Looking to augment "The Sixes" with a musical subwoofer

[Klipschhead302]

I have more MFW15's than I know what to do with. Two of them are in my living room HT utilizing Mark Seaton's awesome ICE amplifiers and they beat the crap out of my living room, so of course I'm going to add another one to the mix.

Anyway, that leaves one spare with a stock driver and a believe it or not functioning v2 AV123 amplifier. People familiar with AV123 will understand, those who don't I'll give a quick explanation. The owner ignored specifications for the amplifier and went cheap on components thus many MFW15's suffered early amplifier deaths and many of us sat with dead subwoofers because the owner also committed fraud...

I digress.... I have one spare with a stock driver which are good drivers and a working amp but this subwoofer while it sounds good otherwise does not meld very well with Klipsch "The Sixes" which have an internal amplifier and a subwoofer output.

I thought about purchasing the GoldenEar Forcefield3 subwoofer which digs deeper than most bigger subs and I figure being a smaller size it should do well in an all music configuration. Plus the price is ridiculous for the output it provides.

I know I could go SVS for similar money but look at this thing.

Ok, hit me, tell me I'm crazy or that this sounds like a good idea.

SPECS

 

[its phillip]

The goldenear specs are a lie.

 

[slipperybidness]

I have more MFW15's than I know what to do with. Two of them are in my living room HT utilizing Mark Seaton's awesome ICE amplifiers and they beat the crap out of my living room, so of course I'm going to add another one to the mix.

Anyway, that leaves one spare with a stock driver and a believe it or not functioning v2 AV123 amplifier. People familiar with AV123 will understand, those who don't I'll give a quick explanation. The owner ignored specifications for the amplifier and went cheap on components thus many MFW15's suffered early amplifier deaths and many of us sat with dead subwoofers because the owner also committed fraud...

I digress.... I have one spare with a stock driver which are good drivers and a working amp but this subwoofer while it sounds good otherwise does not meld very well with Klipsch "The Sixes" which have an internal amplifier and a subwoofer output.

I thought about purchasing the GoldenEar Forcefield3 subwoofer which digs deeper than most bigger subs and I figure being a smaller size it should do well in an all music configuration. Plus the price is ridiculous for the output it provides.

I know I could go SVS for similar money but look at this thing.

Ok, hit me, tell me I'm crazy or that this sounds like a good idea.

SPECS

Only trust 3rd party measurements for GE!

The owner is well-known to publish sketchy specs, he did it at DT, he does it at GE.

FYI--I run GE T2s, so I am not biased against GE.

 

[Klipschhead302]

The goldenear specs are a lie.

I didn't expect it to really hit 18hz, I read a few reviews that stated for it's size it hit pretty damn good. I'm hoping somebody has heard one?

 

[Klipschhead302]

Only trust 3rd party measurements for GE!

The owner is well-known to publish sketchy specs, he did it at DT, he does it at GE.

FYI--I run GE T2s, so I am not biased against GE.

I'm getting the impression perhaps the F3 may be a bad idea?

 

[shadyJ]

If you need a small sub that can dig deep, the GE subs might not be that bad for the size. It wouldn't be my first choice though. Small size has zero advantage regarding a subwoofer's performance, for quantity or quality. It is always a compromising factor. I think any of the subs in this article will blow it away in any performance metric.

 

[Klipschhead302]

If you need a small sub that can dig deep, the GE subs might not be that bad for the size. It wouldn't be my first choice though. Small size has zero advantage regarding a subwoofer's performance, for quantity or quality. It is always a compromising factor. I think any of the subs in this article will blow it away in any performance metric.

It wasn't the small size that got me, I believe there is nothing better than cubic inches. However for the situation I thought smaller might have an advantage since I don't need to dig as deep as my HT subs do. Most music doesn't go down that low, I know my taste doesn't include rap or other boomtastic "music" so I'm looking for tight to go well with the Klipsch's.

I'm looking at an SVS SB12 NSD as well, in fact I favored that until I saw the F3.

