Subwoofer for my theater room dimensions and price ($400-$700)

[pddufrene]

Ya I'm curious to hear your personal thoughts and opinions on your purchase as well, hope its what you wanted.

 

[David Zamora]

Ya I'm curious to hear your personal thoughts and opinions on your purchase as well, hope its what you wanted.

You bet. The wait is the worst part. It should be in tomorrow. I'll take a few photos as well. I'll set it up immediately after work and give it a test drive with a couple blu-ray concerts and movies. Last week I ordered Prometheus and War of the Worlds for the occasion.

 

[David Zamora]

Ugh...and to add to the mix, I just upgraded my AVR about an hour ago. My Onkyo is the weak link now, so I bought a Pioneer. I should be receiving a brand new Pioneer SC1222 (elite SC-61) on Friday. Wow...I'm gonna be busy this week!

 

[David Zamora]

Quick update. My XS15 just came in. The sucker is HEAVY. Will need to get someone here at work to help me get it to my car. Also, a few movies came in...I'm particularly excited about auditioning the new Criterion Collection version of "The Game". I read on blu ray that it was a stellar remaster.

I'll be heading home soon....can't wait.

 

[David Zamora]

All right! The XS15 is set up and tuned to my preferences now and I LOVE IT. I'm not going into great detail of my initial impressions, as I'm still enjoying this amazing sub while I write this, but this is more of my first reaction to SQ and quality. It's BIG. Bigger than what I was hoping for. But, it's manageable within my space, which is good. It fits snugly into the far corner of the room, so I'm happy with that.

Now, on to the music listening. I'm not doing something right in regards to music listening. I put in a few cd's into my trusty Oppo, and while the lower frequencies are cleaner, the dynamic range isn't quite where I would have expected it to be. I read somewhere that if the sub is connected via LFE, music listening won't represent accurately....or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly. Either way, I don't feel music is as dynamic as it should be. I used Pearl Jam, Daft Punk and some other bassy tracks. It sounded good, but not what I was hoping for. I don't listen to music in my HT much, so it's not really an issue. I'll revisit that late rthough.

Now, movie watching is a whole different story with the XS15.

I popped in The Hulk and skipped to the sonic boom scene. Wowzers. The lower frequencies seriously knocked my socks off. The fart canon blasts have been replaced with a nice, clean and confident thump, boom and blam (for the lack of better words). Everything sounds the way I had imagined it. The dynamic range that I have been missing kicks in overdrive when action scene passages occur. I'm really happy with the results of my XS15. My small theater room needed this added range and clarity in the bass department, and I'm absolutely loving it. Fiance, not so much. I haven't fiddled much with placement, since I'm a bit limited on space, but I think it's working great where it is now.

I have the crossover set to 90hz, which seems to be the sweet spot to my ears. I'm getting a new Pioneer 1222 in this Friday, as my Onkyo NR509 is a bit behind the capacity of my speakers. Also, I hear the Pioneer has great SQ and driving capabilities. I'm loving everything about my new XS15 so far, and can't wait to push it more with my Blu Ray collection. I'm extremely happy with this purchase.

More photos and some shots of my humble little theater room . Thanks to all of you for your suggestions! I think I've found a real winner in the subwoofer department.

 

[shadyJ]

For music, you are probably used to exaggerated mid bass. Use an EQ to hike up the 50 to 100 hz range by maybe 6 dB or so and see if that is the sound you are after. Nice looking room, btw.

 

[David Zamora]

For music, you are probably used to exaggerated mid bass. Use an EQ to hike up the 50 to 100 hz range by maybe 6 dB or so and see if that is the sound you are after. Nice looking room, btw.

Thanks, shadyJ. I'm going to fiddle around with my AVR a bit tonight. There's a ton of listening modes on the Onkyo NR509 and I believe the last time I checked it was in movie mode.

Thank you!

 

[Steve81]

Now, on to the music listening. I'm not doing something right in regards to music listening. I put in a few cd's into my trusty Oppo, and while the lower frequencies are cleaner, the dynamic range isn't quite where I would have expected it to be. I read somewhere that if the sub is connected via LFE, music listening won't represent accurately....or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly. Either way, I don't feel music is as dynamic as it should be.

Couple thoughts:
1. As ShadyJ mentioned, you're probably not used to a relatively flat, low distortion response coming from a Polk PSW10.

2. A lot of music made these days simply isn't very dynamic. One link worth looking at: DR Database

 

[jinjuku]

For music, you are probably used to exaggerated mid bass. Use an EQ to hike up the 50 to 100 hz range by maybe 6 dB or so and see if that is the sound you are after. Nice looking room, btw.

House curve FTW