PSB or Wharfedale

[Beast_of_burden]

Hey Magma

Which are the few subs you believe will do the job well?

This article The Science of Subwoofing | Stereophile.com says that placing a sub in a corner is wrong as it only serves to excite or aggravate room modes.

Wonder perhaps if that could account for the Beast's (BoB's) perception that room treatment was more critical?

What say you Beast? Did you try placing the sub away from the corner of the room or between and behind speakers?

--G0bble

Corner never worked in my experience. I prefer it in between the mains placed slightly forward. I usually end up putting it right in front of the audio rack. I am also prefer the sub to be front firing instead of down-firing. All my experience is with the ML Dynamo which is a sealed design. To be perfectly honest, I was disappointed for several months after I bought it. Since my main speakers were bookshelves, I preferred to set the low pass on the sub fairly high > 80Hz. Even at moderate volume, there was way too much booming. Then I read all about room treatments at RealTraps - Home. Damping quelled the boominess but the integration was not still very good. In comes the DEQ2496, 15 foot cable and measurement mic and a bit of tweaking the EQ - Viola!

Have you wondered why many high end subs have built-in equalization? I believe it is in equal measure to do with better integration with the mains and as well as room equalization. As a matter of fact, the DEQ2496 does automatic room equalization 100HZ and above. Below 100Hz, you have to tweak the EQ by ear.

The bass was transparent and airy even with the sub rocking from side to side by as much as an inch. The sub had no spurious noises even at this level of violence. Good subs need to have very very high build standards to withstand this kind of hammering for extended periods. That is why the good ones cost serious cash.

A sealed sub is a good bet in my book which is why I started this thread. I have never heard a passive radiator, but the general consensus is that it is far better than a port and just as good as a sealed sub even but definitely more efficient. But I am eager to hear from you about the REL because they have a phenomenal reputation and should teach the Dynamo a trick or two.

 

[magma]

As BOB has so correctly explained

two points he has put forward - i am in total agreement - i feel as if i wrote them!

one - sealed subs are the only subs ive ever liked due to its bass response
passive radiaters are a close second

the other point - integration
as i exlained earlier room placement and brand does very little
integration of the subs bass with your fronts is the most difficult

just buying the same brand of fronts and sub doesnt always help
infact to me the warfs 9.1 paired with the SW150 sounds off too!
but then - thats just me

 

[Haren Asher]

If budget is not a concern for a pair of bookshelf speakers , add Paradigm Titan Monitors also to the list. Give it a listen. Pretty sure u will be doing dhinchak...

Kittu Bhai..

Budget is always a concern .. for most part it goes like try, buy,experience, understand, upgrade - a very very long circle.

When i get to the point of budget not being a concern.. i will be doing Dhinchak with or without speaker :yahoo::cheers:

 

[gobble]

Good priming for me to prep myself for some experimentation, once the sub arrives. I have actually decided to experiment with some easy DIY BS speakers using Jordan JXR6-HD with the new sub setup at high X-over later this year. The recommended design for this is a sealed 2ltr box that has to be placed against the wall. The motivation being to free up 12ftX4ft living space in my room currently taken up by the Hifi gear. A wall mounted pair of BS with a sub tucked away next to the AV rack will be just ideal for me. It only remains to be seen if the imaging turns out to be miniature with these 2" fullrange drivers.

--G0bble

 

[jaudere]

Hi,
Here is my experience. I use ventronic book shelves. Rather, they are mini towers. With 2 woofers of 8" and a tweet in MTM fashion, they are almost 2 feet tall, are heavy(may be about 10kg each). Rs 9k for pair. Marantz pm6002 drives them. I have heard many speakers over years. Each day i read a lot about speakers. But each time i put the music on, i feel wow! Do i need to read about better speakers? This pair giving me audio nirvana. It is with these speakers that I started appreciating that good recordings have very low background noise.

I use foobar 55hz eq by about 3dB. It pushes up all freq below 55. This set up is purely for music. No specifications given on speakers. I opened them up but the label on drivers is scratched away, I dont know why. I dont know how down they go but whatever it is its adequate for music.A Wild guess could be say 45hz. I am just amazed when they play songs like "Play me" by Neil Diamond,"Kehna hi kya", "But I do love you" by Leann Rimes. My wife never used to bother what I was playing unless I asked her opinion. Now when I play these, she takes notice spontaneously and sits down to listen

So, 1)use good recordings no matter what system you use

2)If you are open to Indian speakers , do try these ventronics.

One question to all friends & experts in dealings. If some imported speaker MRP Is 15k(and dealer comes down to 12.5k after negotiation), what could be approx custom duty that could have been paid by the importer?

 

[spirovious]

Not so sure and you are making a very big generalisation. Unless you put down what the source component and media that is being played it makes no sense.

Well as said earlier,its better with Denon 1611,with Yamaha wharfedale can sound better.I prefer Tannoy as they sound better than other two in overall frequency response.PSB alpha were good for movies & matched well with Onkyo, Denon & Yamaha.