Some basic sub questions!

[Tim F]

I have the following AV system doubling as a second music system.

Bryston 9bsst power amp
marantz AV8802a pre amp
Scansonic MB5 floorstanders

Looking to add a sub for music that can go a lower than the speakers can (20hz or near). How do I connect this to give the best music? AV sound is actually a secondary priority, so whatever connection gets me the best music is what I want. System is set to pure direct mode to avoid any additional processing. Space for only one sub.

I play at lower volumes, any recommendations for smaller subs? I am in the UK. As per the kit above not after cheap kit but nothing crazy either.

Thanks Tim

 

[LL21]

Hi Tim,

Great system! The limited experience I can share is:

- big fan of subs for over 20 years since our first proper system out of college
- integration is important...and I learned that for bass, effortless often means cleaner, lower distortion and can often make integration easier
- As for size, servos can help...but size is a factor in the science of big air movement
- There are many great brands out there...for adjustability with its easy-to-use but quite flexible 8-band EQ, flexible/adjustable crossover as well as very well designed servo system...we have used Velodyne for many years
- While we also play at quite low volumes...interestingly when we got the bass 'right' in our room...we found something happened with the bass where even at the lowest of all volumes (literally '1' on our earlier CJ preamp)...we got a very quiet but defined 'chest' compression on certain bass tracks...a remarkable experience/ 'Getting it right' involved an upgrade to our current Velodyne DD18+ (basically a 2 foot cube)

I am very impressed by the information provided to me by Nathan Funk of Funk Audio, and more than a few serious audiophiles own his work and/or also speak highly of him having heard his work. Most likely, our next upgrade will be going with Nathan's flagship subs (dual 18" opposed).

In a nutshell, good servo, physically bigger and well dialed-in...and at lower volume, we were pleasantly surprised that the larger DD18+ did things the earlier subs we had (ie, smaller) just could not do.

 

[Tim F]

Thanks Mike. appreciate the advice! I was settling on Rel and now will take a look at Velodyne.

I was also looking at Rel subs in line with my focal scala utopia in my main system. As these measure flat to 25hz would a sub over power the room (they are already bassy) ? Without a very expensive crossover I can‘t see a way not to double up the bass output above 25hz unless the sub crossover is set very low, is this assumption correct? If the sub is only doing 5hz it hardly seems worth it! I don’t have a large room or need to play loud.

Thanks !