Any reason to go reflex sub?

[Gasp3621]

I am little bit puzzled.. I own BK Electronics Gemini 2 sub (10" - 150w). It is nice sub for the price, small and very high WAF. My use it with movies almost 100%. Room is about 20sqm. I live in apartment first floor. With sub heavy movies, it really makes difference. I haven`t heard any better, so it is hard to say more, but i like it. Sometimes i still want more to feel the bangs, crashes etc.

I watch the movies far from reference, lets say about -35 from the AVR as average. So if you keep that in mind, would i get more oomph with reflex sub? Or does it need to be pushed more to get the most of it?

So with my situation, would sealed sub still be good enough? Maybe going with little bit bigger to get more lower notes:

I live in Europe, and it would be easiest to keep with BK. I could get decent money from trading Gemini2 to new. Also i have been very pleased with the sub so many years.

-BK P12-300SB (12", 50litres, 300w)
-BK XXLS400 (12" Peerless XXLS12, 50litres, 400w)

And then there is Monolith and Mono+. Bigger, uglier but with movies everyone praises them. Maybe the new SVS (PB)are little bit better (other ones still likes mono+ better), but they don`t look as good as BK subs. But if you keep in mind that my listening volume is kind of low, is there really any point to get reflex sub like mono for apartment use?

Thanks!

 

[TheWarrior]

Ooo a specific question! Welcome!

I respect your desire to upgrade, but especially with the apartment situation, I would advise sticking with what you have.

Secondly, your listening level is just low enough that you will likely need to try something like Audyssey EQ to increase some of those bass notes. Bass requires energy, no matter what your neighbors try to tell you! hehe...

If you have great neighbors, and just want to experiment I think either of those options would be fun! Try them out and let us know what you think! Take some pics!

 

[agarwalro]

Before spending on a new/bigger sub, do the Bass Crawl and ensure you're getting maximum benefit from what you have.

http://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/crawling-for-bass-subwoofer-placement

 

[rojo]

I like what I've seen with BK Elec subs. They seem to offer better bang for the money than SVS these days. A ported sub will give you much more output at the rumbly end than a sealed, and a 12" sub will give you better extension and output than a ten.

That said, one advantage of a sealed subwoofer is that, given enough power and with corner loading, you can often EQ extra bottom end extension. If you're happy with the volume and size of your subwoofer, just not the tuning, first you should follow agarwalro's advice and experiment with different placement. After that, you might consider ordering a miniDSP and UMIK-1 with which to tweak the curve to your taste. The idea would be to lower the volume of, say, 40Hz+; then turn up the overall LFE volume.

The biggest disadvantage of this is that the Room EQ Wizard software will require quite a bit of reading, and trial and error. If you like gadgets, though, you'll enjoy the adventure regardless.

Also, your 10" sub driver likely doesn't have the xmax to allow a lot of eq'd extension without losing some overall headroom. If it turns out that the miniDSP makes your 10" sub bottom out when EQing extension, then a miniDSP will at least improve the room response of a Monolith as well. Or, I don't think you'll take much of a loss reselling the miniDSP and mic if you just don't like it.

Another idea to consider would be mounting kinetic transducers to your seats -- bass shakers or buttkickers or similar. They add a tactile response to your bass without bothering the neighbors.

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Forum Fiend v1.3.1.

 

[Gasp3621]

Thx guys for the replys! Sure there are some benefits for living in 1st floor, no downstair neighbours as the bass would go easier to downstair i guess. Behind my speakers/tv/sub there is neighbour but maybe just bedroom. And this house is build in 2011, not so bad. I forgot to mention there is also opening at the back of the mainroom to narrow "hall" which leads out of my apartment. So 20sqm isn`t whole story. Unfortunately there isn`t door to this hall and no communicating door near the outdoor, just one heavy outdoor. So sound is leaking to stairway more easily. I don`t understand why they build like this. Money saving every place, clowns!

I have HK`s avr, but it has crappy room correction, doesn`t eq the sub and it gives wrong info. Useless crap, they always disable it in reviews! New avr costs alot money, audussey xt32 would be the choice. It would be easy to buy Antimode 8033 Cinema tho. It has lift +25, but this sub won`t go that low. Audussey would be the easy route, just get it thru and forget it. Other apps and DSP? sounds difficult.

I have tried different places with the sub. I don`t have enough long cable to move my sub to my listening position to do the crawl the way it`s supposed to do. Sub is now in between my right and center speaker. I have tried move it to left same place or little more (then the tv stand isn`t back of the sub). I just can`t hear a difference. There is possible to put the sub behind both floor speakers near the back wall, but i have heard that is not optimal. Also there is corner place, but that is the worst i have heard. I have used different music (suggested for crawl) to test it, but sounds same..

It is very hard to find reviews different subs played with moderate volumes. I don`t really care the crazy numbers, cause i can`t use the sub that way if i don`t want to chat with cops. There is some talk that with reflex box if u bring it high levels db, u can really feel it in your chest etc. So if i buy 12" ported sub and it behaves the same like 12" closed one. Not good deal for me. And usually they are bigger and harder to place optimal.

So the real question still is this: Movie playing at -35 volume level from AVR:

12" XXLS400 Closed box
12" Monolith reflex box

Do they sound the same at that level? I am afraid that Mono wakes up alive when you crank the volume more, so no benefit listening it "low". Am i wrong?

Thanks!

Edit. I have concrete walls and laminate floor, the left side is window all the way almost. I usually hide them with thick curtain, also thick rug and futon bed, little tv chair. Gemini2 is on spikes. From the back of the sub there is 67cm to back wall. My listening place isn`t near (back)wall.