Mix and Match Subs?

[TheWalkman]

I have a JBL ES-250p sub (12”, 400 W https://www.jbl.com/ES250PBK.html).

I see that JBL is offering the Sub550 (10”, 500W) on sale for $199 as a Black Friday promo. That seems like a great sub and good price.

Would it be wise to mix these different sized subs in the same AV system? (I’m thinking the different size drivers would reinforce the other’s weaknesses.)

Thoughts?

 

[Willem]

Most people (including Earl Geddes) seem to think that mixing is not an issue in a dual mono set up. See here for a good example: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2020/05/musings-measurements-subwoofers-to.html Apparently the best thing to do is to put the bigger sub in a corner, to make it go as low as possible. The benefits of a second sub are greatest in the 40-80 Hz spectrum and that can be achieved with a smaller sub.

 

[audio2design]

I think you will get lots of conflicting opinions. My opinion, and I would says supported by most research, not to mention real world limitations, is that multiple subs, assuming of reasonable quality, is always the best way to go. You have to integrate, but it is still the best way to go. Multiple subs will even out nodes, something that can never be done with 1. DSP can only fix one location and still does not address nodes and can make it worse.

 

[audio2design]

Most people (including Earl Geddes) seem to think that mixing is not an issue in a dual mono set up. See here for a good example: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2020/05/musings-measurements-subwoofers-to.html Apparently the best thing to do is to put the bigger sub in a corner, to make it go as low as possible. The benefits of a second sub are greatest in the 40-80 Hz spectrum and that can be achieved with a smaller sub.

It all depends on how big your room is, and where your listening space/speakers are, but 2x fundamental node frequencies tend to coalesce near the listening position and 40-80 tends to be a prime area for this, but that could go down lower and up higher.