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Subwoofer advice needed for a newbie please help me decide

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Simo

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Looking to update my home theatre room with some new subs
Room size 13.7 feet wide X 18.7 feet long with 9-foot ceilings, 4.2m by 5.7m 2.7m ceiling height, dedicated room.
Current setup 7.3.4 has some old underperforming subs that I would like to update.
I will start with one or two subs (if funds permit) and add more as time goes on.
Equal mix of gaming, movies and music.
Denon 3800 with Rotel 1555 amp
Whatmough P33 front speakers
Whatmough P8 center speaker
Whatmough P12 side speakers
Energy pro 2.5 rears
4 X 8" Def Tec in ceiling speakers

I want some good subs for movies & gaming impact that don't completely suck for music.
Looking at various options such as the following, after trolling though multiple reviews etc etc
SVS SB 3000 - would be great for music but not sure if they will give me the movie impact that I am chasing
Klipsch rp1400 - great for movies not so sure on the music side
Tonewinner D6000 - seems to get good reviews but not sure on this one
I have mainly picked on these 3 as they fall within my budget
 
Ported not being good for music is an old wives tale. I would lean ported for your room and use case (games, movies benefit from bass extension)
The SB-3000 is a good sealed sub, but for movies and gaming impact the RP-1400SW or D6000 probably make more sense.
I would prioritize two matching subs over one better sub if budget allows. Ported subs can still be very good for music if placement, level, crossover, and EQ are done properly.
If starting with one, buy the one you can realistically add a matching second unit to later.
 
I would get 2x SVS 3000 and buy Dirac Art for your 3800.
 
Don't underestimate the SB 3000.
We use a single SB 3000 R in a sightly smaller room than yours and when we watch famous LFE movies it's perfectly capable of not only making the room shake but also rattling stacked plates in the kitchen on the opposite side of our ~1150 sq. feet. apartment. With room gain it's flat down to 12Hz at our MLP accordding to SVS auto EQ.
 
Simo said:
Looking to update my home theatre room with some new subs
Room size 13.7 feet wide X 18.7 feet long with 9-foot ceilings, 4.2m by 5.7m 2.7m ceiling height, dedicated room.
Current setup 7.3.4 has some old underperforming subs that I would like to update.
I will start with one or two subs (if funds permit) and add more as time goes on.
Equal mix of gaming, movies and music.
Denon 3800 with Rotel 1555 amp
Whatmough P33 front speakers
Whatmough P8 center speaker
Whatmough P12 side speakers
Energy pro 2.5 rears
4 X 8" Def Tec in ceiling speakers

I want some good subs for movies & gaming impact that don't completely suck for music.
Looking at various options such as the following, after trolling though multiple reviews etc etc
SVS SB 3000 - would be great for music but not sure if they will give me the movie impact that I am chasing
Klipsch rp1400 - great for movies not so sure on the music side
Tonewinner D6000 - seems to get good reviews but not sure on this one
I have mainly picked on these 3 as they fall within my budget
Click to expand...

My suggestion is to look beyond manufacturer claims and subjective internet reviews and look for and learn about and understand measurements and what they mean. Subwoofers are still the wild west when it comes to specifications with the game being the smallest possible enclosures with the lowest possible advertised extension at the lowest price being the "winner". This conveniently ignores issues like distortion, ringing, group delay, and other time domain issues which can often have more of an audible effect than lowest extension. A great place to start is with a post from a member here that exhaustively measured 10 popular subs https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/i-measured-10-subwoofers.49042/ it is a bit of a task but if you can understand all those measurements it will really help you wade through all the marketing hype that is floating around.

As an owner of a pair of SVS SB3000 and 4 other subs I have come to believe that the concept of very small sealed boxes with big drivers is suboptimal for sound quality (but as mentioned above good for marketing). While pretty much any sub will be preferred to no sub that does not mean that a sub with more SPL and less distortion and better time domain behavior will not sound a lot better. While the SB3000 will make some sounds at 20 Hz the ~35% distortion and 90 ms group delay and suboptimal step response are hardly "hi-fi" and are not really what you want for either music or movies.

There is a cheap and easy solution to all of this which is to use a large enclosure. No one wants big ugly boxes in their living spaces but the reality (and physics) is that large enclosures are the easiest and cheapest way to make high performing subs. I have had good luck with building subs from GSG https://shop.gsgad.com/collections/martysub-roundover-series

If you can't swing the large subs then I would look for subs that measure more like the Adrenal subs in the linked test, they seem to have a better balance of extension, SPL, and time domain behavior than some of the more marketing oriented designs. In any case enjoy.
 
I think a lot depends on how loud you actually listen. If you want movies at reference level there really is no replacement for displacement. Having more cone area and enclosure volume usually means more headroom, less compression, and lower distortion for the same output.
 
rf1938 said:
Not sure about your blanket statement of very small sealed subs with
'large" drivers being "suboptimal" (get it?). What precisely do you mean?
Click to expand...
Your right, I should have said "very small enclosures relative to the size of the drivers". For example a 15" X 15" X 15" enclosure for a 13" driver.
 
thcdru2k said:
I think a lot depends on how loud you actually listen. If you want movies at reference level there really is no replacement for displacement. Having more cone area and enclosure volume usually means more headroom, less compression, and lower distortion for the same output.
Click to expand...
High level is my normal goto
 
Update
I ended up getting a single svs sb3000 to try with the idea of getting a second one later.
The svs sb3000 simply does not have enough punch for me after testing it for a few days, i found i very underwhelming.
:note i set it up the sb3000 using rew to find the best location, it sounded too boomy in a corner.
I have now gone all out and purchased a klipsch RP1600 so fingers crossed it lives upto its reputation.
I am in Australia so unfortinately we dont get a massive amount of options that are reasonably priced.
 
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