addind Sub

I've recently upgraded my amps, and was thinking of adding a sub.
To be honest I have never thought of using one before as my main speakers go pretty low and pretty tight.
It is unlikely that I would use the sub for anything other than movies, and I do not want to shake the floor, particularly as I live in a block of flats. What I would like is a bit more slam for effects on action movies.
The sub would also have to have WAF, meaning it can't be too large, and would have to be in white, silver or maple finish.
Talking to a couple of dealers, they suggest that, given my needs, pretty much anything from REL MJ KEF or B&W would suffice, and that I don't really need to spend more than c£500

Any thoughts/recommendations

Peter

 

That's a taller order than you may think as I have never seen a decent sub that would suit your requirements in white or silver and only a few in maple so you have disqualified most of the available subs in your price range on colour alone.

With a bit of haggling you may get a B&W ASW675 in Sorrento, which is mapleish for a little over your budget or second hand but I can't think of anything else that fits all your requirements.

 

You can get the MJ Acoustics Reference 100 in silver £350 or for £50 more in maple.Take a look here.

 

I believe the MJ Acoustics range to be good subwoofers even though I was underwhelmed at Bristol this year but the fact that they are now available in a variety of finishes is something that I didn't know as it must be fairly new as they never used to be.

 

I'm not supprised that you were underwhelmed Ian,you must be comparing your svs to every sub you hear even if you dont mean too.I never heard a mj myself but they have been doing the differnet colours for a while now.

 

Not at all. I have heard the little Pro 50 before and liked it but this year they either hadn't set them up correctly or the room had bad acoustics as they didn't sound good at all. I am sure that I read on the Zerogain forum that the MJA subs weren't performing as well as they could do so I wasn't the only one unimpressed this year.

Still worth a demo though.

 

If you want Maple and Slam go for the ASW750. Well over you £500 budget though.

 

I'd echo the 750 suggestion - marvellous sub and as WAFish as a sub can be....

 

Peter - if ever you want a demo of the ASW750 your more than welcome round my place - just drop me a PM.

 

Matt - You would have thought so right ? Not according to my wife though !!

 

The white PB1-ISD is also an option, but it will be a bit more than your £500, unless bought in a Powerbuy (10% discount):



Estimate: $649 color sub + $125 ship + 4.5% import + taxes = £535 'ish

(the first two amounts get a discount with orders of 3 or more seperate subs to one address, do-able in a powerbuy)

ps: see, i know my SVS....

 

This is a real WAF sub.

 

Thanks for all your inputs. The B&W, MJ and even SVS look really interesting.
I'm not wedded to the £500 mark, but just thought- why pay more if I'll just be paying for things I don't need.
I should have said, my room is 30'x20'.
Do you think the subs mentioned will give me the slam I want?
BTW, anybody got any thoughts on the new B&W PV1. A spherical sub might be quite fun (and surely has WAF - although as rags has said, sometimes you just can't tell).
Rags thanks for the offer of a dem, I may well take you up on that. Of course now I have my new amps, I should insist on reciprocating.

Best wishes
Peter

 

It makes a big difference and it wasn't an easy task finding recommendations for you to start with as you were fairly specific about colour, wanting slam with movies but living in a flat, presumably with neighbours and the area that needs to be pressurized is comparatively huge.

I have a suspicion that the smaller less powerful subs that you mentioned would not be able to pressurise the room sufficiently to make much of an effect and the larger subs like the SVS and B&W would make a better fist of it but could have the neighbours complaining.

I would suggest that one way around the problem would be to use two subs and although it is always recommended (and normally ignored) that people should demo the equipment themselves I think it doubly important that you try and get a home demo of one or more subwoofers to make sure that they do what you want them to do in your own home.

You have a great pair of main speakers and it would be a shame to spoil the overall effect with the wrong subwoofer

 

Thats a big room, I think you will struggle with one sub, I speak from experience.

I use to have a smallish room, then extended it to a 32ftx28ft open plan living space.

Whilst my sub is still very good with the low frequencies, the PRESSURISATION has been lost, this makes a lot of difference to me personally. I can still feel thge sub, but not to the extent I could before, if i did not know what it could do and I had purchased it now I would have nbeen very disapointed.

I am now going down the 2 sub route, I will wait and see how this pans out.

I think you will be disapointed with one sub, maybe re-visit your budget, treat the the other 3quarters! and she may give in, if you decide to go for a monster of a sub.

The best bet is have a listen to a good sub in an average sized room, then see if someone will bring a sub to your place and FEEL the differnce in your large room.

I ahve heard and felt a reasonably small B&W sub in a reasonably small room and it was very good, but in a large room it would be very disapointing.

