Budget-Friendly Amp and Calibration Options for Dayton RSS390HF-4 Subwoofer

[Nightyard]

Hey everyone,

I've built a sealed cabinet for a Dayton Audio RSS390HF-4, following the manufacturer’s recommended volume. This is for my father-in-law, who isn’t big on AV gear, so I’m looking for the most budget-friendly way to properly power the sub and get it reasonably calibrated. His receiver is an older Marantz with Audyssey XT.

Will Audyssey XT be sufficient for calibration, or would I be better off getting an amp with DSP to apply filters based on REW measurements? Ideally, I’d like to keep the cost as low as possible—thinking up to £300 for the amp and DSP (if necessary), but cheaper is always better. If an NX3000 with Audyssey XT handling calibration will do the job well, that’d be great. But if that setup won’t cut it, I’d rather find the best value option to maximise the sub’s performance on a tight budget.

Thanks in advance for any help given

 

[middlemarch]

I would look on the used market for a Crown amp, such as an XLS 1002 or 1502 (or equivalent) and run that in bridged mode. The Behringer would also work, I suspect the Crown would be more reliable, hence my choice.

Audyssey XT would work, but I'd recommend using Obsessive Compulsive Audiophile's A1 Evo Maestro and a copy of REW to do the calibration, you can get much better results than XT by itself. I'm not aware of an amp in that price range that would give you better EQ ability.