musical subwoofer recommendation for 2-ch

Itball's advise matches my very recent experience in setting up a sub with full range speakers in a 2 channel system.

My gut feeling from your description of the sound you have described is that you have set the volume of the sub too high and its output is masking the detail from your main speakers. A cross over setting of 50hz would seem better than 80hz but, I would suggest that you get a SPL meter and a test disc to assist you in both locating the best position for your sub and matching the output levels of the sub and mains. That worked well for me. It only took about 18 hours over four days and a lot of critical listening to dial in my sub (and I think I can still do better) so set up is not a plug and play matter. I wouldn't give up on your Velodyne not would I depend on its automatic set up/equalization system to get the best response.

Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks all who are the supporters for Velodyne. I really like it too. But it does not have separate inputs for HT and 2 channel music. With Velodyne, you can use either the line level input or high level input, but not both at the same time.

Additionally, I don't want the LFE signal from 5.1 to go to the L/R channel speakers. So I'll need one sub for the LFE.

Which REL should I get? My room is 15X25X9.5 and is open to the rest of the house.

The REL's all work basically the same way. That is a big room. So get the biggest you can afford.

Or.... if your budget can fit it, actually get two subwoofers; one for each stereo channel. If the subs are of very good quality, stereo subs are better than one, especially in a large room.

Setup is just as easy. You just run one stereo channel to each sub. For HT, you will need a splitter on the HT decoder if it only has one output.

Will smaller REL subs be more articulate than bigger ones?

Itball,

Thanks for sharing. That article was very interesting. My experience has also been that mid range seems to affect bass perception enormously. It has always puzzled me how even a blown tweeter (far from bass frequencies) will modify bass perception. I guess heavy bass percussion is just all over the frequency map even if most of the energy comes from the woofer....which is why it is such a telling test for speakers.

As Mr Blackburn states it may boil down to subtle cues in phase. It may indeed explain why two ways with small woofers generally have a better reputation for fast bass...they have one less crossover to worry about! It is certainly consistent with the logic that a cheap two way is a safer bet than a cheap three way. (i.e. to go three way it is better to go significantly up in cost or the two way remains better value)

Interesting and thought provoking - thanks