Subwoofery

OK then. I have been listening to loads of music this weekend. I've encountered a problem insomuch as stuff like John Martin, Turin Brakes, Bjork and a number of others sound absolutely fantastic with great detail, snappy dynamics, beautifully defined bass and a real weight to the sound, in fact as good as my system has ever sounded. Other stuff like Bob and my dancier or more chilled stuff seems a bit bereft on the bass front, it's there but not with the weight or power I think it should have. It's frequency dependent, seems "real" bass is fine - synth bass which on most of my stuff is below 45htz is too light or worse almost non-existent.

I had made up my mind to sell my speakers which means more money, more grief finding a pair I like and is likely to mean more size in order to cover the real low frequencies - I have now decided against this as many albums I listened to were a bit of a revelation from a sound quality perspective. I'm still left with no really low bass.

Good examples; Everyday by the Cinematic Orchestra produced superb weighty bass with just the kind of depth I like - on the other hand Smokers Delight by Nightmares on Wax was bassless and completely unenjoyable because of it.

So to my questions - I was going to get a cheap sub (probably a BK electonics Gemini@200 quid) to cover stuff below 45htz.
As I'm not expecting this thing to cover any proper instruments can anyone see an issue with such a cheap product?
It's going to be on the plane of the speakers but over to the right of the right speaker in a corner, is bass below 45htz genuinely non - directional?
I plan to use high level connections as I have no preouts, could this damage or unduly stress my amp?
Finally has anyone got any opinions about integrating a sub with small floorstanders, should it, as I believe, be a bit less hassle than doing so with standmounts due to the lower cut off frequencies involved.

I really need help on this one as I'm not prepared to trade the strenghts of the speakers I now have for a bit of extra bass and a sub seems like a gift to someone in my situation unfortunately I know not the first thing about subs.

 

Depends who you ask.
Personally I dislike subs with vengence, particularly so when trying to play music on them. I think I've only heard two sub using systems where they came across as fully integrated.
IMO, you'd be much better placed simply buying a better pair of full range speakers by selling your existing units and adding the money you were planning on blowing on the sub.

 

I would not buy into a cheap sub... Maybe tones < 45 Hz are not localizeable, the overtones generated by such a cheap sub are (because of distortion). You will be disappointed. Better to go with a well-engineered subwoofer like Velodyne CHT-8R.

 

whats the max budegt you have for a sub..?

 

To be honest I have very little to spend on this experiment 300 quid absolute maximum.

 

For that money, you can buy a Velodyne CHT-8R. There is none better for that price.

 

I'd try second hand - the options are a little better at that price range...
just that the cht-8r only goes down to 34hz -
http://www.velodyne.com/velodyne/products/specs/cht_r.html

saying that, I have the cht-10r which I'm happy with..!

edit - where you based at..?

and this one maybe a bit better than the gemini..?
http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/XLS200-DFandFF.htm

 

B&K make very good subs. I wouldn't write them off in the face of (admittedly top notch) competition from Velodyne.

Re: the CHT-8R only going down to 34Hz. Velodyne's specs tend to be very conservative, and are all anechoic measurements with low dB cut-off points. Subjective in-room extension will be much greater.

Dunc

 

yeah, if you do look to buy a velodyne - check out www.avtalk.co.uk/forum

sometimes the odd bargain come sup on there, just do a wanted in the classidfieds...

 

also, this sub - http://www.tribaluk.com/mordaunt-short-309-maple-subwoofer-03611001.htm

(seems cheaper here tho - http://www.tribaluk.com/mordaunt-short-309-maple-subwoofer-03611001.htm !!)

is very good (especially at this reduced price!) and is supposed to be comparable to the BK xls200

 

I use a behringer B2092A. I am very happy with it. It is set to minimum. With some music sources there seems little or no deep bass. This is especially so with some 50s and sixties recordings. When a good source disc, vinyl or Cd then the sub brings the recording to life with deep tight and well controlled bass. The bass from a good vinyll source is better than that from my CD. In the end its about trying to listen to as many systems as possible and records.