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Did I really need a sub woffer in the first place?

I recently added a subwoffer which I thought would enhance the sound of my 2 channel music system. I have a Rotel amp (380 watts) with the matching Rotel preamp and Rotel CD player and Energy Veritas 2.4 speakers. I bought a REL Britannia B1 subwoffer to enhance the bass.

Well now that I have it set up I'm not that happy with what it adds vs what I spent ($1,850). I'm wishing I would have put that money toward a turntable instead.

Wondering if maybe I've just got it set up incorrectly - there are so many adjustments like Mode Switch used to set the phase and to bypass crossover for Low Level input. Also has these switches:

Lo Level
Hi Level
Fine Roll Off
Coarse Roll Off

For an additional $100 the stereo shop will send a guy over to 'tune' the system. Wondering if I'm just throwing good money after bad and maybe I'll cut my losses and sell it here on the Audiogon classified section.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

By the way - I love my Subwoffer I have in my home theatre. Could'nt watch an action movie without it.
breuning11
warnerwh
537 posts
 
With my speakers, Vmps RM 40's, I use a sub only to augment the bottom octave so I have it crossed over at 45hz. It only adds a bit of weight to the lowest lows. The sub does not work much most of the time but it is worth it to me and wouldn't want to be without it as I like to have all the weight of the bottom octave.

Every room with walls in about any house will have modes and these are worst in the bass region. To pay someone to tune it may not be that bad of an idea if you don't know how to do it yourself. Don't expect to hear alot of extra lows because you have a sub. For music with truly full range speakers it's only there to augment the low lows. It's a very expensive thing to do adding a good sub.
xiekitchen
819 posts
 
Some folks have some good points here.. first, Rotel is good BUT.. a really great pre and power amp, or a passive pre and a high end power amp could really surprise you with bass improvements. Of course that avenue is not cheap. Also as Chazzbo states, the use of a SUBwoofer is to augment those very bottom octaves and really should not stand out calling attention to itself. I have found with my Rel-based Rega Vulcan than placement firing upward, backward, downward, frontward, and also moving unit sometimes by inches makes differences in sound. Very necessary for me is the placement of the sub's feet on mod squad soft shoes.
bigjoe's avatar
bigjoe
680 posts
 
put your sub where your listening chair is then get down on the floor & crawl around the room until you find where the bass response sounds the best then put your sub there.

it works pretty good.
bignerd100
515 posts
 
Ask dealer for a 10 meter long interconnect.
Place sub in all different locations.
Make sure that the crossover on the sub is in the right ballpark before you begin.
In each location get volume level about right, then play with crossover, then play with voume again, then teh phase, then the volume again.
90% science and 10% art.

Good luck!
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Bigjoe and Bignerd100,

I am confused. Which is better?

Putting the sub in Breuning11's listening chair and crawling around on the floor while ajdusting phase and volume for each position.

or

Sitting in the listening chair and moving the sub all around the floor while changing phase and volume for each position.

The crawling around the floor sounds slightly faster to complete (don't have to move the sub), however, if Breuning11 has a better half and she finds him crawling around the floor with his sub-woofer sitting in his normal chair listening chair ....isn't their a chance she will think he has gone mad?
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