To Sub or not to Sub?

[Elkerton]

Well, I do have an NAD 1155 Pre w/ tone controls and a "Loudness" button and has served me well when I have my tube pre serviced. But now when I think about it, I don't use the button when I play records. It creates too much vibration and feedback even though I have suitable isolation on the stands, TT and room dampening. I would dare say a Sub would create the same issue.

If you're getting too much feedback playing vinyl, then your turntable is not well isolated. Try putting it on a board mounted on a slightly inflated, small bicycle tube. The turntable will float like a bowl of jelly, placing its resonant frequency below any output from the speakers.

My subs are at least 45 years old, passive designs with both low and high pass filters. I wouldn't be without them. I listen to a lot of organ music, and my friends are impressed on whatever program material they prefer. I myself use M105s which impress them even without a sub.

If your living room or lounge is small, with a length less that 14' or 4.26m a sub will not help extend to the frequency response of your speakers, however, with low and high pass filters, will reduce the FM (frequency modulation) distortion above and allow you to play music much louder.

 

[Zamiel]

i have a pair of iloud mtm mkii that go down to 40hz (kind of).
i was wondering if the new iloud sub (with dsp and room correction integrated) would be a usefull add. it goes down to 25hz

 

[Sharkdrive]

added a sub to help with taming my room ,works well! (JBL 4329 and 10" speedwoofer) all through a wiim ultra for room correction and sub management

 

[tineared]

Well, I do have an NAD 1155 Pre w/ tone controls and a "Loudness" button and has served me well when I have my tube pre serviced. But now when I think about it, I don't use the button when I play records. It creates too much vibration and feedback even though I have suitable isolation on the stands, TT and room dampening. I would dare say a Sub would create the same issue.

Let me begin by saying I have a pair of 106s and they are excellent speakers for a bedroom.
Since you enjoy their sound but could use a bit more low end without the fuss of a sub, I would suggest finding a pair of Revel F206s.
Since Revel is in between speaker lines right now, they are a bit difficult to find, but they would round out your sound without adding complications.

Revel F206 Tower Speaker Review

This is a review, listening tests, EQ, and detailed measurements of the Revel F206 Floor-standing speaker. It is on kind loan from a member (new) and costs US $1347.50 each. Please excuse the mobile phone picture quality and plastics that are still on the speaker. I try to keep products as...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Waxx]

I agree, if you don't want to mess arround with dsp to integrate a sub like it should, but still want more bass, get a bigger speaker. I don't know the Revel you have personally, but from measurements and for general music, it should be enough on low volume. But the F206's will do it better just because they have more woofers that are already aligned. You won't have the room interaction of a multisub approach, but also not the complex alignment you need to do.

When you don't listen to bass heavy music (like modern electronic music or dub or organ music), 40Hz like the Revel has is low enough. I just think you need more cone surface (8" is limiting) to go louder clean with the bass. Subs can give you that, but the F206 or any bigger speaker (more or bigger woofers) can do that also.

I myself use 10" and 12" woofers in all my actual setups that need to go low and loud, only my very nearfield office speakers are smaller (6.5"). All my speakers are diy in design and build altough.

And on commercial subs, REL is very overpriced and has a bad reputation of breaking plate amps that are hard to replace. SVS, Arendall, ... even B&W makes a lot better subs i think. They are hyped in the audiophool world, but would be on the very bottom of my list of favorites to be honest. And i would use a full featured dsp like a MiniDSP Flex to integrate them right, not the build in filters (except when it's a real full feature dsp of good quality). So that route will cost money. It may be cheaper and better in your case to just buy bigger speakers like the F206 (to stay in the brand and style you prefer) and sell those you have already.