it with car subs. Cheap as hell, put out lots of power, and available in great numbers on Craigslist from guys who "don't have my car anymore so have to sell these four 12" drivers and 4kw amp for $100". Razz

OK, I wouldn't go the craigslist route. At least, not unless you're packing. But the subs are relatively noncritical as far as 'quality' goes, and if you have enough surplus power handling capability you don't have to worry about them getting muddy - you can use high quality kit to its rated capacity, or just use triple the low quality kit running at 30% where it stays clean!

The absolute best ghetto sub I ever saw was in the salvation army, where it had obviously been abandoned - a car sub in a carpeted box, with a 12v 600 watt amplifier... but you can't run that off the line - so along with it was a big AT power supply from a PC, strapped to the side, with the car amp jumped into the +12 rail! True class! Thumbs Up

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:07 pm Post subject:

Shop around a few pawn shops, too. There are some damn good subs built in the last 5-10 years that were $600-1000+ when new, and now are $200-300. I bought my two M&K V-75 MkII's for well under $300/each. One was $200, actually. They were $650/ea. when new. Same with Infinity and Velodyne - look for nice used pieces locally. There some awesome deals.

There's always the DIY route, too. Either full-on DIY building your own enclosure and ordering parts from Parts Express, or just ordering all the parts - including enclosure - from Parts Express. Either way, you can build a damn impressive sub for well under half of buying something new.

Dayton C1500K 15" Powered Subwoofer Kit

You can really build something amazing and amazingly cheap if you build the cabinet yourself.

Parts Express Subwoofer HQ

SC

rabies_70 · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject:

http://ibsubwoofers.proboards51.com/index.cgi Twisted Evil

Save a wee bit more. Do some reading. Be infinitely baffled. NO other sub can touch these.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject:

IB is great, unless you'd like to watch a movie in the theater without the rest of the house enjoying the LFE back wave of whatever you're watching. Personally, I went for isolation, and to that end, an IB setup was completely out of the question. I've always hated turning it down when I wanted to watch at night. Now, I finally have a decent room where as long as I don't get carried away, I can watch whatever I want at a decent level - even at 1am when the wife and kids are sound asleep - and I won't bother anybody. It's just a far-away sounding rumble when you're upstairs. Certainly, nothing that wakes anybody up.

So, isolation is perfect or me. IB? Not so much! Maybe some day when the kids are gone and the theater is under the detached garage in my dream home that I'm planning to live in by then. Wink

Ray, you have a wife and kids - how's the whole IB thing work when people are sleeping at your house?

SC

rabies_70 · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:51 pm Post subject:

Thats funny. I often forget that not everyone loves the earth quake feeling of an IB. Mine actually is in a manifold that sits in the theater under the screen facing the seats. It vents to the garage below, which for the most part almost eliminates the rest of the house having to feel or hear all but the most intense LFE scenes. The wife actually loves the IB setup. She's a bit touched like me though. And the kids love it as well. I think my daughter gets a kick out of her friends coming over here to watch a movie for the first time and they are shaking in their seats when things go boom.

I have read though that when IB's are set in manifolds and are hidden like in a vent and exhausted either outside or to an uninhabited part of the house no one is really bothered by them and the mechanical vibrations are dampened by the manifold assembly. The subs are actually very musical and do not need insane spl's to deliver the LFE effectively.

Good luck on your sub hunt. See if someone near you has an IB to audition. The IB site has the frapper map pinned with locals who you can sometimes contact.

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

rabies_70 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:53 am Post subject:

It IS wild Wallace. Take the plunge I can all but guarantee you will love it.

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

rabies_70 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:26 am Post subject:

It is true that you can rattle drywall nails loose if you're not careful with an IB....good luck on your quest.

nuttall_chris · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject:

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

ADRIANKELLY · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 185 Location: Anchorage Alaska

http://www.hsuresearch.com/ I have 4 of these. I bought the VTF2 MK3 then moved in to a house and decided I wanted more bass and got the VTF3 MK3 . This was fine for a while But it is sort of an addiction . So I bought 2 more VTF3 MK3 with turbocharger . Yes I said (turbocharger) . Check it out on the website I couldn't possibly give a proper description of what it does ,but it does work . All of these are comparable to the SVS subs but I liked the forum and the owner of the company actually will walk you through the process of getting everything calibrated. Top notch service and a rock solid product got me to go for more each time ..

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

I've been interested in IB's for quite a while and I actually could build one into my house that would be verted into my basement where no one would care - if I ever got guts enought to cut into my floor. I recall an IB built by Tom Noisaine that used four JBL 2245H 18" woofers and was powered by a Crown Macro Reference amplifier (a terrific sub amp; actually, a terrific all-around amp). I recently bought a pair of JBL 2245H woofers, I could try to find a couple more, and I've had a Crown Macro Reference for a dozen years. Now for the guts part.

So, a few questions Ray: What woofers do you use? I assume you use more than one. How are they wired? Does your manifold have any resonant effects, being that it is effectly a pipe? What crossover do you use? Mine would probably be in the 80Hz neighborhood. Do you use anything to cover and protect the back of the woofers facing your garage? Do you have any photos or drawings of your subwoofer setup for us to see?

Jester · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 90 Location: Villa Park Ilinois

I have to chime about the ghetto car subs. I have 2 boxes with 2 12inch MTX thunder 4500 subs in them. I bought all 4 for $200 and go the carpeted enclosure for $100 for the pair. Cuz " the new ones are out and these suck now" whatever lol.
I run them off of a sony receiver that is about 5 years old ..... each box off of a channel ( A/B ) so all 4 outputs to each speaker. I don't know anything about ohms, I tried and couldn't get my mind around it. I did surmise that if I did it wrong my receiver and or speakers would die! Well 2-3 years later they hit like mack trucks!!! They are hidden behind the false screen wall so no one knows how ghetto it really is just that there butts rumble and vision blurs when Lighting Mcqueen reves up and goes "Cachowww" LOL Its also nice to have a remote to control the level of the subs on the fly.

So thats my 2 cents, some guys would never dream of it, and it inst much for bragging rights, unless your selective about the bragging ( yup, thats right 4 12 inch subs ) but they definably saved me some money. I forgot to mention I got them from the local car audio place, you know Rays sounds INC lol. Buy last years not so cool stuff and get the clearance ( yet new) and take advantage of the fickle nature of kids and their flashy stereos.

Got any questions let me know

Jester

nuttall_chris · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:50 pm Post subject:

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

here is one man's opinion...