CASTLE - Rplace front speakers or sub?

[Upgrade King]

Hope someone can advise me on my next upgrade I currently own the Castle compact system and was going to purchase the new compact towers to give a bigger soundstage to the front as i am moving to anew house with bigger living area. Am i right in saying that a better more powerful sub will also have a dramatic affect on the overall soundstage? I can only afford to upgrade one or the other - which would you advise please?

 

[Ian J]

If you listen mainly to action films at loud levels I would consider beefing up the subwoofer department but if you listen to a lot of music then perhaps the front speakers may come to the head of the upgrade queue.

Nothing is simple

 

[Upgrade King]

Thanks Ian, what would you recomend as an effective upgrade over the Castle sub?

 

[dazed&confused]

I recommend you purchase the Columns, then post your findings on here 'cos I have the same set up as you and am also interested in upgrading to the Columns

Have you auditioned the columns yet? Did you read the review of them in the Febraury edition of Gramaphone magazine? They got a good write up, esepecially since they were reviwed only as a stereo pair for music - as such they were described as a special pair of speakers for the price.

I had a look at a set last weekend but have not auditioned them yet. I'd be surprised if they were really a great imrovement, since the drivers are the same as in the satellites and are effectively like a pair of centres in floor standing cabinets, so the cabinets would need to be adding a lot to the sound. The guy in the shop who'd been running them in said they were 'rather wonderful' though. They looked quite good and were nice and slim, but I didn't think much of the plastic bases.

 

[Ian J]

what would you recomend as an effective upgrade over the Castle sub?

Regulars to the subwoofer forum will know that I have my favourite manufacturers and they are BK Electronics which is probably the largest UK subwoofer that people have never heard of and SVS which is the American subwoofer manufacturer that has taken the American market by storm.

The reasons are twofold, firstly and most importantly they both make excellent subs and secondly they both sell their subs at much cheaper prices than the competitors as neither uses the traditional chains with their large profit margins.

At the £400 mark is the BK Monolith and SVS PB-10 which are both similar in size and performance and perform way above the levels that one would have thought possible for £400 a couple of years ago or if you can run to £700 the SVS PB-12 Plus would be my subwoofer of choice.

Be warned that all three are fairly large subs but they will delve deeper into the frequency range and produce audibly cleaner bass than you are currently used to

 

[Upgrade King]

Thanks Ian, Unfortunately " the boss" dictates that whichever sub i choose has to be more towards the small side so i'm looking for more defined base in a smallish unit?

Dazed and Confused - I haven't had a demo of the columns yet but i hope they do sound dramatically different to the satelites as at £500 they aren't cheap