Hello! New member, first post!
I am new to the high end audio world and have been enjoying (?) the steep learning curve. After much frustration and persistence I finally figured out subwoofer and speaker placement to minimize mode activation in my room. My issue now is that to get the bass right (without equalization...a nest I am not ready to burrow into just yet) I need to cross my subwoofer over down at 50Hz. The biggest speakers I own (which I am currently running as fronts) are Polk RTiA3 bookshelves which have a -3db rating of 50Hz.
I was just going to buy the RTiA5 floorstanding speakers in the same Polk line, but they only have a -3db rating of 40Hz. I am sure they would help some (and my receiver does allow me to biamp the front speakers) but my gut tells me they still might not be enough. Much of that line of thinking comes from articles on bass management that I have read here at Audioholics and elsewhere, stating that a speaker should be crossed over ideally at half an octave or at the very least at least 10Hz above its -3db point.
To meet the half octave criterion I would need a speaker with a -3db point at or near 30Hz, and the only one I have come across near the RTiA5 price point is the SVS Prime Tower. I like the 3.5 way crossover with the SVS Primes but they are not biampable. I realize that biamping is a debatable topic but there does seem to be a sense that it can help with low end performance when the woofers are connected directly to their own amp. The RTiA5s, on the other hand, do have dual binding posts.
Other speakers I like are the R55Ti tower from RBH and the Aperion Verus Grand Tower, but both of their -3db points are listed at 45Hz. The Aperion is above the price range I am looking at right now, but I thought I would throw it into the discussion in case I am focusing too much on the -3db point. The Aperion is a speaker I was thinking of upgrading to as a step along my path to potentially getting some Revel F208's.
Here are the details of my audio situation:
Room size: 12.67 feet wide, 12.92 feet long, 8.46 feet high (i.e. small room)
Listening distance: 8 to 8.5 feet (right now exact measurement is about 100 inches)
Front speaker separation: 76 inches from center of front baffle to center of front baffle
Front speaker distances from walls (both are the same): 38.75 inches from center of front baffle to wall behind speaker, 38 inches from center of front baffle to side wall
Front speakers: Polk RTiA3 bookshelf speakers (not biamped)
Receiver: Onkyo TX-NR1009
Subwoofers: dual Polk DSW440Wi
I know that I am asking too much of my bookshelf speakers right now, but I just don't know where to go next. I need a speaker that plays down well past 50Hz so that it has enough headroom at that crossover, but I am not sure how a large speaker would do in my room or how a large number of drivers would be able to integrate over my available listening distance.
As you can probably tell from the length of this post, I have been thinking about this for a while. I am hoping members could give me advice on what is and isn't important in my decisionmaking and any speaker suggestions that might work for me that I haven't listed already. Thank you so much!