How to match a sub

I never had trouble matching a sub to any of my speakers it was a matter of getting the crossover right mains vs sub. According to the spec sheet on your NAD it has per- out 2 which can be used for sub out and in that case almost all subs have a left and right sub in from a pre-amp what I can't see if you have the ability to limit your bass out on pre-1 in order to steer all bass from say 60 or 70 Hz down.

Yes watts and size make a difference but I rely on ID subs to match their driver,amp and box to work as stated and they usually do.
To make your selection you need to decide on sealed or ported and how loud you plan to play it also what size room will this be in.
As for the crossover since your amp is very capable of delivering and the speakers can be flat to 50 Hz make the crossover start at 60Hz and play with it since almost all subs will do a better job of 60Hz down than most mains.

Watts and size has more to do with your room volume and bass extension. If you are looking for a sub that integrates well with your speakers, try finding one that is linear, meaning that it offers a wide flat frequency response. It will also be faithful to music as well as video sources. Tell us your budget, what type of audio material you listen to and your room size. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to help you.


Ian

He doesn't have any kind of crossover in the amp. He would need a sub that can take L/R input signal from the pre-out and filter out the bass before sending it back to the amp.

I was referring to the NAD website for their sub hookup for his model and yes I agree with you it needs to be crossed over or filtered since I did not read all of the manual I would not know all of the settings.

If you want to stick to th $3k budget, then I would suggest 2 Rythmik FV15's. My 1 FV15 is amazing! I sent the link for the FV15HP because the FV15 doesn't have a picture..

http://www.rythmikaudio.com/FV15HP.html

Jeff

The sub should naturally take over from your mains without any perceivable holes/gaps in the sound. Essentially your crossover point is very important.

The subs by speaker manufacturers are in general very expensive. They add all the overheads to the consumer just like they do for their speakers. They may be good. Sure when you pay a couple of grant for a sub it better be good :-) You get a lot more value from an ID (Internet Direct) sub. You wont see a lot of subs by speaker manufacturers recommended here.

If my budget were like $2000, I would get a nice AVR with pre-outs so that I can use that as a pre-pro with the amp and get an ID sub. This way I dont have to worry about bass management.

I think 2 Rythmiks for a 2 channel music only system is overkill.

I agree, I myself would look at a Seaton Sub. Great Sub for music. It is in your budget. Depending on what veneer and model you go with, it would be in the $2K to $2.5 range.

http://www.seatonsound.net/

There is no point in spending $2k on subs that go down to the teens for 2ch music where there is generally not much content at all even in the 20's. There are always exceptions.

For 2ch music, the OP would be fine with a ported 12" sub like SVS PB12 or a sealed 12" sub like SVS SB12 or Epik Legend. Save the money and get a nice AVR/pre-pro like Onkyo 818 (MSRP $1200) which has Audyssey XT32 or Denon 33XX if you dont care about XT32. You will still have money left to add a sub only correction like Antimode 8033B or 8033C

Nothing on that page is worth the money. Like I said before, speaker manufacturers dont make the best subs. They just add the cost to the consumer. Unless you are getting some deal like 50% off, the recommendations you will get here would be mostly for ID subs as they have a better value.

For example the Klipsch RW-12D is listed for some $700 (or $900 at some places) but who is going to buy that for $700 or $900 when there are many cheaper better ID options, unless the consumer is not very well informed. People buy that Klipsch sub when it goes on sale for $299 shipped as it is not worth more than that.

I like many others found the ID subs to offer more bang for the buck so unless there is a particular reason you want one from that mfg it can be beat both performance and cost wise especially with the budget you allocated.

Then perhaps another forum will give you the answers you're looking for.

I have been an installer and tech for years and if you want to drop your money on a particular brand or product thats your choice and I defend it.
The knowledge base on this forum exceeds any audio store I have been in for the last 40 years and people devote their time and knowledge free of charge and stand to make no gains other than keeping others from making the mistakes most of us have already made.
As for your particular subs no I have not but rest assured if they were the great end all for the money they would have a thread such as the Paradigm Sub 2 etc etc. because there are forum members that have deep pockets and will purchase all in order to evaluate and eliminate products based on performance alone or performance per dollar. Good luck.

That kind of attitude is not going to help.

On what basis did you narrow down to PSB subs out of all the subs on this planet. I cant imagine any research/home work/reading that would steer you towards PSB subs. PSB speakers may be but PSB subs? PSB subs are just not the best value period. You are not going to get any feedback about them here. The unanimous suggestion here would be to go for ID subs. So dont ask that question here again.

If you are bent upon getting a PSB sub for whatever reason, you might want to go to the PSB speaker owners thread and ask. I bet even a die hard PSB speaker fan is not going to buy a PSB sub for the obvious reason that they are not the best value for the $ spent unless you get a major deal like the Klipsch RW-12D

Yea I don't even think commys would recommend a psb sub :/

Your question has already been implicitly answered. None of those PSB subs are suitable to go with your Dali Mentor 5s. They are not of sufficient sound quality to match up with them. Indeed, I would bet that the Dali Mentors produce much more articulate bass down to their low frequency roll off than the PSB subs, which would negate your reason for buying those particular subs because you wouldn't need the high pass filters. I have a 10" ported sub in that class (price/performance range), and I found that even the B&W 601 bookshelves that I used to have produced more detailed midbass (and they are bass shy) over the 10" sub (I now use that sub in a computer desktop 2.1 system). No one here is every going to recommend one of those subs to use with your setup. It would be a crime (lol).

Your problem is electronics, not the subs. If you get the Emotiva USP-1, you would have a pre-amp that would allow you to run any good sub. It has built in high pass filters. You could either run it as your main preamp with all of your components plugged into it, and then just use NAD as a power amp (plug it into the main amp inputs), or insert it into the processing audio chain on the NAD between pre out 1 and the main amp inputs.

If you have that, then the Rythmik F15HP would be an excellent choice. You need a high output sub given your room size, and the Rythmik subs are acknowledged to be some of the best sound quality in their price range, way better than what you would get out of the PSBs.

If you don't want to deal with an extra piece of electronics, it looks like the SVS PB13-Ultra has low and high pass filters like the PSB subs (verify this by calling SVS). But once again, the SVS is in a class that matches better with your Dali Mentors.

I'm curious to how you narrowed it down to dali or psb?