Budget active subwoofer for Yamaha YHT-196 system.

[curious]

Friends,

I've Yamaha YHT-196 home theater system which comes with HTR-2064 AV receiver and a passive subwoofer. I use it to listen to mp3 hindi (mostly 70's and 80's) songs, FM stations and HD channels (Star Movies, Movies Now etc) on airtel DTH. The room size is 16ft X 16 ft.

I'm overall satisfied with the system. Only thing is I think that the bass is not as deep, strong and tight as it should be. May be because of the passive sub? I'm thinking of buying an active subwoofer.

Please suggest me some budget active subwoofers that can be used with this system. Also please suggest me ways to improve bass performance of the system. Please don't ask me to replace all speakers hyeah:

 

[baijuxavior]

What is your budget? Sonodyne Roar series has got good reviews in this forum. There is Polk PSW110 also priced around 12K I think.

 

[curious]

My budget is 7-8K.

 

[baijuxavior]

7-8K subs won't be much better than the stock yamaha sub. The Astonia subwoofer for 12.5K will be the best for you. It has got rave reviews and praises.

 

[curious]

Thanks again friend. I think, I'll have to stretch my budget more.

Friends, I'm not an expert in this field. So please bear with me if my questions sound naive. Will having a good sub improve listening experience to that extent? Should I be worried about subwoofer's sound characteristic matching with the rest of the speakers? What can I do with the passive subwoofer that came with YHT-196? Can I have it connected to AVR as well (the AVR has a separate Subwoofer pre-out port for active sub as well) making it two subwoofer system? What effect will this have on the overall performance of the system? Can I make my passive subwoofer active with plate amplifier? If yes, would you advise it and how would it be costwise?

 

[Santy]

A good sub will definitely enhance the movie experience. Its a very important component of HT. However I cannot say how much difference you can expect since I have not heard the Astonia sub. But I guess the bass will be deeper and heavier than the passive sub, by a reasonable extent.

A sub's effect is usually not heard, its felt. So there is no concern of timbre matching with other speakers. You can have both the sub used simultaneously (hopefully if they work) but the collective impact may not be considerably more than the active sub only playing. It all depends on placement in such a situation.

And No, I dont think its worth to make your passive sub active. The cost of this HTIB is kept low by choosing low cost components. If you buy an amp for DIY, it would demand a better quality driver than this one.

 

[curious]

Thanks Santy, you made it a bit simpler for me. So the only option I've is to buy an active sub. Any suggestions from you on which active subs I can look at?

 

[prosenjit]

do your yamaha avr has a sub pre out.......check it.otherwise how you will use your new active sub..........be careful and check otherwise the money will be lost........

 

[Santy]

do your yamaha avr has a sub pre out.......check it.otherwise how you will use your new active sub..........be careful and check otherwise the money will be lost........

It does have sub preout. The AVR model is HTR 2064
My only doubt was if the speaker out of sub would work when sub preout connection is established.

@ curious
I think for the budget you have in your mind, baiju has already given one of the the best option.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

save some more to buy a good sub than buying an low end sub! Usually ends up in an upgrade spending more money in time

getting good bass is not easy...since it require power...and good power amps cost a fair bit of money. With low budget for ur room size, you should look for a ported sub, 300W amp at least. Larger the driver, more efficient it is and easier to driver with less power.

One sub will give u uneven bass in room. Unless u sit in the same position, you will need 2 subs to even out bass.

 

[curious]

save some more to buy a good sub than buying an low end sub! Usually ends up in an upgrade spending more money in time

getting good bass is not easy...since it require power...and good power amps cost a fair bit of money. With low budget for ur room size, you should look for a ported sub, 300W amp at least. Larger the driver, more efficient it is and easier to driver with less power.

One sub will give u uneven bass in room. Unless u sit in the same position, you will need 2 subs to even out bass.

Thanks buddy.

Looks like, I'm getting into an expensive hobby. I remember how I thought, I would be happy just to have a decent home theater system. Now that I have it for few months, I'm thinking about spending more to get an active sub. I'm sure, once I've the sub thing sorted out, I'll start thinking about other speakers as well.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

DIY will be much much cheaper. Building your own subs is kinda easy. And it can be really good

 

[PhaniKumar]

Hi friends,

I bought this Yamaha yht 296 htib few months back. Iam also planning to upgrade my front speakers as the ones which came with the system are crap. But in the mean time i got a power fluctuation at my home and my sub woofer got burnt...
I took it to the dealer and he forwarded it to the service centre. I Was told that the entire board is burnt and need to be replaced. My dealer said it may cost you 8 to 10k for board replacement. Iam in a dileamma now... should i get it repaired for 10k or go for a new one. I actually saved some money for new speakers (planned for ns 8390 tower speakers from yamaha). But now i need to spend the same money for sub woofer...

