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Dayton Sub-120 thoughts and please explain "Boomy"

  • Thread starter Thread starter EasyCompany506
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EasyCompany506

Audioholic Intern
Jul 12, 2007
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I was never a big sub fan till recently and I just need an basic sub that brings out the low base sounds but doesn't shake the house. I'm not spending more then $200 and I don't need to fill a big room. I figure I'll just get the Dayton Sub-120 from Amazon for $144 plus s/h and call it good.

People say this is "boomy" though. What exactly does that mean?
I don't need a perfect $500 sub that blows me a way. I just want decent sound for action movies and that is all. I'm not expecting a lot for under $200shipped.

Thanks for all the help with subs so far. and no I'm not going to spend another $50 or $300 for the sub that you all have a woody for. I have a budget.
 
boomy

so if I'm listening to Band of Brothers and the flak guns are going non stop. would the explosions of the shells on the Dayton Sub-120 be more like boom boom boom or just one long rumber or boooooooooom? It's hard to type out what a sub sounds like. I just want to understand what people mean by boomy and tight. I figure tight would be the sub would single out each boom and not combine them into one long rumble.

how does the Dayton HSU8 8" Powered Subwoofer compare to the Dayton Sub-120 other then being more expensive? is this an 8 inch sub vs the 12 inch? I just want to know what I get for the extra $50.
bump
 
Boomy is like those car subs you hear.

A HT sub needs to be accurate to reproduce the low frequencies just like the real thing. An explosion is supposed to sound like an explosion, not an echo chamber.
 
The 8'' goes 10hz lower than the 120.
EasyCompany506 said:
so if I'm listening to Band of Brothers and the flak guns are going non stop. would the explosions of the shells on the Dayton Sub-120 be more like boom boom boom or just one long rumber or boooooooooom? It's hard to type out what a sub sounds like. I just want to understand what people mean by boomy and tight. I figure tight would be the sub would single out each boom and not combine them into one long rumble.

how does the Dayton HSU8 8" Powered Subwoofer compare to the Dayton Sub-120 other then being more expensive? is this an 8 inch sub vs the 12 inch? I just want to know what I get for the extra $50.
bump
Click to expand...
 
The boomy sound many people complain of is more often than not caused by poor room acoustics. Standing waves within ones room generally cause this perception of boomy sound. Another cause of this boomy sound is a small hump in the frequency response of the subwoofer which if over a wide enough band of frequencies will be perceived as boomy.

You can see my thoughts on the Dayton subs here: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40076
 
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1o hz lower?

yeah! if the 120 is rated at 25 hz then this 8 would be lower then most human's can hear. I think I'll spend the money on the 8 and not hear my extra $50 (hint of sarcasim)

does anyone have side by side specs comparisons on these two dayton's?
 
Go with the 12". There's a lot more to it than just how low it goes - output is a factor and in this case the 12" will have much more of it than the 8", even at 25Hz. Neither will get down to 20Hz. As for hearing, right around 20Hz you start to FEEL the sound rather than hear it and there is still a benefit to that.
 
Does anyone know the best hook up diagram for this sub? What settings on the back too?
The manual that comes with this thing is so poor.
Thanks
 
iTarik said:
Does anyone know the best hook up diagram for this sub? What settings on the back too?
Click to expand...

For hook up, a cable with RCA terminations from the subwoofer out jack on the receiver, to the "L" low input.

The best settings are installation dependent, so unfortunately, you will have to find (by measurements, and trial and error tweaking) what the best setting is for level, phase and for the subwoofer's position in the room. As for the built in crossover (from the picture on PE's website, it looks to be labeled "FREQ"), set it as high as it will go.
 
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I got this subwoofer cable from monoprice today, used it and raised the Freq volume all the way to the right. Now, when I raise the volume in my receiver Onkyo TX-SR605 just above 40 it shuts off. I have the gain knob in the middle. Should I bring the FREQ knob to the middle too?
Here is a close up of the back of the sub and please let me know what recommended settings for subs in general to have a nice ,clear bass and I will take care of the tweaking later when I get the SLP
20080125-btjune2ytn6cidpy1nhcedh2hd.png
 
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iTarik said:
Here is a close up of the back of the sub and please let me know what recommended settings for subs in general to have a nice ,clear bass and I will take care of the tweaking later when I get the SLP
Click to expand...

It's not that simple iTarik. You have one or more settings too high. You may want to peruse these threads first to get a rudimentary understanding of sub placement and settings:

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/get-good-bass/bass-management-basics-2013-settings-made-simple

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/get-good-bass/subwoofer-placement-the-place-for-bass-part-1

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/speaker-setup-guidelines/crawling-for-bass-subwoofer-placement

and, perhaps most importantly:

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/get-good-bass/an-easy-solution-to-subwoofer-calibration

If the sub still shuts off at -40 after you've calibrated, post again and I'm sure you'll get proper advice. Happy reading (and learning).
 
iTarik said:
Should I bring the FREQ knob to the middle too?
Click to expand...

Nope, it is best to only use the low pass in the receiver; the "FREQ" knob controls the low pass in the subwoofers plate amp, you want to have the cutoff frequency's of those two as far apart as possible, lest they interfere with each other.
 
So basically set the FREQ to 180 Hz and adjust the Gain to my liking?
 
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