Subs are an unknown territory to me, but I do wonder what one would bring to orchestral music. I have B&W 805 D3 standmounts, not really looking for bigger floorstanders.
Smallish room, so…are there good, small subs?
( I like the look of the N-Sub, but it looks huge!)
Just wondering, no imminent plans.
Plus they are as rare as rocking horse …. I’ve tried all sorts of cunning ways of hunting down a good example, no luck thus far, unfortunately…
Yes, I’ve seen two (or was it one!) on Ebay, in the last two years. Beautiful-looking. But…
Sigh.
Have a look at BK Electronics.
They design & make their own range & also for other brands.
Thanks Mike. I’ll go look…
KEF KC62
Crazy tiny. 11Hz. Not cheap though.
Wow, sizewise that’s near perfect. £££ ouch!
I like the look of the Gemini 2 from BK as well. Lot more walletable.
I must do some more reading on Subs and how to utilise them. Interesting area.
I’ve only ever heard a sub on a TV - once.
REL T5. If too small then T7. They differ a little bit in size and price but not so much in performance
They crop much more often than that - there was one only a week or two ago!
I think you need to define your meaning of small - most subs are small compared to floorstanders reaching down to the bottom octave or two, due to their limited range removing some of the constraints on wider range speakers. However I think very small is unlikely for quality music reproduction underpinning decent speakers covering from mid bass upwards (as opposed to rumblers for movie use, or mid-bass fill-in for computer satellite speakers, for which the sound quality is less of a consideration).
Yes they do/have but finding one in ‘mint’ condition, and in the right livery, has been far more testing, well at least for myself that is anyhow.
Be interesting to see what steviebee decides to do from here on…
So, you are after a good, but small sub?
Reading all the blurb so far I was a bit confused as to what you wanted?
Right, I have had 2 subs in 25 years. Both REL. First was a Strata 3. The electronics didn’t inspire. In the end I sold it, thinking I’d never need a sub again.
Discussed my thoughts of REL with my dealer who said they had moved on and come good again. And that their reliability was top notch. Unlike KEF; whose subs he would not touch again.
Anyway, I borrowed a T5/x and it didn’t go back. Took a week of tweaking and running it out of phase with my pmc 20.26s to sound good. Got a good price too.
Missed that N Sub! Not that I would/could have bought it: too big for one thing.
Really, I’m only starting some, er, ‘research’ into Subs…small is as small as they may come but with high quality sound ( that Kef seems perfect in terms of size - it would have to be small enough to get domestic approval, or at least grudging permission).
Siting a Sub is also going to be really decisive, domestically: the more unobtrusive, the better.
I can imagine (having only recently heard a fairly cheap sub with a TV) that when the orchestra or a deep bass kicks in, a sub would make a pretty good stab at it, but not hangover or spoil the rest of the score…but, still very early days in my learning about them.
@Thegreatroberto
“Reading all the blurb so far I was a bit confused as to what you wanted?”
Sorry for the ‘blurb’!
Seeking info on a subject I know very little about, for possible further use if I go down the sub path… that’s it really. Sorry if that got obscured with my gubbins…
Haha. You are already on the road to buying one.
REL make decent subs. Not sure they make much else.
The T5/x is as small as they come. And has an option to feed the signal remotely, so no trailing wire. Just plug it into a wall socket. Paid just a bit over £500 for my new one.
They do take a bit of fine tuning. But we’ll worth it.
I have a REL sub (can’t remember what model, Stampede maybe? One of the smaller they make and I like that it can connect to my AV receive via the Lowline RCA connection to work with movies and then it can also connect from the Speaker terminals via Hiline connection and the level and crossover points can be set separately.
I hear SVS makes good subs but haven’t heard them.
As to the OPs question, what do they add to the music, I can say that they make it all more tuneful and fuller. Yes they do add bass and slam but that is only part of the story. A properly setup sub will improve your mids as well and make everything snap into place.
Why not a sub which matches your b&w’s? B&W makes proper subs too, eg the PV1D which is very good and can be tuned.
@Thegreatroberto
Lol…not yet! If a big box turned up, my wife would (rightly) give me a doghouse to live in…or demand pound for pound removal of some records. Which I have to do, anyway.
@flame_rose
That’s interesting - I’d assumed a sub was there ‘just’ to provide the depth and presence lower down.
@Ardbeg10y
Thanks - B&W’s own subs I’d not even thought about. More food for thought…
Never tried one in the house but car subs are small. You will just have to power it.
I use a Velodyne DD10+ which is staggeringly good and very fast and will go down to about 20hz… amazing. The SVS subs are good get a non ported sub they are fast and tuneful. Kef do a good small one just released… The Velodyne integrates in with its own eq its amazing…and the bass just appears to come from stereo speakers…fab
+1 for Velodyne! I have a DD12 which marries beautifully with my n-Sats and is super easy to set up - even has a remote control. Frequency sweeps at the listening position show +/- 3db to 20 hz.
I also agree it’s not just the bass - among other good things it gives a dramatically better sense of the space of the recording environment.
