Best Sub-compact Subwoofer out there

[cbraver]

That's just lack of frequency extension.

 

[cbraver]

...but, I understand what you mean now.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I guess I should've been more clear, anyway. With a good, tight, clean sub with pretty flat output, you can often turn the sub up too high and still have it sound good. But if you have a "one notey" boomer, there's not a lot you can do. Many years ago I had an AR sub like that- it was a big box w/a 15" driver powered by a Sunfire plate amp. I only bought it cause it was really cheap, and that's how it sounded! If you tapped on the cab it sounded like an empty shoe box, must not have had any bracing and not much fill! It had pretty prodigious output- at 40 hz on up. Even parametric EQ couldn't fix it, I'm afraid. Oh, well- it crapped out on my after a few months anyway.

 

[cbraver]

My peeve about subwoofers, and now that we are on the same page in terms of vocab, I think you would agree with me, is that people don't understand that in order to produce, say... a 40Hz tone.... the driver as to move a specific speed.... a subwoofer that makes a 40Hz tone moves at that speed, regardless. People say small subwoofer drivers are "quicker" than their "slow" big brothers or b.s. like that. MUSICAL vs. THEATER subs and all BS like that. I see things like "I want a musical sub" dropped here all the time. And everywhere else for that matter. So, sometimes I get a little quick on the gun. I need to find a good article on subwoofers to drop everytime I see something like that.

Anyways, [end rant]

-Chad

 

[Rob Babcock]

Man, that's a pet peave of mine, too. If a sub was really fast, it would be a midrange or tweeter. It's one of those bits of the purple prose lexicon that exists simply to help reviews fill the page up.

 

[warpdrive]

A lot of "boominess" that people are hearing can be attributed to various distortions. Most frequent ones being.
- cabinet resonances
- bass peaks in the room
- harmonic distortions

Any sub that is set up correctly should sound as good with music as home theater. Because of the complex nature of acoustics, buying a good sub is only the beginning of the battle, getting a nice flat response at the listening position(s) requires lots of patience and experimentations

 

[Hummada]

I've listened to a lot of subs recently,and the best one in my opinion was the definitive technology reference. They say it will go below 11Hz,but for the about the same price you can get a friggin BP7001sc tower that has 1500 watt and 13Hz to 30Hz sub.

 

[toquemon]

My peeve about subwoofers, and now that we are on the same page in terms of vocab, I think you would agree with me, is that people don't understand that in order to produce, say... a 40Hz tone.... the driver as to move a specific speed.... a subwoofer that makes a 40Hz tone moves at that speed, regardless. People say small subwoofer drivers are "quicker" than their "slow" big brothers or b.s. like that. MUSICAL vs. THEATER subs and all BS like that. I see things like "I want a musical sub" dropped here all the time. And everywhere else for that matter. So, sometimes I get a little quick on the gun. I need to find a good article on subwoofers to drop everytime I see something like that.

Anyways, [end rant]

-Chad

"Boomy" is just an adjective to describe some over-emphasis that is made by some subwoofers in certain notes (generally mid-bass) and i've seen that this is a very common problem in HTiB equipment. That's why some people may call it MOVIE SUBWOOFER.

For me it's clear that a MUSICAL subwoofer is capable of recreating the lowest notes of a double-bass with clarity and authority; some woofers used in equipment associated with reproduction of MOVIES just can't handle that.

The logic tells me that, what we call a MUSICAL subwoofer, would do a good job playing movies. I think the MUSICALITY of a sub is the capability to play the entire low frequency end with accuracy and tightness, not over-emphasizing some note over another.

It's much more difficult to judge te accuracy of a subwoofer using movie tracks (explosions, earthquakes, sound effects) than using music (at least to me). I preffer to use music to judge a subwoofer.

 

[cbraver]

I disagree. Movies present just as demanding soundtracks as do audio tracks, and they are just as useful for determining the quality of a subwoofer. A subwoofer that is bad at movies, is bad at music, and vice versa. Plus, most movies have a ton of music in them in addition to the sound effects.... and all different types: from classical to rap.

-Chad

 

[Leprkon]

I disagree. Movies present just as demanding soundtracks as do audio tracks, and they are just as useful for determining the quality of a subwoofer. A subwoofer that is bad at movies, is bad at music, and vice versa. Plus, most movies have a ton of music in them in addition to the sound effects.... and all different types: from classical to rap.

-Chad

I disagree with part of your disagreement... You are completely right that a sub that is bad at movies WILL be bad at music.

I would argue that a sub that is bad at music could still be perfectly usable for movies. A sub could be "good enough" for movies to "get by", since movie soundtracks don't stress specific notes for any length of time ("boom" is "boom").

Quality audio tracks on the other hand, may use a number of notes within the lower spectrum repeatedly within a few seconds and continuously throughout the length of a song (exception noted- rap "boom" is still "boom").

Movie "music" in general, is mixed to be fed into the mains, not the LFE. Your crossover will ultimately determine what goes where, of course, but a movie mix is not much of a stress test for a sub.

 

[cbraver]

The music in movies uses LFE. Sure, how it is mixed and how your gear is setup makes a huge difference, but it does with audio tracks too.

While it may not be ok for my tastes, I guess I could see you argueing that a poor subwoofer might be usable for movies but not useable for music... but, we are talking about absolute an absolute crap subwoofer that no one should invest in anyways. I'm the type that would rather have no subwoofer than a junk one though.

-Chad