Budget subwoofers discussions, opinions and questions thread - Page 20

The JBL ES series subs are on sale at amazon again today. The 12 inch for $200 and the 10 inch for $160. I just got the 10 inch on Saturday when it was on sale and it sounds pretty good for what I paid.

Any idea how the JBL ES250 compares with the BIC F12 and Polk PSW505?

Just an FYI. Make sure you read all the Amazon reviews of the ES250 before buying. It seems they have an issue with the circuit boards frying after a year or so. Some say JBL is aware of it but wont fix it under warranty.

got a psw505 for 130, I do not think it is worth it to through 400 at an stf-2, any thoughts?

I am in college with a limited budget,

monitor 70s, cs2 center, monitor 40 surrounds denon 1613

13x13x8 room

Where did you get it for 130?

Are you saying that you got a psw505 for $130 because you didnt think the stf2 was worth the extra $270 and you are in college with a limited budget? If so, for a room that size, I would do the same.

good i hope i am not missing out much.
as far as finding the deal
try newegg under open box/ polk, and check it at least 3 times a day, it is not "brand new" i think,

I have my RW sitting on the Gramma now. Got it shipped overnight (only $4 with Amazon Prime). I have been listening to various kinds of music at different receiver volumes (made no sub changes). It is as expected. No performance value but it looks a lot better than the bathroom rug. But I mostly listen at a moderate volume in my apt (around -50 to -40) and have no issues with rattling even when on an occasion when I do turn it up higher. So for me anyway it was a very expensive aesthetic fix but I'm cool with it. I could have used my Dads wood shop and spent unknown hrs and money shopping for the materials and making something but why?

haha, yea, -30 is the bare minimum for me

A short review.

I know most discussions seem to be about the bigger units but, I have been listening and fine tuning a PSW111 for 3 weeks now. That's an 8" geared towards small sats and soundbars. It took a while to break in and to find the sweet spot for the unit and I was intentionally matching it to a Polk Audio TL250 package for TV viewing in a small family room. OK, so I was pleasantly surprised by that combination.

However, I hooked up my old Paradigm 5 SEv3 fronts, cc-170 center and Titans in the back just to see how that would work with this small sub. The center was somewhat weak, not really the sub. Oh and the wife hates the appearance of the Titans:rolleyes:

For music, the PSW111 is surprisingly good, almost seamless even through a drum solo it rolled in and out with great definition. The SE fronts have 8" woofers so I did not expect that. The Saving Private Ryan opening beach scene I thought would show the weakness but it still held up well. Not the ground shaking from something like my old Paradigm 12" down in the 26khz range but much better than I expected to get. I think it has a lot of power for an 8" and certainly sounded better than the PSW10 that is nearly out the door. Cranking up the gain did not show it getting flabby or huffing and still held good definition.

For now, it's a keeper, although I am working on a gear swap for a Paradigm Center 2 and a Definitive 10" sub. If that happens I may have to explore in-ceiling speakers for the surrounds.

Mains with 8" drivers can be quite capable from a bass perspective, especially in a smaller room. I remember when I was living in an apartment, I had no sub but I had Wharfedale L/R mains. They had dual 6.5" drivers and delivered very decent amounts of bass in movies. Granted, it was not furniture-rattling type of bass.

As far as your center sounding weak, a lot of it has to do with positioning. If it's sitting inside some cabinet, not angled properly, or firing directly at an empty wall behind you, you may be dealing with some wave cancellation issues. Also need to adjust channel levels on your receiver if the center has lower sensitivity than the mains. Other times, if you sit directly in front of the TV, you may get away with just two good L/R speakers and skipping the center speaker altogether.

Thanks Pete, I setup the Paradigms using Audissey and, because it's a test I put the center on top of the TV cabinet to get the tweeters from the SEs close to the level by 4 inches. I have toyed with idea of putting a shelf on my stand to lift the TV and use the Center 2 if it comes my way. The CC-170 seems to do better with the Titans as fronts and I am going to leave that combo together in my office which is where I go to just listen to music. The SEs do work OK in Phantom mode but I know a better center channel would do better for movies if I still had a large home theatre space and I don't.

I was just wanting folks to know that the PSW111 exceeded my expectations for an 8" sub both with smaller satellites and and the very capable Paradigm towers.

I live in a studio apt. and with my built in EQ settings it probably isnt quite as low as you think. I have the receiver volume set to come on at -65 and can listen at that level and hear it just fine. I have the maximum volume set at -25 and that is as near to "rattling" conditions as I care to get. Also I have all Klipsch and a Bic center speaker so they are all pretty sensitive.
Edited by Bond 007 - 12/19/12 at 3:48pm

I read reviews saying it was punchy and good for music vs the F12 and the ES150 is pretty punchy as far as I can tell but I haven't broken it in all the way yet but it holds its own in movies also, so I would go with the JBL. The JBL also has a beefier driver and magnet. As far as the amp, my thought was it's a great deal and if it goes just buy a Dayton amp and throw that in to replace it.

I just thought this was a good deal that someone may be interested in:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882117402&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL122012&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL122012-_-EMC-122012-Index-_-HomeAudioSpeakers-_-82117402-L0F

This looks identical to the Martin Logan Dynamo 300 for $120 on Amazon. Note neither the JBL or the ML have a crossover, only a low-pass filter. So your speakers will still carry bass.

See 592 above.

I currently have a HSU STF-2 for my HT setup . My room is relatively large (12x20x9) and this sub seems a little under powered. I'm considering the PSW505 which is on sale in Amazon. Will this be a true upgrade? Any other suggestions on a reasonable budget (<250-300)?
Edited by dealk - 12/20/12 at 2:55pm

This only matters if you're planning to use the sub's speaker level connections and your receiver can't do bass mgmt. I think that's a minority of cases here.

Are you talking about the VTF-2 MK4? I should probably just start copying and pasting this but...
The Klipsch RW12-d would be an excellent choice. It goes on sale for $299 pretty often at Newegg.com. There is an entire forum dedicated to this phenomenon at:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1442829/klipsch-rw-12d-on-sale-for-299-at-newegg-com-again-today/210#post_22727311
And I agree with everything batpig states below. This would only be a significant upgrade if you use both of them.
Edited by Bond 007 - 12/20/12 at 12:02pm

no, it will be a downgrade! You will NOT find an upgrade from an HSU VTF-2 at the $300 price point. I would consider adding a second sub like the Klipsch RW-12D, which is probably close to the HSU in performance.

That said, 12x20x9 really isn't THAT big of a room. Have you played around with the sub's location and settings to see if you can get better performance?

Thanks. I will try moving the sub around and see if a different position makes a difference. I was purely looking at the specs on the STF-2 vs. 505 and thought it would be better. I made a typo above and called it VTF-2 which is incorrect. My sub is actually an STF-2.

Actually I want to correct something I said above. My HSU is not a VTF-2 but an STF-2. Sorry for the confusion. Hope my questions makes more sense now.

That is an even lower performance sub than the vtf-2. So everything stated is atleast as significant as before.