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  1. #1
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    matching a $ub to my $ystem

    I have a 13x16 room. My receiver is a Marantz sr5300 and I plan to get the Paradigm Montitor 7's and cc370 centre channel. (my old pro-linear bookshelves and centre are in the rear until I can upgrade) The Paradigm PDR10 is in my price range but Paradigm recommends matching the PS series or higher with the Monitor 7's and the Servo gets great reviews but these are more expensive than I had planned on.

    My listening will be about 50/50 music and movies though I feel musicality is important in a sub for me. Some members here have not been happy with the PDR series. (CAM comes to mind?) What are your oppinions. I am not set on Paradigm for the sub. Is a 10 inch sub a decent match for these speakers or do I need bigger? It is seeming that I have not budgeted enough for this item. Used maybe? Any thoughts?

  2. #2
    Silence of the spam Site Moderator Geoffcin's Avatar
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    Your never going to go wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by shaemus
    I have a 13x16 room. My receiver is a Marantz sr5300 and I plan to get the Paradigm Montitor 7's and cc370 centre channel. (my old pro-linear bookshelves and centre are in the rear until I can upgrade) The Paradigm PDR10 is in my price range but Paradigm recommends matching the PS series or higher with the Monitor 7's and the Servo gets great reviews but these are more expensive than I had planned on.

    My listening will be about 50/50 music and movies though I feel musicality is important in a sub for me. Some members here have not been happy with the PDR series. (CAM comes to mind?) What are your oppinions. I am not set on Paradigm for the sub. Is a 10 inch sub a decent match for these speakers or do I need bigger? It is seeming that I have not budgeted enough for this item. Used maybe? Any thoughts?
    With a larger, more powerful sub. The question is are you going to be able to use it's abilities in your modest sized room? I think that would depend on your tastes in movies mostly.

    I have several movies that require me to hook "everything" up in order to do them justice. I am running very powerful towers, the Cambridge Soundworks T500's. There bass can knock things off shelves, and for most movies they are more than enough. But for a movie like "Saving Private Ryan", or "Master and Commander" I also hook my audio setup into the HT setup, and use my 15" Velodynes for the LFE. On movies like this the feeling of having the fillings jared out of your teeth is nessasary for realism. Is this something you also want to be able to do? Then a 10" sub is just not going to cut it. But, on the other hand, if your not into this, why bother with a more expensive sub when you could spend the money upgrading some other part of your system.

    A servo controlled sub is not nessasary unless you intend on using it mostly for music, the quality is wasted on movie LFE. Even for music, at most listening levels your going to be hard pressed to hear a difference between a servo sub, and non-servo. Only if you have a very high resolution system, and play it at more than "normal" levels will a servo sub make a difference.
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  3. #3
    cam
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaemus
    I have a 13x16 room. My receiver is a Marantz sr5300 and I plan to get the Paradigm Montitor 7's and cc370 centre channel. (my old pro-linear bookshelves and centre are in the rear until I can upgrade) The Paradigm PDR10 is in my price range but Paradigm recommends matching the PS series or higher with the Monitor 7's and the Servo gets great reviews but these are more expensive than I had planned on.

    My listening will be about 50/50 music and movies though I feel musicality is important in a sub for me. Some members here have not been happy with the PDR series. (CAM comes to mind?) What are your oppinions. I am not set on Paradigm for the sub. Is a 10 inch sub a decent match for these speakers or do I need bigger? It is seeming that I have not budgeted enough for this item. Used maybe? Any thoughts?
    Actually I 'm not fond of the ps line, having already been down that road. Many many other people have said all the same things as me about the ps series. But then again alot of people like there ps-1000/1200. As far as what I think about Paradigm's subs, You should start with the pdr-12 no lower. It is very economical and puts out great bass for movies and music. I would then by-pass the ps series subs and take a look at the pw-2100 or even the pw-2200. At this point it starts to get expensive but all paradigm dealers can be worked on on price.

  4. #4
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    Don't worry about "matching" subs to your system...instead, find a sub that meets your power requirements and have the input/connectivity features you need.

