Sub Woofer for Florida Great Room

[Mikea560]

Hi, Newbie here. Trying to set up Home Theater in a Florida Great Room Home. The Leisure/Family room is approximately 3500 cf but is joined by the kitchen dinning room which is another 3000 CF , no walls separating the two rooms. Without spending my entire pension on subs can I get reasonable bass in this large a room or should i just focus on a 2000 CF bedroom/Den and convert it to a media room. Currently using a Pioneer Sound base model SP-SB-03 to compliment a LG EG9100 55" TV in a Entertainment Wall unit .

Thanks in Advance

Mike

 

[lovinthehd]

Depends how you define reasonable bass. How low do you want to be able to get at what spl is how to think about that. In a room your size it will likely take multiple large subs; I have something similar in terms of cubic footage and use 3x18" sealed and a dual opposed sealed 15" as well. I was almost as happy with 2 x 18" sealed and the DO 15". You can also add tactile transducers to seating to augment your sub(s).

It would be much easier in the smaller room and take less subwoofage....

 

[rojo]

Goodness. That's quite a bit of space to pressurize. That's a nice sound base though. I've got one just like it. It does make dialogue clear, but it's never going to cause your room to rumble, and will never throw anything like a wide sound stage for critical listening.

The sound base doesn't have any outputs on it. How are you planning to get signal to a subwoofer? Use RCA cables from the TV into a pair of Y splitters, with one fork for each channel going to the sound base and the other going to a sub? If you do that, your sound base will have to stay at a set volume to stay level matched with the sub. Turning the volume up and down on your sound base will leave the sub stuck at whatever volume is on its dial, for better or for worse. Are you OK with that?

lovinthehd makes a fair point. Going with your media room idea would probably leave you with a more satisfactory sound while spending less on your subwoofer, since there's less space to pressurize. The trade-off is that you'll also need a receiver and three front speakers. On the other hand, going this route will get you better stereo separation with a wider sound stage and overall better sound.

This will mean leaving the sound base in your great room and starting from scratch in the bedroom / media room. One room will be adequate for social gatherings around a football game and for watching the news, while the other will be your more serious room for music and movies. That's the way my house is, and it works very well for my family.

Any idea what sort of budget you'd be working with?

 

[Mikea560]

Good ideas, I do already have a Receiver and Front speakers so not starting from Scratch in Bedroom media room but would need to get Rears/Surrounds.. Normally just the wife and I so media room would be large enough and certainly give us more bang for the Sub Woofer Buck. Other advantage would be I could run wire for Sub in Bedroom and Great Room Subs would have to be wireless.

Thanks for your Good Ideas

Mike

 

[rojo]

Good ideas, I do already have a Receiver and Front speakers so not starting from Scratch in Bedroom media room but would need to get Rears/Surrounds.. Normally just the wife and I so media room would be large enough and certainly give us more bang for the Sub Woofer Buck. Other advantage would be I could run wire for Sub in Bedroom and Great Room Subs would have to be wireless.

Thanks for your Good Ideas

Mike

What front speakers do you already have? What would you be comfortable spending on your upgrades?

 

[Mikea560]

Front Speakers are Polk TSi-3's and Center is CSI-6. Amp is Onkyo Tx-NR 838. What would you recommend for a Sub for smaller room. Will $300-500 buy a decent sub?
Thanks Again
Mike

 

[rojo]

Since your room is so small, the RSL Speedwoofer 10S would be a solid choice. It's got a smaller footprint than one typically sees with 12" subwoofers, and this reviewer mentions in passing that it's got good punch and clarity. They offer a 30-day in-home trial, and they pay for return shipping if you are displeased (according to "What is your return policy?" on their FAQ). There's an Audioholics video review of it on YouTube.

Most notable in that video at 03:46, there's a table showing CEA-2010 measurements with some very respectable values for a relatively inexpensive 10" sub (although I think the 20Hz value must be a typo). The values represent peak sound pressure level at 1 meter on ground plane at the max volume at which the sub plays tone bursts without exceeding a certain threshold for harmonic distortion. 2m RMS levels (with the 20Hz value corrected to make the 20-32Hz average fit) are as follow:

Avg 40-63: 106.5
Avg 20-32: 98.5
80: 107.5
63: 108.1
50: 106.9
40: 104
32: 102.2
25: 98.2
20: 92.5

 

[Mikea560]

Ok Thanks for Rec on the Small room woofer. If I have a windfall and go for the Great Room Home Theater I would need either a Wireless Sub or a wireless adapter. Any recommendation on wireless stuff.

Thanks Again
Mike

 

[rojo]

Ok Thanks for Rec on the Small room woofer. If I have a windfall and go for the Great Room Home Theater I would need either a Wireless Sub or a wireless adapter. Any recommendation on wireless stuff.

Thanks Again
Mike

You can make any sub wireless with a wireless transmitter. As long as there's not a lot of signal pollution where the transmitter will be, it shouldn't change the sound beyond adding a few jiffies of group delay. From there, it's just a matter of finding a subwoofer capable of pressurizing that space. The Hsu VTF-3 MK5 would be one example.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hi, Newbie here. Trying to set up Home Theater in a Florida Great Room Home. The Leisure/Family room is approximately 3500 cf but is joined by the kitchen dinning room which is another 3000 CF , no walls separating the two rooms. Without spending my entire pension on subs can I get reasonable bass in this large a room or should i just focus on a 2000 CF bedroom/Den and convert it to a media room. Currently using a Pioneer Sound base model SP-SB-03 to compliment a LG EG9100 55" TV in a Entertainment Wall unit .

Thanks in Advance

Mike

Welcome.

I do have a question as to what you are trying to accomplish.
You have a 55" TV. Are you trying to set up a respectable home theater environment with it or planning to enlarge that TV.
With a 55" I would be happy with that wireless sub that the soundbar has. I have a 50" in the family room
with such a setup and serves well.
But then, I also have a HT setup in the living room. Both serves a totally different purpose though.

 

[zieglj01]

Another option on a small room sub, is the Boston M-sub
Plus, new in the box
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/bosmsubba/boston-acoustics-msubwoofer-10-500-watt-powered-subwoofer-black-new/1.html

The MSubwoofer’s close-miked response, normalized to the level at 80 Hz, indicates that the lower –3-dB point is at 26 Hz and the –6-dB point is at 23 Hz. The upper –3-dB point is at 112 Hz using the LFE input.—MJP