 

[shadyJ]

You might want to give the Premiere Acoustics PA-150 a look. It doesn't dig that deep, but it can hit pretty hard at 50 Hz and above.

 

[lovinthehd]

You might want to give the Premiere Acoustics PA-150 a look. It doesn't dig that deep, but it can hit pretty hard at 50 Hz and above.

What I was thinking....

 

[Pogre]

One thing I noticed were the lack of +/-db in their claimed frequency response. That's a little red flag for me.

 

[lovinthehd]

One thing I noticed were the lack of +/-db in their claimed frequency response. That's a little red flag for me.

Then check out measurements here http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=system&id=48

 

[shadyJ]

One thing I noticed were the lack of +/-db in their claimed frequency response. That's a little red flag for me.

Even +/- windows can be an exaggeration. I wouldn't necessarily place trust in a manufacturer even if they had those kind of specs.

 

[Klipschhead302]

One thing I noticed were the lack of +/-db in their claimed frequency response. That's a little red flag for me.

Agreed, I'm looking into the options given, also looking at a few others. I'm going to stay clear of the F3.

 

[Klipschhead302]

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

So, I may have decided to purchase two subwoofers for The Sixes instead of one. I found a pair of Klipsch SW-110's on sale as a bundle. These are NOT powerhouses but two of them would make a fine addition for the bookshelf speakers in the space they'll be in me thinks and from reviews I have read they do well with music.

 

[Pogre]

I've never heard those, but I did own a pair of RPW 10's and was not impressed with their performance. That is, after I've heard SVS and now Hsu.

*Edit: The ones you linked sure are a lot prettier than the ones I had.

 

[Klipschhead302]

I've never heard those, but I did own a pair of RPW 10's and was not impressed with their performance. That is, after I've heard SVS and now Hsu.

*Edit: The ones you linked sure are a lot prettier than the ones I had.

I've read the RPW's weren't all that and a bag of chips but the SW-110's seem to have a better rep and two of them for just music that doesn't get cranked to stupid levels should augment the sixes pretty well. I think.

 

[Klipschhead302]

Well, I have changed my mind, I have a sealed subwoofer enclosure that is crazy to have a 15" driver in so I'm going to add 15" passive radiators in two of the sides and see how that plays out before buying any more subs.

I'll post pictures tonight. Yes, I'm crazy I know.....

Here is the enclosure, the 15" passives would go on the left and right side, no I've done no math, no I have no clue how it will sound but I do know this enclosure could sound better and this enclosure was free so on with the madness..

 

[ski2xblack]

Converting a sealed alignment to reflex? Good luck, consider a hpf down low, and definitely don't apply any boost down low. How low that is I have no idea. If you have all the driver parameters you could model this in winISD and see how low. That woofer may not be appropriate for reflex loading.

 

[Klipschhead302]

Converting a sealed alignment to reflex? Good luck, consider a hpf down low, and definitely don't apply any boost down low. How low that is I have no idea. If you have all the driver parameters you could model this in winISD and see how low. That woofer may not be appropriate for reflex loading.

I look at it this way, the box was made by somebody but that doesn't mean it couldn't be modified right? I don't see how I can lose, it either works or doesn't and I have the hardware to spare. The woofer comes from an MFW15 which was ported, but I don't mind finding the appropriate driver to fit this scenario if it doesn't work out right.

 

[Klipschhead302]

Here are the passive radiators, one will be on each side and to further drive people mad I'm using an AV123 MFW15 amplifier. I used it to power this sub before and it pounded something fierce but of course was limited in its output and of course the driver was not intended for this kind of enclosure but it will have two passive radiators now.

I know this is nuts but for a total of $25.00 invested maybe it will turn out fine, if not then I'll go back to looking into a new subwoofer.

This is an old picture, the X-LS has been replaced by The Sixes but that amp will be used and the subwoofer will be on a rubber mat on the cement floor.

AV123 MFW15 v2 amplifier that still works as long as it isn't enclosed in a cabinet. I have a fan behind it that also helps keep it cool plus the basement is always pretty cool so perhaps this will be the only AV123 MFW amplifier still running in the wild, who knows.