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Others experience re: subs and Magmepan 20

I have a pair of Magnepan 20r’s. Have enjoyed them for years. In my room they go to about 30Hz, response way down at 25Hz.

I am experimenting with a pair of Janis subs. This gets the response to about 25 Hz then down a lot at at 20Hz. It adds a little something but not I am not bowled. over. I hear and feel a bit (in my chest) on some music.

I would like to hear about others have experience with adding subs to nearly full range speakers?

Did you feel you got your money’s worth for "a few silly Hz"?

Thanks
imdoc
noble100's avatar
noble100
1,093 posts
 
Hi imdoc,

     Welcome back to your thread.

     Great to hear you had a good discussion withe Duke.  I know he and James Romeyn can be relied upon to give very good and unbiased audio advise.
    In a previous post, Duke was confident that the Swarm/Debra would integrate well with your large Magnepans and your room but was concerned whether it would deliver the quantity of bass in your room that you seem to desire.
   Given your more powerful bass system preference, he thought you may require a distributed bass array that employed larger subs that would deliver even greater quantities of bass in your system.  

    For current and future readers of this thread and to satisfy my curiosity, can you tell us the competitor's product Duke recommended?

Thanks,
  Tim
audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 

Thank you for your kind words, imdoc! I enjoyed talking with you very much. One thing I forgot to mention - you’ll probably have to EQ in a fair amount of low-end boost in your room. I suspect that the big opening behind the listening area is acting sort of like a bass trap and reducing your in-room bass. You might also experiment with putting the two subs in phase quadrature (90 degrees apart) - it may be beneficial.

Tim, if you look up imdoc’s system (just click on his name), you’ll see a photo of his room. It is a beautiful space that is not a dedicated audio room, and in my opinion multiple subs distributed around the room would ruin the aesthetic he has achieved.

The room is open at the end that’s "behind your back" from where the photo is taken, so that room dimension is not distinct. The other room dimensions (width and height) don’t support room modes below 30 Hz, and he’s only looking to augment the Maggies south of 30 Hz, so the net value of the modal-region-smoothing we get from a distributed multi-sub system doesn’t apply as much. In this situation, I think the more cost-effective and aesthetically practical solution would be two high-output subs that fit in the areas behind his Maggies.

At first I was thinking that a pair of tall two-woofer subs dimensioned to fit behind the Maggies (and shaped to be Maggie-backwave-friendly) might work well, as with one woofer high and one low, we’d at least have our bass sources distributed in two dimensions (height and width). But then I thought about his room dimensions and the modes those dimensions would support and decided that the benefits would be minor, and that it would be more cost-effective for imdoc to just get two powerful conventional subs rather than paying to have expensive custom enclosures built. So I suggested he look at Rhythmik, though they are by no means the only viable choice out there.

Duke

noble100's avatar
noble100
1,093 posts
 
imdoc,

     Nice room! It looks like an upscale chinese restaurant, very cool.

Duke,
     
    Thanks for describing your thought process considering a suitable  bass solution for imdoc's somewhat unusual room.  
    I understand your reasoning for suggesting a powerful pair of subs instead of a 3-4 sub array.  Hopefully, imdoc can find a pair that blends well with his Maggies and can position them well enough to reduce standing waves and give good bass response at all the dining positions.

Later,
  Tim 
imdoc OP
17 posts
 
Perhaps one from Column A and one from Column B?
hifidream's avatar
hifidream
47 posts
 
I think it makes a huge difference to get those last notes about of the music, my wife says that she was surprised how much the subs helped. . . I have 20.1s and Kinergetic SW-800s amplified by a Pass x250 up front. I also have two super fast SVS-16 Ultras that work with my mini DSP/to do room correction and address those standing waves many people have mentioned. I make measurements with an Earthworks mic and REW and Multi Sub Organizer crunches the numbers that I enter into the DSP. I have 8 channels of DSP for my 2 Channel set up. I can't speak to doing this with less money or lower quality components. I believe you should match any sub augmentation with stuff of similar quality to the main speakers. With Maggie's they need to be non ported subs in my opinion to have more control and keep up with the panel speed. The coherence and imaging of my system is right on. I had some engineer friends over from work to assist me in installing my projector screen and they said that my neighbors should hate me. I told them I've never had one complaint. I turned the music up and they listened with mouths open. There was no boom just accurate involving full sound with pin point imaging. I took a long path to get here. I wish you luck on your quest ;)

-Steve
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