2 better than 1?

[jalesi]

I was mulling this around in my head the other day, with the 2 or more subs are better than one, is that always true? I know that the answer is no. But the question is, do you go with one ID sub (Hsu, SVS, etc.) or two BIC F12's. You could have nearly 4 F12's for the price of one 12" from the ID companies.

I know that when you buy quality, you only cry once, but is the difference that great? The F12 does get great reviews, and for the record, I've never heard any of the above companies' subs.

 

[Pyrrho]

I personally would go with one really good subwoofer over 2 lesser ones that cost the same total amount, in most cases. First, the great advantage of multiple subwoofers is allowing one to even out the response in a room, but if one buys subwoofers that do not give a flat response in the first place, then one has more problems than just room effects. And this brings me to another reason: Most people do not have the space to put subwoofers just anywhere, and so they end up putting them where they have to go. Unless one is incredibly lucky, this means that one will be placing the multiple subwoofers in the wrong places, which greatly defeats the purpose of having multiple subwoofers. A third reason to favor one really good subwoofer is the fact that most people upgrade over time, and if you have a bunch of lesser subwoofers, the upgrade is expensive and troublesome, as it involves replacing all of the multiple subwoofers with better ones. But with one really good subwoofer, the upgrade is simple and easy and cost-effective: One simply buys a second subwoofer just like the really good one that one already has.

In the case of BIC subwoofers, I would pick one SVS over a pair of them any day. Even if I could never upgrade.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Kia Rio does 0 to 60 at about 10 seconds. You can buy 4 Kia Rio's for the price of one Ford Shelby GT500 or Chevy Camaro ZL1 (which both do 0-60 in under 4 seconds appprox), but would you really want to?

 

[jalesi]

Not really, I'd get something that would smoke them all and be reliable, but that's a different argument. As I already knew, it's better to cry once. Although, from what I've read, no one really cries who own the F12. Having said that, the most logical argument is the space to put multiple subs.

Kia Rio does 0 to 60 at about 10 seconds. You can buy 4 Kia Rio's for the price of one Ford Shelby GT500 or Chevy Camaro ZL1 (which both do 0-60 in under 4 seconds appprox), but would you really want to?

 

[Speedskater]

Recently there has been a lot of good ideas about multiple subs at Harman International and Doc Geddes.

The Harman International links.
Harman - White Papers

Doc Geddes page.
'For those curious about Geddes "Multiple Sub" technique view this Presentation or the PowerPoint".
http://www.gedlee.com/loudspeakers.htm

 

[Steve81]

I was mulling this around in my head the other day, with the 2 or more subs are better than one, is that always true?

As you said, no, it isn't. To do a multi-sub setup well, you still need a reasonably capable subwoofer to act as your building block. While multiple subwoofers will give you a bit of extra output capability over a single of the same type as well as the potential for smoother in room response, some things just won't budge. In the case of extension, moving from one subwoofer that drops like a rock below 30Hz to 4 of the same type still means effective 30Hz extension. You can take a look at the measurements of the BIC PL-200 (which AFAIK is their flagship sub) and note that it really isn't doing much below the 32Hz mark. Compared with something like the Outlaw LFM-1 EX, you would literally need four BICs to equal the Outlaw at 25Hz and seven of them to get comparable 20Hz output.

It's also worth noting that while its possible for multiple subwoofers to provide smoother in room response, it's far from a guarantee, particularly for those that just plan to pop their subs down in some predetermined spot and not measure the results.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Recently there has been a lot of good ideas about multiple subs at Harman International and Doc Geddes.

The Harman International links.
Harman - White Papers

Doc Geddes page.
'For those curious about Geddes "Multiple Sub" technique view this Presentation or the PowerPoint".
http://www.gedlee.com/loudspeakers.htm

I find some of his ideas quite different - aka room treatments are useless for low frequencies and if done incorrectly interfere with high frequencies
I knew about effect of multiple subs in the room, it is new and interesting to learn that the magic number of subs is 3 and above it one is running into point of diminishing returns.

During video Someone asked a question about capability of subs to be used for multiple and got very sharp response - one must use very capable subs at first place to see gain

I also found in interesting Doc Geddes take on crossover - as in optional component as long as you have right speakers (sealed and not trying to reproduce bass)