Please help me choose a big subwoofer in the UK

[VvvvvV]

I would love a powered subwoofer that can be heard from the house across the road so that I can really pump that the bass around my bones sometimes. something with crossover and volume.

I have a pair of baby Genelec 5" cone monitors that go to about a 100 Hz , and I tried to buy a super posh 600usd rrp rel subwoofer and it was crap boomy and thin , much less natural sounding than a really cheap celestion that I have already.

The genelec could do with some help up to 120, and I want the decent powerful monitoring of bass I'm completely completely lost, thinking perhaps of listening to the new dual cone behringer monitors sub from this year that sounds all right...

What am I going to do! What do you use! Where should I ask?

The best bass I had so far was from some transmission line floorstanding speakers, they really had that sitting on the bonnet of a car effect.. I want to be sat on the bonnet of a freight truck!

Please help

[richie00boy]

This is diyAudio - we build our own What is your budget?

[pinkmouse]

Shinobiwan is selling an AV15, that might be a good start. Tenson was also selling some Tangband sub drivers. Have a look in trading post.

[richie00boy]

Although I will comment that with just 5 inch main speakers, any monster sub will sound a bit out of proportion to the rest of the sound.

[VvvvvV]

I wanted to build my own originally, and I have 2x kef b200 that were planned to be part of a transmission line system, but I injured my hand with RSI and I have so much work that really I am definitely going to buy something already cut or assembled .

My budget is up to about 380GBP 600USD and the main thing is to have on board amplifier, easily modifiable/ adjustable crossover, volume control.

Not too bothered about perfect sine sounds, just something very clear and dirty and pretty linear...

It would be really nice to be able to vibrate the whole room very loud without sub base that goes two blocks away... so like I guess I like sawtooth type bass.


If I'm really good at finding about and choosing speakers, but my experience with the rel has really made me so confused..

I would love some help

[VvvvvV]

I know what you mean about the 5", although they are from the second-best well-known monitor maker in the world, and they can be coupled well with some basses. in the present system I have sounds amazing although you might find an 8" somewhere in there would be nice.

First I will get a nice sub and then hopefully some new monitors.

[richie00boy]

Originally posted by VvvvvV
Not too bothered about perfect sine sounds, just something very clear and dirty and pretty linear...

Bit confusing when you use so many contradictions in one sentence.

Originally posted by VvvvvV
It would be really nice to be able to vibrate the whole room very loud without sub base that goes two blocks away... so like I guess I like sawtooth type bass.

So what you want is not really a sub but a speaker capable of big bass. Seems to me like you want a boom box not a quality sub, which is probably why you went wrong with REL. Don't know what to suggest really other than a car sub-woofer in a big ported box, driven by a cheap pro amp.

[VvvvvV]

No offence Richie but you're just making me look stupid saying I want a boom box from a car

Perhaps I'm not being clear you can tell me that, but I'm not looking for a bass box instead of a subwoofer.

I said I want something that can vibrate the room that can easily be heard from in the house across the road but not from the next block . In that sense I don't want it to have a massive sub but still a very powerful one.

I know what I said about clarity isnt obvious, what I mean as I want something with a maximum detail and speed, although the detail can be distorted as long as it is present - know what I mean.

Seriously the rel I got had massive reviews and were very expensive but they just sounded so **** and unmusical- I later found out I'd chose the homes cinema range instead of the audiophile seriously I was amazed how bad they were , they were clearly only intended to accompany floorstanding speakers. and even then would only just add something much lower end than people here are used to listening to.

The reason I'm probably fussy is that the transmission lines I had before were incredible.

[richie00boy]

Sorry I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but from what you are saying my suggestion seems to me to be logically what you are after.

If you want something that you can vibrate the room with but not hear down the road you can't go too low in frequency. You want it powerful. Both of those requirements are fulfilled by my suggestion. I'm not meaning go out an buy a Maplin special £99 sub, rather something more capable. Don't take offence that you think you have high end tastes so simply can't have a (cheap) car sub in your house, each to their own taste but you don't seem to share most other high enders taste in tonal balance

But saying you want maximum detail although the detail can be distorted as long as it's present is simply an oxmoron that makes me believe even more strongly that you need a boom box. This is reinforced by you saying you found the REL only gave you very low end boost.

Transmission lines can have very uneven response, so it's likely the ones you tried were peaky in the 80Hz range. Again, all the more evidence backing my advice.

If you have a low-pass filter on your source or pre-amp or whatever, you can build a 80-100 litre vented box with a high quality driver and a cheap pro amp, all within your budget. That will mean you don't have to do any electronics. If you don't have a low-pass filter you will need to construct one, it's fairly easy.

[tktran303]

May I recommend building an subwoofer with a plate amplifier that has a built in high pass filter?

This will remove the bass and midbass to your monitors and send it to the subwoofer, and also help in integrating the subwoofer and monitor SPL levels.

I have the Parts Express 240W RMS subwoofer amplifier, model number 300-794, http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...TOKEN=76164748 and it has a built in 120Hz 2nd order (12dB/octave) high pass filter in the line outputs (undocumented feature).

To connect it up, just feed the source/main ouput from your mixing desk to the plate amplifier's line input, then connect it's line outs to your speakers amplifiers (or in this case your Genelecs, if they are active)

For the subwoofer perhaps you could try the Peerless XXLS models. http://www.tymphany.com/datasheet/su...=pl&ty=sw&li=6 They come in different user-friendly models designed for sealed, vented or passive radiator speaker boxes.