List of budget subwoofers ($300 and less) - Page 4

Precisely why I'm reluctant to raise the price ceiling.

Based upon the research I had done before creating this thread it seemed as though $300 and below was what most people considered a budget subwoofer (at least among those who posted asking for specific recommendations). I oscillated back and forth between several dollar amounts, but ultimately $300 won out.

I did strongly consider making another thread for subs between $300 and $600 -- and spent a great deal of time investigating the market -- but it became painfully obvious how daunting a task it would be to maintain something like that. The sheer number of products available would dwarf this list by an order of magnitude, and I simply do not have that kind of free time available to me.

The MM-6's driver is only 6.5". To be included on this list it has to be 8" minimum, so that one isn't large enough. I've looked into the MM-8 from time to time, but the lowest I can find it for on a consistent basis is between $350-$400. Where are you seeing it for under $300?

Done. How's that for service?

Added
Cerwin Vega VE28S
Definitive Technology Pro Sub 60
Jamo SUB 210
KEF C4
Klipsch KW-100
Mordaunt Short Carnival 7
Pioneer SW-8
Wharfdale SW150

Thanks. It's a lot of work to maintain this beast but it seems to have helped a bunch of people, so it's worth the effort.

As far as the under $650 thread goes... I already created that - it's this thread. After all, every one of these subs is under $650.

Agreed. I actually discuss that very thing in post #92 above.



This, or something similar, has been asked by several people. I've actually debated how to do it myself. There does seem to be a need for another reference, be it an "official" owners thread, a discussion thread or a professional review. But every time I think I know which direction to go in something changes my mind.

For example, which review site is considered the best to use? I know of several good ones, but I have neither the time nor the desire to scour all of them for each of the subs listed in post #1. avsforum has a ton of threads, but a lot of those are tailored to a particular manufacturer more so then an individual subwoofer.

And when you really thing about it a lot of the subs listed here are pretty generic and don't have much, if any, following. That's one of the primary reasons why I took it upon myself to evaluate those fringe players; they simply had no information about them available. So far I've done Theater Solutions and XTZ (although the latter is not a $300 sub). I now have a Technical Pro SW1201 that I'm about half way done putting through it's paces, and then I'll probably get an NXG or OSD sub after that (probably OSD, since they're an advertiser on this forum).

The bottom line is your suggestion has merit, and it's certainly something I've thought about frequently. I just haven't figured out how best to handle it yet.

Thanks Dom. I'm glad it's been of value to you.


I'm still toying around with what I want to do here, because I think there's some merit to at least linking the subs to something. I'm leaning toward it being a forum thread though, and since I've been reviewing a few of these subs myself I at least know where to start.

BTW... you're probably the first person who openly admits to pissing off the wife. Most of the other guys seem to have WAF as a big deciding factor for their HT. You're the alpha male!

Nope, I haven't. But perhaps I may have to hunt some of them down and see for myself. Do we have two Hugh Hefner's now?

You're welcome. I'm glad you've been able to get some value from this.



For the same reason I discourage any debates about value/quality I fear the same contentious situation would occur over ability; what constitutes musical for one person would be considered sloppy by someone else. That would also lead to endless arguments, which would diminish the value of this thread. That being said... perhaps I can at least give you some guidelines on what to look for, and then you can choose a couple of potential candidates from the list. Once you've done that you can start a thread asking about those subwoofers in specific, at which point you'll get a lot of assistance from the forum members.

Generally speaking, when a person is looking for a musical subwoofer they choose acoustic suspension (sealed). Those are often described as tight, fast, detailed, etc. They don't usually have the deep extension of bass reflex (ported), but with most styles of music that's not a drawback because the frequencies don't extend much below 30Hz. Music, by it's very nature, is better suited to a subwoofer that's articulate, because tiny nuances are part of the source material. Watching TV and movies is more satisfing when things are presented with very low frequencies, but for the most part you don't need as much detail as you would when listening to music.

Because budget subwoofers use commensurate parts -- with their inherent drawbacks -- they most often augment the output using a bass reflex design. It's just the nature of the beast really; in order to produce high output (volume) and deep extension from an acoustic suspension design you need to throw in a bunch of quality (read: expensive) parts. That's not feasible for a budget product.

That's not to say some of the subs listed in the first post can't be used for a music system, it's just you aren't likely to get all the definition a typical musical sub can provide. But the fact you're looking for a non-HT subwoofer might be to your advantage in this case. If you do opt to look at just acoustic suspension you won't have a tremendous number of products to consider. So I guess the sword cuts both ways; fewer to choose from, but less daunting a task because of it.



65 months of lurking and my thread gets you to post for the first time??? I'm honored. Welcome to the sunlight my friend...

The CSX-12 is $399, but the cutoff for this thread is $300. From what I understand it's not a bad sub, but from a price standpoint it doesn't qualify for this thread.