Talk to me about a HSU vs my Older ED A2-300 sub

[myke]

I bought a elemental designs sub a couple years black when they were the best bang for the buck. I've been very happy with it despite many people who got a lemon or no sub at all.

Ive been eyeballing the HSU's after reading and wondering if I should go for one or just wait. Mainly vtf mk4. Could I pair this Elemental designs with a HSU for a dual setup? My guess is it won't work.

What do you think? If I can't pair it, but I buy one of the lower end HSU subs would it blow away my ED sub? I was looking at the lower 2 VTF's. however if a STF will work I'd go for it.

 

[shadyJ]

The a2-300 is a beefy little sub, and if you want to pair it with another sub, the best idea is to pair it with a sub that is as close to its performance ability as possible. In the case of Hsu, that sub would likely be the VTF2 mk4. The lower Hsus will be overpowered by the A2 and the higher VTFs will be handicapped by the A2's limits. You would want to do some experimentation to make it work well, dialing in and optimizing two subs is trickier than a single sub, especially when they are different, but it isn't impossible. You will want to read up on tips how to do it and ask for advice from places like this message board.

 

[myke]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will hold off for now until I can move the ED sub to 2.1 duty in the other room. Then focus on one big sub or a dual setup for my movie room.

 

[ahblaza]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will hold off for now until I can move the ED sub to 2.1 duty in the other room. Then focus on one big sub or a dual setup for my movie room.

Subs to consider when you're ready.


POWER SOUND AUDIO — Welcome
Cheers Jeff

 

[Steve81]

The lower Hsus will be overpowered by the A2 and the higher VTFs will be handicapped by the A2's limits.

Depends on how you set it up; if you just leave it to a receiver's auto-cal routine, this is probably the result you'd get. If you're willing to manually measure, fine tune, fiddle with placement, etc, you could back off the output of the eD a bit, basically relegating it to a helper sub which would help smooth in room response.

 

[shadyJ]

Depends on how you set it up; if you just leave it to a receiver's auto-cal routine, this is probably the result you'd get. If you're willing to manually measure, fine tune, fiddle with placement, etc, you could back off the output of the eD a bit, basically relegating it to a helper sub which would help smooth in room response.

At one point, I attempted to use an ED A3-300 with a VTF3, as they spec very closely. Back then the A3-300 was just ED's copy of the older SVS PB12 NSD. I liked the A3, but there was no question that the Hsu sounded better, so I ditched the idea of integrating them. If I were to try that again, I would set the crossover on the ED way down, maybe like 40 hz or so, so it is assisting the deep bass without messing up the Hsu's superior mid and upper bass transient response. The deep bass won't be messed up because its difficult to perceive much definition down there anyway, and more deep bass output is always welcome in my home. This is something the OP might try. If I recall correctly, the A2 had pretty good extension so this might be a good approach.