Please advice friends on what would be a cost effective decision....

 

[Audio_Freek]

Hi friends,

I bought this Yamaha yht 296 htib few months back. Iam also planning to upgrade my front speakers as the ones which came with the system are crap. But in the mean time i got a power fluctuation at my home and my sub woofer got burnt...
I took it to the dealer and he forwarded it to the service centre. I Was told that the entire board is burnt and need to be replaced. My dealer said it may cost you 8 to 10k for board replacement. Iam in a dileamma now... should i get it repaired for 10k or go for a new one. I actually saved some money for new speakers (planned for ns 8390 tower speakers from yamaha). But now i need to spend the same money for sub woofer...

Please advice friends on what would be a cost effective decision....

PhaniKumar,

As you have said your systems Fronts are not effective, its really not a optimal solution to purchase a new Sub with your budget.Your sub needs to match with the Fronts and as you going with entry level sub the whole system might not be impressive..and as days moves on you would be put in a situation to change both sub and front.

I would advice you to Upgrade your fronts with Yamaha 8390 for now and plane for good Sub later when your budget permits, The response of NS8390 is pretty well to drive love freq and am sure you would be happy with its performance after purchase.


View on audio and upgrade is not going to end, we would keep on looking for change\upgrade, hence dont be in hurry in setting a normal full set-up instead move slowly from Stereo to higher levels with quality equipmenthyeah:.

 

[baijuxavior]

Hi friends,

I bought this Yamaha yht 296 htib few months back. Iam also planning to upgrade my front speakers as the ones which came with the system are crap. But in the mean time i got a power fluctuation at my home and my sub woofer got burnt...
I took it to the dealer and he forwarded it to the service centre. I Was told that the entire board is burnt and need to be replaced. My dealer said it may cost you 8 to 10k for board replacement. Iam in a dileamma now... should i get it repaired for 10k or go for a new one. I actually saved some money for new speakers (planned for ns 8390 tower speakers from yamaha). But now i need to spend the same money for sub woofer...

Please advice friends on what would be a cost effective decision....

I suggest you to get an astonia subwoofer for 12.5K instead of servicing the yamaha sub for 10K. It is a very good sub as per reviews. To get an idea, the sub weighs 24KGs.

 

[PhaniKumar]

Thank you very much for the response and i respect your suggestions.

OK, I will drop the decision of buying the Sub temporarily. But how much do i need to spend to get a good sub. As adviced by baiju is astonia a good sub? I have zero knowledge on this. Or can i get the Yamaha sub repaired somewhere to use it temporarily? Please give me a cost effective suggestion.

And also please tell me if Yamaha NS 8390 is a good option at 16 K price (after discount as quoted by dealer in Hyd) or are there any other better options available in the market. Please suggest something within a budget of max 20 k so that i use it atleast for two years from now. Coz I am upgrading my htib within just 8 months of my purchase. I dont want to repeat the same again. Dealer suggested Yamaha ns 8390 to me. I dont know if it the best one or if there are some other models available within that price range. Max i can spend 20 k.

Please suggest friends and please dont confuse me giving a lot of options which are highly technical in nature and which i dont understand at all....
(out of my experience reading other posts). My major use would be 50;50 movies and music. For movies even the current system is good but for music the speakers are very bad where i hear thurrrrr... sound from them. So decided to upgrade. Considering all these please suggest some good speakers if not the best.

Thanks one and all.....

 

[curious]

@PhaniKumar, if I've read your post correctly, you've bought this system 8 months back. If yes, isn't your system still within warranty? Yamaha should repair it free of cost.

 

[PhaniKumar]

yes it is within warranty... but my dealer says power burnt cases are not covered under warranty...

 

[prosenjit]

you were not using a surge prtector!!!!!!
anyway directly talk to yamaha people....dealer is lying i think as i know many case wher tvs baoard was burnt by power surge durning lightning and comapnies replaced them if they were within waranty

 

[curious]

Yes, atleast TV companies replace boards damaged due to power surge within warranty. As prosenjit commented, talk to Yamaha people directly. You don't have to tell them that your sub damaged due to power surge. Let them reach to that conclusion. And even if they've reached to that conculsion, you can always argue on the basis that other appliances handled the surge well and the sub could not.