Musical sub recommendations

[kexodusc]

That's a bit of a letdown...I'm not really aware of any other commercial sub in that price range that would appear to satisfy what you're looking for...Personally, I would consider waiting for the Adire Rava before buying the Velodyne...this is something you will likely own for years, 2 months is a long time to not have a sub, but 4 years is an even longer time to have a sub you wish you passed over.

Keep looking, maybe someone else will chime in with something that fits your needs.

[IRG]

That's a bit of a letdown...I'm not really aware of any other commercial sub in that price range that would appear to satisfy what you're looking for...Personally, I would consider waiting for the Adire Rava before buying the Velodyne...this is something you will likely own for years, 2 months is a long time to not have a sub, but 4 years is an even longer time to have a sub you wish you passed over.

Keep looking, maybe someone else will chime in with something that fits your needs.

Fortunately I do have a sub now, albeit an older one, a JBL PB10. Really not a bad sub at all. Underrated IMO. I always thought Velodyne makes pretty good subs. The actual speaker seems pretty good in the DLS series. A midrange product for them I guess. You are right, a sub is not something I want to upgrade very often. It is possible I will move in a little over a year, so who knows what I will have for space at that point. Not thinking about that right now.

Not too many other choices out there that I like for the same $400. So I may wait. But I am a bit impatient....

[Woochifer]

Kexodusc,
I heard fro Adire yesterday, and they are out of the Adire Rava subs for at least several "weeks" not sure why. So even if I wanted one, I either have to wait, or order something else. Leaning towards Velodyne now...

Adire's in the middle of a major change to their product lineup right now. They recently consolidated all of their driver production into a new facility in Chile, whereas before they used multiple outsource suppliers. In the meantime, during this transition they don't have a lot of drivers in inventory. The Shiva driver that's used in the Rava has been hard to find for the past couple of months, and Adire doesn't keep a lot of Ravas on hand at any given time to begin with. Looks like you'll have to wait for Adire to announce their new driver lineup before the Rava will be available again.

[IRG]

Adire's in the middle of a major change to their product lineup right now. They recently consolidated all of their driver production into a new facility in Chile, whereas before they used multiple outsource suppliers. In the meantime, during this transition they don't have a lot of drivers in inventory. The Shiva driver that's used in the Rava has been hard to find for the past couple of months, and Adire doesn't keep a lot of Ravas on hand at any given time to begin with. Looks like you'll have to wait for Adire to announce their new driver lineup before the Rava will be available again.

Yeah, I got that feeling reading their website that the were changing things around. Who knows what their subs will be like and priced at after they have revamped. I can wait a little bit, but not sure whether or not it will be the same sub when they are up and running again.

I am going to buy a SPL meter at RS tonight, I thought you would be happy to know! Looks like they have this newer analog version in. Can't wait to play with it some. I'm sure I will be asking for further advice on this soon enough. Later.

[abstracta]

In all honesty I don't like the sound of Velodyne as much as Adire. Velodyne's to my ears sound synthetic and go to too much of an extreme to reduce distortion. There are otherwise many audiophiles who like them.

The key to a good subwoofer is really a good driver matched with the right enclosure. You can get better than Adire, but you start to get into a really steep diminishing returns curve because there just aren't that many better drivers available without paying a lot more money. There are certainly equal drivers in terms of performance to the Adire.

Stick with a side firing driver for best musical performance. While a passive downfiring woofer woulnd't be bad in conjunction with a side firing active, I've never heard a really good down firing sub in terms of musical application.

I have a killer trick for you in regards to sub woofer placement. Compliments from the head engineer at Velodyne after we had a few cocktails:

'Since bass is for a large part omni-directional, the postion of the listener and subwoofer are logicaly interchangeable and need not be aqauired via randoming guessing. To find the ideal spot for a sub, put the sub in the location you are going to be listening from, and walk around the room while playing your source material. Simple find the location in the room that bass sounds the best, or delivers the optimum SPL measurement from a meter. That location you are standing in is now the ideal location for the sub, or be darn close to it.'

