Best $ 500 Sub

[swgiust]

I know, I know, this has been posted before. Trying to help a friend find a good sub.
Want to stay in the $ 500 range. 2 basic requirements: 12" woofer and around
250 watts.

Currently looking at the Outlaw Audio LFM-1
$ 569 with free shipping.

Any ideas???

[Woochifer]

The Adire Rava fits that profile exactly. But, it is a sealed design, so its tonal characteristics will differ from the more common ported designs in that price range. Also, right now Adire is reorganizing their product lineup, so word is that it won't be available for at least the next "several weeks." If you decide on a sealed sub, then you could look at the $450 Acoustic Visions MRS-10, which uses a downfiring 10" driver, but it has nearly as much bass extension as the Rava because the driver has a longer throw.

The Outlaw basically uses a Hsu design. Hsu Research makes several other subs in lower price ranges. SVS and Rocket are the other popular mail order options on this board.

If you want to try out retail brands, then you got Velodyne, Paradigm, B&W, and Atlantic Technology, among others. I list B&W and Atlantic Technology because their subwoofers are sealed.

Keep in mind that subs are lot more complicated than simply the woofer size and the wattage. Some 10" drivers will outmuscle a lot of 12" drivers, while the wattage does not determine the amount of bass that you will obtain. In that bass range, the size of your room and the placement actually have every bit as big an influence over the bass as the subwoofer itself. The quality of the bass is even more room dependent because of how room induced wave interactions can alternately cancel out and amplify the bass at specific frequencies. This creates an uneven in-room bass reponse, which is not ideal. The same subwoofer can sound overly boomy in one room, and lifeless and almost nonexistent in another.

The decision between a sealed sub and ported sub will come down to preferences and your room. Sealed subs have a quicker transient response, and a more gradual dropoff in the bass at the low end, but they are less efficient, and the dropoff in the bass begins sooner than with a comparable ported sub. Ported subs are more efficient with higher SPL, and their tonal characteristics can be more linear down to the tuned frequency, but the dropoff at the low end is much more sudden, and they are more difficult to design and build properly.

If you have a small room, the room boundaries will reinforce the bass and prop up the low frequencies. The smaller the room, the more pronounced this effect will be. In general, a sealed sub's dropoff will roughly equal the room gain that smaller rooms produce. If you prefer more even sounding bass, then a sealed sub might work better in a small to medium sized room, because a ported sub can get overly boosted by the room effects.

[shokhead]

SVS has some BStock that just about pays for shipping at what you save.