Subwoofer Recommendations ????

[Paul Britt]

I am looking for a new subwoofer. My mid-fi system has the following Definitive Tech speakers now. CLR 3000 center. BP2000 mains. BP20 rear surround. BPVX/P as a middle speaker between the two back surrounds and a pair of BPVX at roughly the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. I have an older Def Tech Powerfield 1500 subwoofer with 15' woofer and about 300 watts. The speakers are driven by 4 Carver TFM 35X power amps. Only the one older power Field Sub handles the special effects of the LFE channel, since the old BP 2000's cannot accept a LFE input. I am unsatisfied with the crunch and thump of the LFE channel in my system. I am looking at SVS PB2 Plus and the Def Tech SuperCube Reference. Unfortunately I will have to buy either of them without an audition. The room is large, about 20'x 30' and a ten foot ceiling. Most of my listening is home theater and not music. Any thoughts on these two options guys? Any other recommendations? I only have about $1500 to spend, so please don't recommend some $3000 uber-woofer.

[Woochifer]

Before you even go in that direction, have you tried changing the postioning of the speakers and the subwoofer? Bass in particular is highly susceptible to room acoustics and related placement issues. Corner placing the subwoofer gives you maximum reinforcement. You should also try doing some frequency response measurements to see if you got a null at your listening position, as well as any large peaks that can create erroneous SPL meter measurements when setting the subwoofer output level. If the frequency response shows huge devitations, then you should first try correcting for these room-induced effects by changing the location of the subwoofer. If that does not sufficiently help things out, then you should look into a parametric equalizer to even out the frequency response curve. This allows you to set the levels correctly (and in most cases, allows you to set the levels higher because the boomy peaks no longer dominate what you hear) and get a fuller and more even sounding bass.

[Geoffcin]

I am looking for a new subwoofer. My mid-fi system has the following Definitive Tech speakers now. CLR 3000 center. BP2000 mains. BP20 rear surround. BPVX/P as a middle speaker between the two back surrounds and a pair of BPVX at roughly the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. I have an older Def Tech Powerfield 1500 subwoofer with 15' woofer and about 300 watts. The speakers are driven by 4 Carver TFM 35X power amps. Only the one older power Field Sub handles the special effects of the LFE channel, since the old BP 2000's cannot accept a LFE input. I am unsatisfied with the crunch and thump of the LFE channel in my system. I am looking at SVS PB2 Plus and the Def Tech SuperCube Reference. Unfortunately I will have to buy either of them without an audition. The room is large, about 20'x 30' and a ten foot ceiling. Most of my listening is home theater and not music. Any thoughts on these two options guys? Any other recommendations? I only have about $1500 to spend, so please don't recommend some $3000 uber-woofer.

If you want to generate plaster-peeling effects one 15" sub is going to be hard pressed. Perhaps another 15" sub would be a good addition. I've got two in my room, which is only slightly smaller than yours, and it works out fine.

[Lafferman]

correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't that bring in the paradigm servo 15 if 1500 is the spending limit? i thought that's what it went for and i'm pretty sure that is a very awsome sub.

[stevos2005]

Good luck with the sub selection. I'd recommend staying with Def Tech, as they make powerful subs. Geez, without your dedicated sub, you have more bass than I'll ever need! But you have a big room.