[IRG]

In all honesty I don't like the sound of Velodyne as much as Adire. Velodyne's to my ears sound synthetic and go to too much of an extreme to reduce distortion. There are otherwise many audiophiles who like them.

The key to a good subwoofer is really a good driver matched with the right enclosure. You can get better than Adire, but you start to get into a really steep diminishing returns curve because there just aren't that many better drivers available without paying a lot more money. There are certainly equal drivers in terms of performance to the Adire.

Stick with a side firing driver for best musical performance. While a passive downfiring woofer woulnd't be bad in conjunction with a side firing active, I've never heard a really good down firing sub in terms of musical application.

I have a killer trick for you in regards to sub woofer placement. Compliments from the head engineer at Velodyne after we had a few cocktails:

'Since bass is for a large part omni-directional, the postion of the listener and subwoofer are logicaly interchangeable and need not be aqauired via randoming guessing. To find the ideal spot for a sub, put the sub in the location you are going to be listening from, and walk around the room while playing your source material. Simple find the location in the room that bass sounds the best, or delivers the optimum SPL measurement from a meter. That location you are standing in is now the ideal location for the sub, or be darn close to it.'

I like that idea for sub positioning. I am going to try it over the weekend now that I have an SPL meter. As for sound of subs, that is an interesting observation about Velodyne subs, about their going to extremes to reduce distortion. Is that kinda like making beer so low in carbs, they forgot the taste?

Honestly for the price, I would get the Adire, it is just that at the moment, the product in unavailable. I hope when (or if) it becomes available again, it is the same product. I've been tempted to try the Part Express subwoofer kit too. The 10" is about $350, not a bad deal at all. The woofer looks like a very high quality product too. Any chance you've heard this, or are familiar with it?

[abstracta]

For lack of a better term Velodyn's sound 'dry' to my ears. Just sounds too clinical.

No I haven't heard the Dayton sub kit, but Parts Express has a very good reputation for dealing with customers, and they have a liberal return policy. I certainly wouldn't disuade you from going this route if the Rava isn't available.

The Dayton 10" driver looks pretty rugged and built for the task, and not a piece of junk. The driver specs though aren't nearly as 'deep' as the 12" Adire driver, but the Adire might be over-kill anyways :-)

The monster sub we built with the 15" Adire Tempest driver is mounted inside a 4' tall 24' wide sonatube with 500watt plate amp. We have the volume control turned up on the plate amp maybe 10%, and it's the smoothest, distortion free, and downright deepest sub I've ever heard. We've already got some stress fractures in the front plaster of the house, so we dare not turn it louder. When you watch the pod race in Star Wars Episode 1 the floor literally shakes up and down quite significantly and the rear windows in the house rattle. Surprising thing is the sub can be integrated with about any speaker and sounds wonderfull for music as well. A far cry from the drivers I remember 10 years ago that could either do HT, or Music, but not both.

[Woochifer]

I have a killer trick for you in regards to sub woofer placement. Compliments from the head engineer at Velodyne after we had a few cocktails:

'Since bass is for a large part omni-directional, the postion of the listener and subwoofer are logicaly interchangeable and need not be aqauired via randoming guessing. To find the ideal spot for a sub, put the sub in the location you are going to be listening from, and walk around the room while playing your source material. Simple find the location in the room that bass sounds the best, or delivers the optimum SPL measurement from a meter. That location you are standing in is now the ideal location for the sub, or be darn close to it.'

Dan Wiggins from Adire Audio posts the same recommendations for their subs, except that he also encourages people to crawl around the floor when trying to find the ideal placement spot. Apparently, the Adire staff's been known to tap a keg or two every once in a while!

[wfontenot]

Have you checked out the Paradigm powered subs? Somewhat in your price range.

[IRG]

Have you checked out the Paradigm powered subs? Somewhat in your price range.

I should check out the Paradigm subs. I am hoping to go to a dealer today for a listen. We are also suposed to get 5" of rain/snow, so I hope I can get there!

My delaer also has some Energy subs that I never considered before, and they have some in the silver color (like my C-3) that apparently didn't sell well, and they are selling them "cheap". Worth an audition too. Really tough though to say whether I will like any of these subs, until I get them home and play with them in my listening room.