Hi,

A newbee to this subject and whole audio set up and will appreciate any suggestions you can give me.

i have a 15X15X9 family room with one side fully open to living room. Normally i watch 50/50 movies and music. but If asked to pick one over other, i will pick musical bass over movie bass.

My budget will be around $800.

any suggestions about where i should start looking?

One OPtion i have is to go with KeF sub(psw2500 or psw3500) that comes with speakers.

$800, I would look at SVS or Hsu. Find a model you like. Both of these brands generally outperform retail brands dollar for dollar and usually by a wide margin.

I forgot to mention that it has to look good....

I forgot to mention that it has to look good....

Then you may want to look harder at SVS than Hsu. I will probably buy the Hsu VTF-3 MK3 because of performance/price ratio, but I sure wish it was as nice looking as the SVS subs in Rosenut.

Guy

Look good as in have a nice finish?

In your price range, I would check out these 2:

http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/forcexl/forcexl.htm

http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-sb12plus.cfm

yes nice finish. preferrably wood.

pardon my ignorance about svs but do they sound good in musical bass?

I've had good luck blending the SB12-Plus with Onix Ref3's -- 7" Atohm woofers -- for musical bass.

Recently a gentleman from Norway posted his initial impressions of the SB12-Plus in a very musical system:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9427468#post9427468

Look good as in have a nice finish?

In your price range, I would check out these 2:

http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/forcexl/forcexl.htm

http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-sb12plus.cfm


Rockemsockem has given you two excellent suggestions. The ACI subs have long been a favorite among Magnepan owners who are notoriously fickle when it comes to "musical" subs.

The SB12-Plus has only been out a few months but has garnered high praise from those who have listened to it thus far.

Just to add some more food for thought AV123 (http://www.**********/index.php) has B-Stock ULW-12 (http://www.**********/index.php)'s in gloss piano black for $799. The primary reason for the price difference is because they are without the R-DES auto EQ that is normally included. It still has a manual PEQ that will allow you to compensate for in-room peaks.

http://www.av123forum.com/photopost/data/500/2902ufw-12hgb_2_med-med.jpg