Best musical sub

[tvitarelli]

I want to build a subwoofer that is oriented toward musical listening but also capable of HT applications. My main concern is that it be very tight sounding but also be able to extend in to well in to Low freqiency. I think I would like a 12-15in driver and am willing to spend up to $1000 including the amp and I will build the box myself.

[mvagusta]

im using a fane 18" colossus, with "quoted" 99 db - dunno if thats true, havent measured it myself yet, but im only givin it 200 watts rms (measured) and any earthquakes, explosions, etc in movies vibrate everything, the whole couch vibrates.

i was surprised to find that its not "sloshy" like alot of 15" i have heard, sounds more like a few average 10"'s or a couple of nice 12"'s, so music is nice i reckon - tight bass plays tight, deep bass plays deep.

the retail is about $550-600 australian just for the driver, i got mine second hand for $250 a few years back, still love it.

[paulspencer]

There are so many drivers to choose from, it's hard to know where to start. May I suggest you do some initial searching and hunting around first, then narrow your selection before discussing. I think that way you might get more responses.

try this as a starting point

First impression:

sounds like what you want is a good 15" sub in a sealed box with plenty of excursion. On a budget like that you might look at the Adire Tumult, which is a very linear driver with high output.

I know a guy who has the Tumult who also has a Focal 15" sub with much less excursion and output, his comment: "it's very musical."

[mvagusta]

people should recommend what they like the sound & feel of!!!

[paulspencer]

Originally posted by mvagusta
people should recommend what they like the sound & feel of!!!

and also consider the priorities and goals of the other person

[cmckasty]

I have a friend who went the infinite Baffle route. Its cost will fit your budjet (if you do not have a cathedral sized room) And I believe it fits exactly with your stated goals.
If you are unfamiliar with IB systems check out this forum and be sure to read the FAQ's

Good Luck

http://f20.parsimony.net/forum36475/index.htm

[Karoliina]

Originally posted by mvagusta
im using a fane 18" colossus, with "quoted" 99 db - dunno if thats true, havent measured it myself yet, but im only givin it 200 watts rms (measured) and any earthquakes, explosions, etc in movies vibrate everything, the whole couch vibrates.

I have been using a Fane Colossus 18 XB based sub for few years.
I don't consider it very musical because it produces way too much distortion.
It is very audible and my new Adire Tumult is quite free of that.
If you go and try once for example Velodyne HGS-18, you'll notice
that its sound is very clean, there is no distortion, no noises from
the driver surrounds etc. Just clean deep bass. Adire Tumult gives the
same impression. But the Fane does not. It has distortion (quite a lot of
it and it appears to be increasing as the driver gets older) and the
cone surrounds are making noises as well - that are audible even with
high output levels. With high I mean high since I feed the driver with
a amplifier that can give up to 1.2 kW continuous power to 8 ohms.
Actually the Fane needs every single bit as it has a huge impedance peak
around its critical usage area that draws a lot of power from the amplifier
and a lesser capable amplifier will end up with distortion (I originally
thought that the driver would be hitting bottom with the NAD 216 amp but
it wasn't, actually it was the amp that was producing the horrible
cracle sound when it was overdriven (soft-clipping was off)). Anyway,
I am in a process of doing a new sub and it is based on Adire Audio
Tumult - which appears to be a driver that does clean bass without
distortion and with a significant output and very short group delay
(the Fane design I did has a horrible peak in group delay in the
intended usage range whereas in the case of 16 Hz vented
Tumult, the group delay
at 20 Hz is ok, 25 Hz good and 30 Hz very good).

Anyway, in the case someone would end up using Fane, I would like
to recommend not trying to reach 20 Hz as it causes the trouble
described above. The Fane is not suitable driver for sub sub bass
and it should be used for frequency range above 35 Hz only and it
could be recommended to actively filter the subsonic frequencies
out in order to avoid problems and use a different driver for the
frequencies below 35 Hz - such as the Adire Tumult.

Br,
Karoliina

[tvitarelli]

Karoliina,
What amp will you be using with your Tumult? I think the tumult looks like an awesome sub and one of my friends highly recommends it but I was a bit concerned about it's musical abilities. Another sub that looks pretty good is the Stryke AV12 or 15. The tumult uses a smaller sealed enclosure than the AV15 and size is always a bit of a concern. I can definately fit a 3cf box for the Tumult in my room but I don't really want to go much bigger.

[robertwb70]

I second the recomendation for an IB sub

4 x 15's in a manifold with about 600 watts should do fine

[tvitarelli]

Unfortunately IB is not an option do to my living arrangements. I will keep that in mind for when I buy a house in the future.
Thanks