    To tell you the truth, I spend nearly a month demoing dozens of subs. I couldnt' tell much difference if any between them if the crossovers and levels were set equally. I ended up with a great deal on PW-2200 (and later a 2nd used PW-2100). They are great subs, but there's lots else out there.
    I've owned HSU Research subs, which aren't bad for the money either.
    To my humble ears, the power was the biggest factor. If you have reasonably similar subs in terms of power, I'd be surprised if you could tell much difference. I absolutely loathed 15" subs for music. I found them not as tight as 12"ers and nowhere near as accurate as the 10"'s. The trade-off is power output though.
    In all truth, I prefer the PW-2100 I bought to the larger 2200 because of this. The 10" is just a tad more realistic in music playback. Sure the 12" in the 2200 is a Hz or two lower, and sounds just a mite better in movies, but it's not worth the trade-off or price difference to me.

    My advice to you is to determine your power requirements (more is almost always better, but you don't need 1000 watts in your room, I wouldn't think). From there, since you hinted at musicality, see if you prefere 10", 12", or 15" woofers. Don't expect big differences across brands. Subs aren't like speakers at all in this regards. Differences are usually nominal.
    Good luck.

  5. #5
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    I considered Monitor 7's when I was buying a few years ago. Great choice! I liked the B&W 602 a little more for my mix (80/20) music/movies. You may want to focus on the low end of the sub, since your 7's go pretty low. Matching the speakers to the sub is the most important part of your search. I already had a JBL PB-10 before i bought the B&W but they match very well since they have similar cones.
    Breaking all the Speed limits in MN with two Gears!
    And avoiding noise violations with my B&W's in the dorm..

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaemus
    I have a 13x16 room. My receiver is a Marantz sr5300 and I plan to get the Paradigm Montitor 7's and cc370 centre channel. (my old pro-linear bookshelves and centre are in the rear until I can upgrade) The Paradigm PDR10 is in my price range but Paradigm recommends matching the PS series or higher with the Monitor 7's and the Servo gets great reviews but these are more expensive than I had planned on.

    My listening will be about 50/50 music and movies though I feel musicality is important in a sub for me. Some members here have not been happy with the PDR series. (CAM comes to mind?) What are your oppinions. I am not set on Paradigm for the sub. Is a 10 inch sub a decent match for these speakers or do I need bigger? It is seeming that I have not budgeted enough for this item. Used maybe? Any thoughts?

    Kexodusc had a good input. Not to worry about system matching. The sub will stand on its own merits as long as the mais will go down well enough to 80hz for crossover. Much higher and the sub becomes localized that you don't want at all.
    You want a sub in a corner most of the time.
    Use is just fine as long as you have a good source to make sure it works, not being ripped off.

    You cannot go wrong witht he biggest you can afford, even in that small room, as it will go down lower frequency loud enough to be audible or felt. And, you may have a larger room later. What good is a spec if it is not audible?

    So, you need to determine your price range. Hsu, or SVS are very nice subs. Or, check out the Sep 2003 issue of Sound & Vision for 10 sub rating by Tom Nousaine, king of the subs
    mtrycrafts

  7. #7
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    You were right CAM

    I was mistaken about the model preference you posted. Though I'm encouraged by that. It sounds like I'll be alright with either the PDR 10 or 12. I'll check them both out. I probably don't need a high powered sub (like the PSW) since I won't be able to crank the volume. (what with the baby and all) Maybe later. Thanks for your input everyone. It helped me.

  8. #8
    cam
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaemus
    I was mistaken about the model preference you posted. Though I'm encouraged by that. It sounds like I'll be alright with either the PDR 10 or 12. I'll check them both out. I probably don't need a high powered sub (like the PSW) since I won't be able to crank the volume. (what with the baby and all) Maybe later. Thanks for your input everyone. It helped me.
    You said your room is 13 x 16 therefore I would consider the pdr-12 over the pdr-10. Simply put the 12 will move more air and make a bigger difference within your room.

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