I'll venture a reply:
Your budget target, "cheap" is not a concrete notion. A number would have better. It wasn't provided, I'll choose one: $1000
ASR Philosophy is based on measurements. That begs the question: What are the measurements relevant to subwoofer performance? So far ASR through its leader Amir is pondering/working about/toward acquiring a speaker measurement system. We are not there yet. We know however that this is a project.
One can speculate though, I'll surmise that frequency response and THD at various frequencies, are very important. I could also add maximum output at various frequencies.
Bass performance however is a function of many variables. Among those and listed in no particular order:
Size of the room
Material the room is made of
How many openings in the room..
How "leaky" in the bass the room is
Actual bass absorption of the room with furniture, décorations and what make a room .... a room ...
The capabilities of the main speakers in the bass.
etc .. because there is more.
I cannot fathom optimum bass performance without multiple subwoofers, measurements, EQuing and DSP. It simply cannot. One may get lucky: Every week someone wins at least $100, 000 in some lottery, legal or otherwise. Every week. The odds of such remain infinitesimal, nonetheless. The same could be said of getting optimum bass in most people in a room without subwoofers (emphasis on plural), DSP and measuring.
One of the best ressource for bass I know is
Data-bass.com. This website is dedicated to subwoofers and their measurements. I defer to the seriously knowledgeable people on this forum to read on their testing procedures and let us know if their method and protocol are sound (pun intended
) enough to pass the ASR muster or scientific validity. I tend to think that they are very good, that is an opinion based on the little I
think I understand about bass measurements.
Click here for references to their method.
I am in favor of sealed over ported for music reproduction. I would like to open a thread on the matter but along the years, I have subjectively preferred sealed to ported ... although the speakers and subwoofers what I am using at the moment in my HT, are all ported .. Talk about contradicting oneself
Be as it may. I would suggest the following based on my previous budget of $1000 and making sure to go over it, since this
my post
and
your money
...
:
miniDSP 2 x 4 HD ..... $200
REW ( A fwonderful software) .................................$ 0.00 (Would be nice to donate ...)
miniDSP UMik1 or equivalent ......$100
Based on Databass measurements: a pair (2) of
SVS SB12-ND for $800 .
Total ..............................................................................................................................................$ 1100
Those SVS go low very low , being capable in half space to produce 91 dB at 20 Hz .. In a medium room , a pair of those subs may produce higher output at 20 Hz.. How much? , I can't tell but I wouldn't be surprised. The notion of "room gain" is another debate but a sub in a room may activate some room modes that work in favor of producing large output at some frequencies , the corollary is that same room/sub combination may produce close to 0 dB at other locations of said room, this location could be the main listening position ..
I cannot cease stressing that you need to measure. You can then, finish it off with some subjective tweaking. The way low bass work in a room makes equalizing a good solution. Under 200 Hz is what is called as steady state solution , in layman term you can equalize with a good rate of success, keeping in mind that cuts are always preferred to boost when equalizing.
Please Read , re-read several times and research Blumlein post in this thread.
You better be ready to read, learn, despair, ask questions ... It will take time. You will be rewarded.
I intended that post to be short .. I didn't succeed ..
