Fastest, cleanest, most accurate bass you've ever heard from a 10", 12", or 15" sub?

I'm shopping for subwoofers to mate with my Quad ESL 57 speakers. What is the fastest, cleanest, most tight and accurate subwoofer you have ever heard? I'd like to get some ideas.

 

I've always been a huge fan of REL subs.....I have 2 REL Britannia B2s. REL has always been known to be excellent in blending in with music systems. I also have always enjoyed the higher end Velodyne subs as well.....they're room eq can work wonders with uneven bass response in a room. JL Audio subs have gained quite a good reputation as well but I've never heard any of their models. Tell us more about the room and your setup and you may get some more specific ideas and recommendations.

- Buck

 

Small room, not a lot of space and I don't need anything too thunderous, just clean, punchy, incredibly fast, tight, tuneful and articulate bass. Have you ever heard the bass in an old pair of Bozaks in a large cabinet? That's what I'm after. I want to attempt to add some slam factor and dynamics to these Quads.

 

Gotta second the REL recommendation. If it is a small room......check out RELs T-Series....It should suit your needs.

 

What are the actual dimensions of the room?

I have 2 different subs, and a few sets of speakers at home, and one weekend spent hours comparing and experimenting, and the room was a huge variable in how the bass "sounded".

My tiny computer listening room (pictured to the left) makes any speaker sound far bigger and solid cause of how close you are to speaker, but has some standing waves cause of the small dimension. Somewhere between a large car and a "real" room

In my much larger living room, the bass radically changes depending on where I sit etc.

 

Generally the smaller the driver the faster it is. But nothing has the deep, rich tuneful bass of an 18 incher or two.

If it were my money REL or JL Audio.

 

REL are by the fastest, cleanest subs I have heard-they do the PRAT thing very well, which is in keeping with your Quad Electrostatics. On a side note-just heard my buddies system, which was previously quite flat and un-involving(mainly due to the poor acoustics in his room). He added not one, but a pair of 12 inch subs and now it stereo presentation is very tonally soothing yet gets your foot certainly tapping, without being overwhelming. Just nice, tight clean and punchy bass that blends very well with his speakers.

 

I like the opposed driver style such as the Martin Logan Depth or Descent (sadly discontinued, but good bargains used), or the Paradigm Signature series.

John K.

 

TBI

 

1.Are you going to roll off the Quads through a crossover or play them full range? (concerns about the sonic signature of any crossover motivate the question).
2. As I mentioned to you in your other thread, I've been down this road with Quads, and perhaps modern subwoofers are better today than they were when I was doing it (back in the 80's), but the sound you are talking about - big Bozaks in a large cabinet- tend to be very efficient and 'immediate sounding'; perhaps a REL or JL can do that, but there is a quality to those big baffle boxes or horn loaded woofers that matches the character of the Quad.
3. The other thing I experienced is the need to keep growing the system; you add the woofer; then you really want to do something in the supertweeter realm. (I used Deccas and Sequerras back in the day- ribbons which were fast and, at least in the case of the Decca, in keeping with the period of your speaker). And then, you need a second pair of 57's to bring the output level up by having more panel radiating area. Suddenly, you have a big complicated system! (Nothing wrong with that, as mentioned, I wouldn't mind getting a second pair of 57's at some point).
Or, you could leave it all alone and just enjoy what you have. The Quads are wonderful. Sorry I'm not encouraging you....

 

You didn't give a price range but from what posted I would go with a $500 SVS SB-1000.

http://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/sealed-box/SB-1000?gclid=CKmI--G33L4CFTQQ7AodwG8A3A#.U40U5xBdUuU

Just use the sub's high level speaker inputs.

 

Rhythmik Audio has a line of sub woofers that use what they call "Direct-Servo" for some of the fastest bass I have heard. When hearing the speakers that have these self powered sub woofers for the first time it's speed was one of the first things I noticed.
Their web site has a ton of useful info.

 

I had a Volt 18" sub driven by a 600 wpc monobloc with my Quad 63s
Tickled in around 40Hz
Trouble was I was aware of all the LF that passed unoticed at radio stations......
I could hear the feet of the journalists bringing in the news to the news reader
The rumble also stopped my station wallclock

 

Never heard or seen one but check Paradigm super subwoofer

Especialy there SUB 2


Goes down to 10 Hz at 112 dB

126 Decibel at 60 cycles ....

Most be driven from 240 volts line for full power !!!


Insane

http://www.paradigm.com/products-current/type=subwoofer

 

I would definitely demand a home demo before buying anything. In my experience a lot of subs are surprisingly ineffective and can't deliver true, undistorted deep bass at more than whisper level, if at all. You get what you pay for - maybe take a look at the JL Audio Fathom F112 (or others from the same range)?

 

I just noticed the word "fastest" in the thread title. The thing about subs is, they are always slower than your main speakers because the mass of the moving parts is so much greater (and the better the sub, the greater the mass.) Timing is a real problem and there's nothing you can do about it by adjusting the sub in isolation. The only way you can deal with it is to time-delay your main speakers so they're working in sync with the sub. For this, you need some kind of component that will manage and control the output to the main speakers and the sub.

There's a lot of useful stuff on the JL Audio website about this, eg:

https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/entries/22530915-Adding-a-Subwoofer

I'm only mentioning JL Audio again because I have an F112 on home demo at the moment.

 

Seismic Audio 18" 500 watt powered subwoofers.. Paid just under 400.00 for the pair. If you want explosive , stomach churning, teeth rattling bass. Well built with 5/8 plywood, carpet covered
recessed handles on the sides. Turn them up to 3 on volume, crossover @ 40 Hz will rearrange your furniture just fine

 

Did you purchase some subs for your Quads? If so, what did you end up getting?

 

+1 REL or JL Audio

 

REL again.

 

This is quite an interesting thread, because I myself will be buying subwoofers in the near future. I've been internet-shopping for quite a while now, and I looked at just about everything out there. The one that I always gravitiate to are the SVS sealed 12's. Although I have found a couple that will go lower in Hz than the SVS (such as the Definitive Technology Supercubes, which look very nice), I insist on a sealed sub. And the reason for this is because a ported sub must, by design, have the port 180 degrees out of phase with the woofer. This will result in a larger group-delay characteristic, and the sub will not be as "fast" as a sealed sub. Plus, a ported sub will have a steeper rolloff below F3, while the sealed will roll off more smoothly.

Speaking of "fast" bass... no such thing. At the lowest octave, speed is not crucial, but resonance and group delay ARE. And that is largely a function of the cabinet. A better descriptive term would be TIGHT bass, i.e. not loose and sloppy. I have a pair of BIC Realas that go down to 28 Hz. Respectable, but very sloppy, which is why I want a pair of subs. I'm not the least bit interested in home theatre, but I do listen to pipe organs.

I looked at building my own, since I have extra amplification I'm not using, but I can't find a driver that really knocks me for a loop. And SVS looks like a great company to do business with. But I just now looked at the Ryhthmics. They look quite nice as well, and are fairly priced. So I think it will be SVS or Rhthmic.

Decisions, decisions.

 

No, I haven't purchased yet. Funny you should ask. I was just reading about subs last night and leaning in that direction again.

 

REL or JL Audio for the ideal partners. Will fatten the Quad low end superbly.

 

I have a SVS sb2000. Really like it. I'll probably get another. Svs also sells isolation feet which seem very well built.

 

Zu Audios subs are FAST. Just disappear when u dial them in right.