Disappointing Subwoofer experience

[techboy]

Hi

I have a AE5 + Asus Xonar DX.

Some time back I paired them with a Polk PSW110 (13k price).

I tried various sub woofer settings and volumes and literally couldn't feel the difference between having the sub woofer on or off.

At most the difference was a slight boom, at high volumes, from the sub woofer. There was practically no sound, no thump, the bass at best probably got a little worse (due to the boom which was at deafening frequencies) or was similar.

In short, having the sub woofer didn't enhance my experience in any possible way because I couldn't even 1% more thump/bass out of my setup. Disappointed, I sold the sub woofer for 8k and haven't heard any complaints from the person who bought it.

Is this normal or what was wrong?

 

[metalmickey]

your room size also matters n placement of the sub @ the sweet spot matters a lot too.....also use an good connectng cable!......if the placemnt is in a corner its obvious it booms!!!!!!!was goin thru the same when i shifted my wharf sub frm my bed room to the big hall!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[techboy]

But will the sound be close to negligible (inaudible) because of the placement? There was no sound at all coming from the sub woofer.

And it wasn't in a corner, but besides a wall from one side.

The room is 12x12.

 

[metalmickey]

sumtimes....yeah...when i moved my sub frm 1 to another room...it had a drastic diff...in my bedroom it sounded great,awesome thump etc...even with the crossover n volume not to the max but when i shiftd even at full volume it sounds abt OK!....try fiddlin with the settings on the soundcard,etc!......

 

[jitubisht]

could it be a faulty piece?

 

[techboy]

When I sold it to a guy, he never complained. So I doubt that the piece was faulty.

and I am not saying that it was okayish, there was no sound at all. The room can't make enough of a difference for there to be absolutely 0 sound.

 

[venkatcr]

I think there was no data going to the sub. How did you connect the sub to the system? In general, you connect all the output from the system to the sub, and then connect the L&R to the sub. That is done when the system does not output 2.1. If it does you connect the sub to the .1, and the L&R to the 2.0.

Cheers

 

[vivek.saikia]

I had the same experience with my sub. In my earlier flat I had kept my system in my bedroom of 9x10 sq ft and my Wharfy's BS were punching out enough bass and the sub when connected churned out some boomy noise. So I thought of selling the sub as it was lying redundant. But recently I shifted to a new flat with a biiig hall of 24x12 sq ft. When I set up my system in the hall connecting only the Wharfy BS, the bass was not adequate and I thought of connecting the subwoofer. This time I was really amazed at what it can do. I set the crossover freq to 180Hz and now it really gels well with the sound from the BS.
The end observation is that the subwoofer really needs some area to breath and in an optimum environment it can really give some nice results. Try out with different subwoofer placements. Try out the following:

Keep the subwoofer at your listening spot or sweet spot and play your music with the sub and speakers connected.
Now move around the room and search for a spot (say X) where the bass sounds just the perfect to you.
If it is feasible then place the sub at this spot X. Now sit at the sweet spot and hear if you like the bass, if not, then carry on the above steps till you get the best bass.
Hope it helps.
Cheers!
Now place the sub

 

[techboy]

I went to the ProFX showroom for auditioning and tried 3 sub woofers, all PSW110 and up.

All were boomy crap like mine.

The owner said that my requirement could only be met with 50k+ sub woofers.

And I had actually tried the sub woofers the way they displayed. They were all boomy, though audible.

So I guess that mine was almost on the same lines.

 

[doors666]

thats a crappy sub.. probably because of that...
maybe there was a setup problem, but we'll never know as you have already sold it.

anyway, since you werent able to get much out of the sub, you should be happy that you got rid of it.

if you want non boomy subs, check out the following

epos els - it was discontinued some time ago, see if you can find it. very good sub, priced around 32k, you should get a good discount on this one.

B&W 610 - aroun 50k. slightly overpriced, but awesome sub.

wharfdale has a couple of subs below 50k, sw150 (around 18k?) and 250. check these out.

not many good options for subs below 50k. check out if svs or hsu have a model below this price.

 

[corElement]

polk audio subwoofers are trash, just like jamo subwoofers, real subs are svs velodyne hsu sunfire. I regret buying a dsw500 but that was the best in my budget.

 

[doors666]

polk audio subwoofers are trash, just like jamo subwoofers, real subs are svs velodyne hsu sunfire. I regret buying a dsw500 but that was the best in my budget.

+1 to that.
when i went auditioning for subs, was astonished to hear these two brands of subs, so pathetic.
yeah, in the budget, dsw500 is probably the best, atleast it gives some boom for the movies, useless for music though.

 

[corElement]

I quite disliked polks speakers aswell, polk towers compared to my jamo e870's... the polks sounded like sony's in comparison.

 

[eloorarun]

Hi I think The polk PSW 110 is an entry level sub with cont: Power of mere 100 W ..using a PWM plate amp..am sure it not gonna satisfy u..i recommend Polk PRO 500 or 600..n my pick is PRO600!! a mighty sub indeed..good for most genre of music .movies ..gives u both the slam and shake..stil its very tight!! ( Xover matters!!)in my exp: the Subway clash scene in DieHard 4 was so cool with this...VFM-******

 

[eloorarun]

I quite disliked polks speakers aswell, polk towers compared to my jamo e870's... the polks sounded like sony's in comparison.

Polk and jamo stands in two extremes..n that comparison lines will never cross...!!that doesnt means polk is bad or jamo is good...simply means it doesnt suits ur taste...