I bought a pair of wharfedale EVO 4.1 a little while ago and have been completely delighted by them. I drive them with a smsl SA300 and they are pretty awesome, more than enough for my small room. The thing is I come from a set of vintage Fisher’s XP6b my grandfather left me… and that 10 inch woofer had some good bass!
So yeah I’m looking for a decent subwoofer on the 300 to 400€ range (I guess dollar prices will be similar but some things are cheaper on the US) that can compliment my bookshelf speakers. I’d like the sub to be fast and integrate well, providing extra “liveliness” to the music, moreso than to be a rumble box that shakes my room (Even though I enjoy once in a while to turn the sub all the way up ) I prefer speaker level inputs cuz I will have the sub under the table and it won’t be easy to access that gain switch.
My main options now (on the places I can buy them in spain) are:
Klipsch R-12SW (300€)
Polkaudio HTS10 (328€)
Other options:
Klipsch R 100-SW (300€)
Jamo J12 Sub (249€)
Jamo S810 Sub (228€) just by the looks of it and the convencience of the form factor… but don’t know how it’d sound.
You can see all the available subwoofers here sorted by price:
I really have no idea when it comes to subwoofers and I see almost every review is superficial on the sound aspec of it… I guess they are more popular in home cinema systems, so all suggestions will be highly appreciated
Last note: I’ve not considered 8 inch subwoofers since I’d like to have a bit of headroom if I ever move to a bigger place or I want to use it on the living room.
I have an older Klipsch Sub-12 from the synergy line. I never turn it past a quarter up on the gain and still trim some volume in the receiver. If I was doing it over again I would buy the 10" that matched when I picked it up.
Larger subwoofers generally offer more presence and can get lower than same class smaller ones. Smaller ones are more responsive and faster for tighter bass. 10 is the happier middle ground between the 12 and 8’s you’ve looked at.
The Jamo subs I heard years ago were the smaller 8" ones, I was impressed with the power of such a small sub and what made me rethink my 12".
This is kinda a meme and ain’t true. In general.
Even big sub are responsive and equally fast. Can be tuned in many ways if settings allow.
If a custom enclosure is done wrong, them maybe there are issues.
Oh that’s great then! I might consider 10 inch subs better than 12, cuz my room is small and a 12 inch may overload the room too quickly. I’d really like to go hear some of them but with the current world situation it will be quite a challenge hahah thanks for your comment!
Got an SVS-SB1000 for 500. Bit more than your budget, but it is spectacular compared with the HT subs (ported) that I had earlier. Its fast, but still hits hard. Kinda gets lost in the room. Previous (though cheap) Yamaha ones were so boomy compared to this. Maybe you can get a deal or sthm
Yeah I looked at that one… heard wonders about it but it’s 600€ (650$) on the only spanish dealer. It’s a hard call cuz I spent 550€ on the Wharfedale themselves, so I qüestion if I should really spend more on the sub than I did on the speakers… What do you have your SVS paired to?
Yea i would, but since i’m really picky about them. The price tag would be higher, double at least and probably 12", cause bit louder but still has to hit low 20hz with eaz.
Smallest sub i had with TV’s 2.1 system was 6.5" - 50w sub, with ± 3 dB (33…85 Hz) specs.
So it played around the ~30hz mark in my room and like ~95db @ 3m. Was very very impressed.
Just to hear some low notes with music and not shake the room upside down.
Still a very yes, i would. Note: it ain’t a party sub. But to get that little bit of low bass taste.
Not the size and loudness as priority but how it performs and how good it integrates to rest of my system.
The spl 100 would be the best option from you’re website link in the price range IMO.
Edit avoid r series subs from Klipsch. 20-30% chance the plate amp will die in the first year. Mine died in less then a month and less then 50 hours use.
Haven’t looked at this one, looks like it was 600€ at some point, gonna check some reviews out and see if I take this one or I wait for the SVS. Heard about the dead drivers… guess I’ll avoid the r series after all!
Np. the spl use different, better amps that are fine. there enclosures are also way better designed and reinforced. they sound much cleaner and better then the R series. and that’s a good sale price for them.
The sub out on the back into the rca on the Klipsch. Set xover and gain where u want them at. The sub out acts as a pre out so has auto volume control built in.
Then I guess I have to control the volume on the dac/preamp and not touch my speaker amplifier gain?
My setup:
Chord Mojo - SMSL SA300 - Speakers
Chord Mojo - SMSL SA300 sub out - Subwoofer
I can tell adjusting the volume on the chord mojo will affect both speakers and sub, but turning up the volume on my SMSL SA300 will not affect sub volume?
Thank you so much sorry I’m a dummy when it comes to this things XD
You can do it that way if you want. But you do not have to because the sa300 has sub out. Use a male rca to double male rca to connect from sub out to rca L/R on back of the spl 100. U can use a strait no split cable as well, you will just have less over all gain that way, typically 2-5db difference.
Use the gain on the sub to dial in how much bass you want with the speakers playing. Set xover to taste, though I would not recommend setting above 60hz for your set up.
When you turn the sa300 volume up and down, the sub will do the same.
Oh I thought the sub out did not change volume with the amp, that’s awesome!! thanks a lot fpr the info I think there’s a klipsch SPL 100 CE coming my way!
) I prefer speaker level inputs cuz I will have the sub under the table and it won’t be easy to access that gain switch.