Need help choosing subwoofer

[MrGrim999]

Hey guys! I recently got the Klipsch Quintets for my bedroom and I'm trying to decide on a subwoofer to go with them. To narrow the selection, it has to be ordered through amazon.com

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[JAG87]

Budget? Size restrictions? How loud does it have to go?

 

[tential]

How large is the room as well.

 

[MrGrim999]

The room is about 12 X 12 and probably looking at an 8 or 10inch sub. The refund I'll be getting back from amazon will be $220 so it would be nice to be around there. I saw that Klipsch SW-450 currently selling on there for $219. But I'm a little hesitant because it's going through another seller called "WOOT" and wondering why it's much cheaper than other Klipsch subs on there....not that I'm complaining hehe.

 

[Anubis]

just get the Bic F12 and be done with it.

Is it the best sub in the world: No
Is it fine for most people: Absolutely

 

[JAG87]

DO NOT get a down firing subwoofer if you have hardwood or laminate in your bedroom.

For your price range, I second Anubis.

 

[weez82]

+3 for the Bic f12. One of the better subs out there for under $200.

DO NOT get a down firing subwoofer if you have hardwood or laminate in your bedroom.

Why would that be? I think you might have some misconceptions about down firing subs.

 

[BeeBoop]

DO NOT get a down firing subwoofer if you have hardwood or laminate in your bedroom.

For your price range, I second Anubis.

Why not? The SVS representative told me that it doesn't matter for their woofers. The cylinders are the ones that I asked about.

 

[tential]

Another vote for the Bic F12.

 

[Anubis]

yea im curious about the no down firing onto hardwood comment

 

[JAG87]

Because half of your output loudness is literally absorbed and lost into the floor, and therefore easily heard in the adjacent rooms and the room directly below it. You will also end up with cold spots in the centre of the room, and hot spots in the corners of the room, and unless everything in your room is tightly fastened, it can cause horrible vibrations from surrounding objects, such as glass doors. And there is very little you can do if this is the case with a down firing sub. With a front firing sub, there are many directional adjustments you can make.

The only time you can use a down firing sub is on a carpeted room, and you need to double up on power for the same impact of a driver that's positioned towards you.

Why not? The SVS representative told me that it doesn't matter for their woofers. The cylinders are the ones that I asked about.

Of course he did, otherwise they wouldn't sell any of them. That sub is great for environments that are space constricted, but to claim that they don't have any shortcomings is plain silly.

 

[MrGrim999]

My room is carpeted 🙂 Fire away!!

 

[hawtdawg]

Because half of your output loudness is literally absorbed and lost into the floor, and therefore easily heard in the adjacent rooms and the room directly below it. You will also end up with cold spots in the centre of the room, and hot spots in the corners of the room, and unless everything in your room is tightly fastened, it can cause horrible vibrations from surrounding objects, such as glass doors. And there is very little you can do if this is the case with a down firing sub. With a front firing sub, there are many directional adjustments you can make.

The only time you can use a down firing sub is on a carpeted room, and you need to double up on power for the same impact of a driver that's positioned towards you.

You have absolutely no clue in the world what you are talking about. Bass is omnidirectional. His room will probably have uneven bass, but that is due only to the shape of the room and the location of the sub. The direction the sub faces doesn't matter, at least to anything you are trying to attribute to it.

 

[MrGrim999]

Know what? Here's a question. The reason I will be getting a refund from amazon is because I'm returning the Monoprice premium surround speakers. If people are recommending that BIC F12 , maybe I should just keep the monoprices and use the sub?

 

[hawtdawg]

Know what? Here's a question. The reason I will be getting a refund from amazon is because I'm returning the Monoprice premium surround speakers. If people are recommending that BIC F12 , maybe I should just keep the monoprices and use the sub?

I'd get the BIC, im sure it's quite a bit better.

 

[JAG87]

Bass is omnidirectional.

Lol. Okay, since you brought it up, let's see how much of a clue you have.

Bass is not omnidirectional at all. Bass feels omnidirectional at frequencies below 70-80 Hz (on average, it varies) because of the way it interacts with your environment. In open space, a 20 Hz tone is just as directional as a 20 Khz tone. In properly set up environments there is plenty of direction. Just low pass a studio recorded track at around 80 Hz in a waveform editor and look at the VU meters. The lower you low pass, the less difference between the L and R channels, but most of time you can get to about 50 Hz and still have clearly distinct L and R channels. Cramming bass from all channels into a one-driver mono channel is already bad as it is. Firing it downwards into a hard surface that carries vibrations all over your room is the non plus ultra of stupidity. Down-firing subwoofers were created specifically for the home user to maximize volume output through ambient resonance. Try to find one movie theatre or concert hall that uses down-firing woofer drivers.

Edit
Further more to what I said, I left out an important detail. The 70-80 Hz figure takes into account that you have a fairly large listening room. The smaller the room, the higher this resonance threshold goes because there physically isn't enough space for a full wavelength to propagate.

 

[gar655]

Lol. Okay, since you brought it up, let's see how much of a clue you have.

