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Subwoofer suggestions strictly for challenging pipe organ music.

SVS subs tend to have good bang for buck in terms of extension. $1500 per sub will also get you some KEF KC62s which have really good extension but not much output for the money. I have a pair in my living room despite this, they don't bother my wife very much and do add quite a bit of bass to the LS60s. Bonus is you can use them with a wireless connector.

If I was just going for bang-for-buck I'd start with SVS and Hsu though.

OP - I would inquire as to your insistence on NOT techno, JUST classical. If a sub can do one genre competently, it (mostly) follows it can do the other. (Techno tends not to have much below 40hz, anecdotally)... but I assume you mean to say your priority is extension over SPL.
Thanks for the suggestion of the KEF KC62. If you haven't mentioned it I wouldn't have learned about it's big brother the KC92. That sub looks amazing and 2 of those is what I think I will go with. It is $1000 more than I want to spend for 2 subs but wow does this sub look nice.
 
For others that haven't already made up their minds on this subject... :rolleyes:

Here is a spectral plot from a Virgil Fox CD, the final fugue from Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564, showing the 32' fundamental at 16 Hz, highlighted in red:

Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 - Virgil Fox (Fugue only).JPG


This is pretty typical of full pipe organ spectra. Even in this recording, it can be seen that there is a pretty sharp attenuating filter below ~22 Hz of about 24-36 dB/octave. [What this does to the overall phase response of the recording isn't good, unless linear phase filtering was used--which wasn't really available until the latest millennia.] This CD was dated 1990.

I recommend only horn-loaded subs if you're looking for..."...sub(s) that can go extremely low, but...also really refined for that kind of music." You get 16-20 dB more gain out of a (properly) horn-loaded subwoofer over using the same drivers in direct radiating mode. That's ~100:1 difference in output acoustic power. The savings in electrical power required are in the same ratio--something that should give the reader pause.

Direct radiating woofers also experience much higher levels of both modulation and harmonic distortion at those frequencies because of the 5-10x higher travel limits that are required to produce the same audible levels of 16 Hz energy that the horn-loaded sub produces. That's a qualitative advantage for horn loading, and why I strongly recommend them over direct radiating--even if you are using direct radiating loudspeakers to cross over to.

Chris
 
Thanks for the suggestion of the KEF KC62. If you haven't mentioned it I wouldn't have learned about it's big brother the KC92. That sub looks amazing and 2 of those is what I think I will go with. It is $1000 more than I want to spend for 2 subs but wow does this sub look nice.
Nice! The KC92 is a good sub but maybe not the ultimate in bang-for-buck or size. But I think it's a very quality unit and definitely a better value for SPL/$ than the KC62.

I would say that What Hi-Fi is very subjective in their reviews, but what you really want to know (like any speaker) is the frequency response and max. SPL for any given sub. there are standardized tests that are run on subs to determine this. The KC92 IIRC comes out pretty competent in those so you don't need to worry that it's a loser or waste of money, but you can probably stretch your dollar a little further if you want to.

As others have said, getting some PEQ into the system (via MiniDSP or otherwise) will be essential to enjoying pipe organ music with good fidelity.

The reason is that room modes can swallow up or double the volume of certain notes. This is especially rough with pipe organ where the low notes don't always have many harmonics, so the psychoacoustic loudness is pretty close to the actual volume. Without EQ each note can vary in apparent volume in a very annoying way, even with 2 good subs in the room.
 
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Thanks for the suggestion of the KEF KC62. If you haven't mentioned it I wouldn't have learned about it's big brother the KC92. That sub looks amazing and 2 of those is what I think I will go with. It is $1000 more than I want to spend for 2 subs but wow does this sub look nice.
These subs can’t really do 11Hz you can find proper measurements if you search this forum but at 11Hz they aren’t putting out any meaningful sound pressure level.

They look like they can do meaningful level at 20Hz but not for very long before some kind of protection kicks in and reduces the level.

Getting meaningful level at 16Hz is expensive and I’m afraid there is no replacement for displacement.

You want to look at the ‘sweetchaos’ subwoofer comparison see

 
Thanks for all your advice. I think I am going with two KEF KC92. It's relatively small, goes down to 11hz, and credible reviewers said it did a fantastic job with pipe organ, and that the base was very tight and not lingering.
So, this is dual 9” (equivalent of a 12 inch) in a sealed box (not ported). The Kef subs are DSP limited, so as you turn volume up the bass extension is reduced. It looks like a single sub does about 75 dB at 16 hz (not overly loud). Subs like the Hsu will have much much more low bass output when you turn the sub-bass up to audible volumes.

What Hi-fi is not a credible review. This is a credible review:

Erin’s Youtube
 
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