Selecting the best Home Theater Sub for your budget

[Chrispy]

Why not purchase the same brand of subwoofer as your tower speakers that are already designed to be integrated with your tower speakers for best performance?
That seems to be how most manufacturers work today. Already doing all of the testing so your tower speakers and subwoofer work together as a single unit?
And I agree that everyone wanting a "small" subwoofer enclosure instead of the proper size enclosure is doing themselves a diservice.
If your main goal is sound quality, then form follows function. That doesn't mean an 8 inch subwoofer cannot perform well. In the proper
enclosure it can. What I would recommend is if you can afford 2 subwoofers you will find that is probably the sound you are looking for that a single subwoofer
can rarely perform.
I think if you have a good quality signal, even digital with Toslink fiber optics for that "True" 5.1 surround sound experience you really shouldn't need a DSP in the first place.
I don't modify my sound signature allowing the music to play as best and close to how it was originally recorded. Is a 2 millisecond delay
between speakers even audible? I don't use a DSP and to keep latency or time delay at a minimum I just have my subwoofer spaced evenly, but close to my tower speakers. Preferring to come outward from a corner in my living room instead of placing my speakers flush with a wall. This allows my subwoofer to be placed just behind the tv (which is on a stand and not on the wall) and only 2 feet from each of my tower speakers. And my tower speakers facing the opposite wall at a 45 degree angle - no transient soundwaves to bounce back and cancel soundwaves from the speakers. They don't get reflected back towards your speakers. You should try it if you have the space. It really works (and yes fills the entire house with quality sound. Why I configure my system that way). Peace.

The same brand means little in this regard. They aren't necessarily designed to match except perhaps aesthetically. Small subs are a compromise some need to make. The main advantage of multiple subs is smoothing response thru the room, and a small spl advantage. You by dsp mean you don't use a crossover?

 

[levimax]

After recently integrating several different mains / sub combinations my perspective has changed and these LF SPL per dollar charts are not particulatly useful. I am now more concerned with things like DSP delay, pre-ringing, and group delay. The sub companies are now using DSP to maximise marketing specs at the expense of ease of integration. At this point I would not buy a DSP sub as it is much easier to have a successful integration if you control the DSP. The result of this choice is you will need a much larger sub to get the LF extension you want but physics is physics and the higher performance of well designed large sub can never be duplicated with a over DSP'd too small enclosure sub.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Why not purchase the same brand of subwoofer as your tower speakers that are already designed to be integrated with your tower speakers for best performance?
That seems to be how most manufacturers work today. Already doing all of the testing so your tower speakers and subwoofer work together as a single unit?
And I agree that everyone wanting a "small" subwoofer enclosure instead of the proper size enclosure is doing themselves a diservice.
If your main goal is sound quality, then form follows function. That doesn't mean an 8 inch subwoofer cannot perform well. In the proper
enclosure it can. What I would recommend is if you can afford 2 subwoofers you will find that is probably the sound you are looking for that a single subwoofer
can rarely perform.
I think if you have a good quality signal, even digital with Toslink fiber optics for that "True" 5.1 surround sound experience you really shouldn't need a DSP in the first place.
I don't modify my sound signature allowing the music to play as best and close to how it was originally recorded. Is a 2 millisecond delay
between speakers even audible? I don't use a DSP and to keep latency or time delay at a minimum I just have my subwoofer spaced evenly, but close to my tower speakers. Preferring to come outward from a corner in my living room instead of placing my speakers flush with a wall. This allows my subwoofer to be placed just behind the tv (which is on a stand and not on the wall) and only 2 feet from each of my tower speakers. And my tower speakers facing the opposite wall at a 45 degree angle - no transient soundwaves to bounce back and cancel soundwaves from the speakers. They don't get reflected back towards your speakers. You should try it if you have the space. It really works (and yes fills the entire house with quality sound. Why I configure my system that way). Peace.

You use a single Sub if im understanding your setup...and you claim it "fills the entire house" theirs not a single subwoofer in the world that can accomplish that. You need multiple Subs, preferably 4. One in each corner for the best even bass response. I personally use two but have them spaced using R.E.W software.

 

[EJ3]

Thnx im doing this all from my phone

I have a 32" screen on my custom build desktop. I do not read things from websites elsewhere and I strongly prefer the color one.
I would never even attempt to read the white one on the phone.
It's bad enough on the 32" screen.
But I have had several eye surgeries & from the age of 10-12 wore glasses & 12-66 wore contact lenses, 66-now don't use either (& use a 4SE iPhone).
So, different for different folks, I presume.

 

[Cassette]

How does the PB17 compares to the other on this list?

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Not really. I have SVS subs and they have some built in filters so you can adjust the roll off but they have GD which increases rapidly below 100 Hz. My mains speakers have virtually no GD all the way to 20 Hz. If I "time align" at say an 80 Hz crossover point the speakers are out of phase enough at 30 Hz to cause noticeable cancellation effects. On the other had is you have mains and subs with similar GD curves this is not an issue. It is "possible" to use all-pass filters to match the group delay between the mains and the subs but it is difficult and time consuming and fraught with problems. Much better to look for subs that are as similar as possible (GD curve, ported or not,) to your mains.... I wish I had known about this before I bought my subs.

Are group delay specs published and accurate? Interesting. I never could integrate.

 

[levimax]

Are group delay specs published and accurate? Interesting. I never could integrate.

This link show a test of 10 subs, 4 are SVS and all have high group delay. Also look at the Step response, so in addition to the 6 ms DSP delay the filters make the Step hard to understand so how to time align the subs? I never figured it out and 6 different methods / software solutions gave 6 different results. DIRAC could not figure it out either and did crazy things with the timings. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/i-measured-10-subwoofers.49042/

 

[Chrispy]

This link show a test of 10 subs, 4 are SVS and all have high group delay. Also look at the Step response, so in addition to the 6 ms DSP delay the filters make the Step hard to understand so how toCu time align the subs? I never figured it out and 6 different methods / software solutions gave 6 different results. DIRAC could not figure it out either and did crazy things with the timings. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/i-measured-10-subwoofers.49042/

Curious, only single sub attempts?

 

[levimax]

Curious, only single sub attempts?

I was trying to integrate 4 subs, 2 DIY sealed and 2 SVS 3000, both REW manual and DIRAC DLBC. I got them to play but never thought it sounded right.