Bass is not omnidirectional at all. Bass feels omnidirectional at frequencies below 70-80 Hz (on average, it varies) because of the way it interacts with your environment. In open space, a 20 Hz tone is just as directional as a 20 Khz tone. In properly set up environments there is plenty of direction. Just low pass a studio recorded track at around 80 Hz in a waveform editor and look at the VU meters. The lower you low pass, the less difference between the L and R channels, but most of time you can get to about 50 Hz and still have clearly distinct L and R channels. Cramming bass from all channels into a one-driver mono channel is already bad as it is. Firing it downwards into a hard surface that carries vibrations all over your room is the non plus ultra of stupidity. Down-firing subwoofers were created specifically for the home user to maximize volume output through ambient resonance. Try to find one movie theatre or concert hall that uses down-firing woofer drivers.

Edit
Further more to what I said, I left out an important detail. The 70-80 Hz figure takes into account that you have a fairly large listening room. The smaller the room, the higher this resonance threshold goes because there physically isn't enough space for a full wavelength to propagate.

Damn! All I got out of this is bla bla bla, yadda yadda yadda...... Transalation- I really have no clue about what I just copied and pasted from some unkown source means.

Bass below 80hz IS omni directional. That's why you can put a sub directly behind your seat and still have it sound like it's coming from the front.

 

[JAG87]

Damn! All I got out of this is bla bla bla, yadda yadda yadda...... Transalation- I really have no clue about what I just copied and pasted from some unkown source means.

That's a shame... but if you don't understand then why address my post? Just to be cool?

Bass below 80hz IS omni directional. That's why you can put a sub directly behind your seat and still have it sound like it's coming from the front.

Maybe for you. For me, a sub behind my seat sounds like a sub behind my seat.

No frequency is omni directional. 80 Hz has a wavelength of about 14ft, which means that unless your room is at least 14ft in one direction and you and the sub are as far away as possible, your brain has a very hard time figuring phase information, which makes it impossible to figure out where sound is coming from. And of course it gets worse as the room gets smaller.

If you can't tell where an 80 Hz tone is coming from in a 140ft wide auditorium, then you better book an appointment with an audiologist.

 

[tential]

Damn! All I got out of this is bla bla bla, yadda yadda yadda...... Transalation- I really have no clue about what I just copied and pasted from some unkown source means.

Bass below 80hz IS omni directional. That's why you can put a sub directly behind your seat and still have it sound like it's coming from the front.

So explain to me why I can put a subwoofer in a room, and hear it more on one side of the room than the other side of the room? If it's omni-directional, shouldn't I hear it equally throughout the room?

How can I tell which side of the room the subwoofer is on in certain rooms if it's omni-directional?

 

[JAG87]

So explain to me why I can put a subwoofer in a room, and hear it more on one side of the room than the other side of the room? If it's omni-directional, shouldn't I hear it equally throughout the room?

How can I tell which side of the room the subwoofer is on in certain rooms if it's omni-directional?

You will never hear it equally everywhere in the room because of reflections and resonances. These can either augment the loudness or cancel the sound out completely depending whether they are in phase or out of phase with the original signal.

 

[HeXen]

So explain to me why I can put a subwoofer in a room, and hear it more on one side of the room than the other side of the room? If it's omni-directional, shouldn't I hear it equally throughout the room?

How can I tell which side of the room the subwoofer is on in certain rooms if it's omni-directional?

You should never be able to tell where the source of the sub is. If you can point out where the bass is sourced, then you did it wrong. Ideally you want to stage your sound so that the bass blends naturally with your speakers. Not hearing the source come from behind your couch for example.

 

[tential]

You will never hear it equally everywhere in the room because of reflections and resonances. These can either augment the loudness or cancel the sound out completely depending whether they are in phase or out of phase with the original signal.

Was going to have him explain that since his super simplified response is just that. Super simplified. It doesn't take into account real life...

 

[Carson Dyle]

So explain to me why I can put a subwoofer in a room, and hear it more on one side of the room than the other side of the room? If it's omni-directional, shouldn't I hear it equally throughout the room?

How can I tell which side of the room the subwoofer is on in certain rooms if it's omni-directional?

For one, most people set up inexpensive subs with crossover points that are far too high. They have no idea how to properly integrate a sub into a system.

I've been running subwoofers with stand-mount speakers in my main audio system for many years. I've read a lot about subwoofers, but I"ve NEVER seen any of these claims being made about downfiring subs and wooden floors before.

 

[MrGrim999]

Hey how about this BIC America hehe

http://www.amazon.com/Bic-Acoustech-...rica+subwoofer

 

[tential]

For one, most people set up inexpensive subs with crossover points that are far too high. They have no idea how to properly integrate a sub into a system.

I've been running subwoofers with stand-mount speakers in my main audio system for many years. I've read a lot about subwoofers, but I"ve NEVER seen any of these claims being made about downfiring subs and wooden floors before.

Eh, I actually have seen the claims made multiple times.

Just do a search downfiring sub/wooden floor...

Surprising you don't hear about it much if you frequent audio forums.

That said, I also have heard people say it doesn't matter if you add spikes to your sub(subwoofer feet) or not, that it doesn't improve sound quality, yet when I did it cleaned mine up perfectly. I think some people's scientific theories are missing key components.