 

Thanks for your rapid responses.
Ian, you are of course absolutely right.
I will arrange a home dem to see if the whole project works.
As for two subs - one is hard enough!!
Best of luck
Peter

 

OK, now I've done a bit more work, and found a few subs which would seem to be acceptable.
These are (in no particular order)
REL Strata V
Velodyne SPL series (1000?)
M&K V-850
B&W 675/750

I have heard the M&K briefly and , in a relatively small dem room it really made a difference. I notice that a lot of guys run M&K speakers, but few run the subs. Is there any reason for this?
The Velodynes appeal as they are very compact and appear to be well finished. However, I have been advised that I should really go for the DD.
I don't think I want to spend that much cash however.

Any advice appreciated

Peter

 

Peter - the M&k's are good subs overall but they are expensive in the UK - for similar money you can get better here.

For example (I know that power isnt everything) a V850 costs £1200 as does the B&W ASW750. Both have 12 inch drivers but the B&W has a 1000rms amp whilst I think the M&K has 125rms. A substantial difference.

 

Peter's main speakers are claimed to reach the low 20's Hz.
To match that at very low distortion in a room that size needs a lot of subwoofer. I heard the B&W 675 in a very large showroom. Though loud, it could not be called undistorted.

A week (or two) later my SVS 16-46 was a complete revelation in comparison. No boom, no distortion and simply incredible power that doesn't swamp my main speakers at any setting my wife has dared to try so far.

The open plan nature of 1 1/2 floors of our home makes it difficult to calculate listening room volume. But it's roughly 30 feet long and 19 feet wide by near 15 feet high. The SVS can make it seem as if the roof is coming off, blur our vision and make our tummies feel very strange.

Though oddly the SVS bass doesn't seem to carry out of doors. Yet we can easily hear our neighbour's boom boxes at over 60 & 100 yards away with all our windows closed.

Do not expect to drive your large room with "small furniture" subs.

Nimby

 

I've been offered a B&W CM sub for £750. This has the best WAF I have seen, and the dealer thinks it will be powerful enough for the room. I am taking a home dem on this over the weekend, but, not having experience of the capability of subs, wondered what I should be looking out for.
I will only use the sub for HT, and am really looking for slam on explosions impacts etc. Should I also be expecting more in the way of gut feel on car chases and the like.
As I mentioned before, I cannot afford too much room shaking as I am in a block of flats, but I would like to know the kind of thing one can get from a good sub

regards
Peter

 

I suppose it is worth mentioning that the Mordaunt ShortMSW909 has recently been introduced in the new MS maple finish, costs £500 and recently picked up a Best Buy in Home Cinema Choice.

 

Expectations Peter?

In order of importance:

1) A very wide grin!

2) Fear!








113) LOUD!

Nimby

 

I think the CM sub is pretty much the same as the ASW675 - just buy that and save some money or go the whole hog and get a B&W ASW750.

 

But the CM comes in the maple/aluminium finish. Have you heard the 675 v 750 anyone?
Peter

 

Rags upgraded from the 675 to firstly one 750 then a pair of the beasts. He did post a review when he got the first one and from memory awarded it 11 out of 10.

I think that Stellavision also went the 675 to 750 route

 

The ASW750 is definately a few steps up from the ASW675 in the subwoofer ladder. A few forum members (Smurfin, CyrustheVirus, Daneel, Kevshed) have come round to have a listen and all were kind of surprised and impressed with it (and thats when I only had one of them).

CyrustheVirus compared it favourably to his Servo15 (take this with pinch of salt as he is an Arsenal supporter ! ) and Daneel preferred it overall to a two Servo15 set up (caveat - diff rooms, diff equipment) and thought I was a nutter going for two of them. Smurfin was also impressed as you can tell from his post on this thread. Kevshed better like it as he bought my maple one. If I have misrepresented anyone please feel free to slap me down........

If you try hard enough you can get it for just over a grand (and in maple) and the decision to spend another £250 over the CM is a no brainer in my opinion especially given the quality of your other equipment.

As Ian mentions above, I have two now. I cant however integrate the damn things. They only sound how I want them to when placed either side of the TV and for me that would mean getting speakers that can be wall mounted with the subs sitting under them. Still running them in but lots of decisions to to make in the interim...I have the option of returning one by Friday for a full refund.

 

OK it sounds like I should probably go for the ASW750.
One more question, in my listening room I have an open fronted cabinet filled with wine glasses. Is this a disaster waiting to happen?
Also rags, any advice on where to go for discount on B&W?

Peter

 

Not sure whether this meets your needs - but i'm well chuffed with my new REL Quake in silver. It's so small even my wife doesn't mind it Perfect for the price i paid which was well under the £300 mark.

Probably a bit small for your room - but just my 2 penneth worth

 

Where can you get them for under £300? i was looking at these but am tempted to say bu**er it and go for something like the B&W 675.

I have just noticed the REL strata 111 is now at £550......!

 

Both the B&W and REL Strata are a class above the REL Quake