Subwoofers

I've noticed a lot of people on forums and in the press are using subwoofers with (almost) full range speakers. If you already have your dream speaker and just want a little deeper bass that makes perfect sense. If however you are in the market for a complete speaker set up and feel you need a sub for that deep bass, is there any reason to buy an almost full range speaker over an equivelent standmount?

I can see the standmount offering several advantages, cheaper, less box colourations, more likely to 'disappear' (all the things a good standmount can do) but can not really see any advantage for the larger speaker (when used in conjuction with a sub) but maybe I'm missing something!?

On a related note, if you were to use a powered sub, and a crossover, to relieve your main amp of, say, anything under 80hz how much easier would that make life for your main amp? How much extra headroom would that give the amp? Being relieved of the low bass frequencies would it perform better in the midrange and high frequencies?

 

Most full range speakers will not go down low enough compared to a dedicated tuned in sub.
A good sub like the Velodyne DD series will be flat down to about 20Hz. It is not adviceable to tune a sub from 80Hz down as the cross over between the main and the sub might clash unless you have a room frequency correction coupled to the main speakers.
Once you get the bass right, everything else will open up even the mid range etc.
A stand mount+ sub will give you good result but will never give you the bigger sound of floor standers+ sub.
I used a DD15 + B&W N800 to great effect but now found a speaker that can get away from using a sub and still give me 99% of what a great sub can do.
Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

It really is a difficult question and may differ from brand to brand as each of them have a different set of ways at arranging the units. My advice is you go through the nitty grities before coming to a conclusion.

 

Thanks, so the foor stander will still give a bigger sound, that is exactly what I wanted to know. What speaker have you found?

 

Hi Mcshads

I would suggest Rel. The little Quake or a T3 or 103(can't remember exact models but both about £400/500). You want to set up by ear. I gave a complete set up instruction to a guy on the forum about a month or so ago. Check my postings and you should find it, it was about setting up subs.

How are the Dulcets going?

Regards D Louth

 

I've a sub in my setup as I came into this lark via the av route...

in my experience it does work - I have my sub connected via speaker cables (not phono level) and the volume on the lowest setting and it for the music and volume levels that I use...

 

Revel Ultima Salon but Planning to add a Velodyne DD-18 just to make things even more interesting.