Budget sub, 2 subs or 1 higher quality sub for Large volume (I think)

I recently moved into a larger home, my last HT room had 12x10 walls with 8' ceiling. I had a cheap 8" sub with 100w that came with a HTiB, it shook enough, forgetting that the quality was just trash. Now, I've noticed that it almost appears that my sub is not even working in the new home. The floors are laminate, the living room connects to the kitchen and dining and is pretty much open. There is a 4 1/2' wall separating the living / dining and it is open above that, in the kitchen there is a bar that stands 5' high and the other half goes all the way to the ceiling. The dimensions for this entire area is 30' x 24' x 10'. The 30' wall is divided by the separator I spoke of, it is 16' from the living room wall to that wall. So to that wall the room is 16 x 24 x 10 (But I included the above detail for more accuracy).

There may be standing waves, or the volume of the room is just so much that the sub just doesn't put out enough. It turns on, it does make sounds and some vibration, however, in the last room I would have it turned to 11o'clock and it would sometimes be too much bass (not for me but others)(on a 7oclock to 5oclock scale). Now I have it at like 3-4oclock and it makes no difference from 11-4oclock the sub seems to put out the same. I opened it up and checked fuses, none were blown. I think the room size has played with my head cause I was thinking the sub just went bad.

Anyways, I've been reading these forums for a while now, looking at budget subs etc. I was first going to purchase 1 budget sub ~250-300, but now I'm thinking that it wont be enough. I was thinking of raising my budget to be 400-450 and either getting a better quality sub or 2 budget subs.

My number 1 choice for budget sub right now is the PL-200, based purely on research. I also like what the PA-150 seems to offer. I noticed the HSU-STF2 is on sale right now too. After more and more digging I started to think that maybe because of my layout I'm going to have serious issues feeling/hearing base in my seating positions. So then I was thinking of maybe a higher quality sub closer to $500? I also thought about getting 2 HD-Sub12's for $400 total, although I've only seen very few reviews info on those particular subs, I cannot go over $500 shipped though, that is the absolute max.

Any and all input is welcome. I'm trying to attach a sketch of my living room. LivingRoom.JPG 13k .JPG file

I wonder where the best position for my sub is, I tried doing crawl with my crappy 50w RMS 100w peak Yamaha but it makes almost no difference (I think because of the shear size of the room I'm trying to fill). I don't know how the wall that divides living room and dining room effects the sub, is that corner ideal or the one where it actually is a full wall like the corner top right of the room? How does a sub reflect with Open walls like that? Thanks!

I almost forgot to mention this is 100% HT usage, if any music is played at all it will be usually through a TV channel and quality is of little importance, we want the best HT experience we can get out of our budget.
Edited by clanmjc - 10/19/12 at 8:14am

I actually forgot about the Klipsch, I ruled it out when I was strictly staying under 300 and the PL-200 was the front runner at $280. I still learn towards it but I've been growing ever more excited about the pa-150. My room is large, I know my budget doesn't allow for superior HT experience with the size of room I have. I do expect, however, that almost any of these subs mentioned will destroy the 50w yamaha I currently use. Even if these subs can just do what the yamaha did in my 12 x 10 x 8 room I'd be happy. Have you had any experience with the HD-SUB12? Would dual anything give me more output than say 1 Klipsch/PL-200/PA-150? Thanks.

So Yamaha was filling 960 volume.
These will need to fill 7200 (If you don't consider the 4 1/2 wall and kitchen/bar obstruction areas, should they be factored?). Meaning, even though there is a wall, but the upper half of the wall that divides the living room and dining room is open, when I am figuring out how much ouput I need do I consider this closed or open? The difference is 16 x 30 x 10 vs 24 x 30 x 10.

ack_bk Thanks for your responses, I've read your other threads... when you first got your PA, didn't realize it was you until now. I've dug a little deeper, I think a single PA given my budget will fill my needs for now given the size of room I'm trying to fill. I'm sure it will probably sound much better. In fact I believe this is my preference, I just need to make sure the sheer size of this guy will be ok with the wife. I may even try sneaking it in while she is not there.

I cant see either of those pictures they just show the broken link icon.

Would you mind taking a look at my diagram and look at my seating arangment, where would you suggest the most optimal (in my non optimal situation) spot for the subwoofer to go would be? Even if I might have to move some of my seating around.

Nice lol.

Which couch, left or right side? BTW, I pulled the trigger on the pa-150 , can't wait. I think since we moved to a larger home my old subwoofer is just underwhelming in this room... I mean to the point that I think its dead, but its not.

I've got Monitor 60's and CSII center, those are working "fine" for our likes, I would always love bigger and better but I don't wear the pants. I'm hoping the sub upgrade will fill the gap, like I said I was previously using the box package Yamaha 50w Subwoofer (ha). The prime spot is obviously right in the middle (left side of the right couch), I usually sit on the far left couch.

So if I put the sub in the Right front corner, do I face it into the center of the room, to the East wall, to the North wall, towards the exact corner of the wall? I'm going to try the sub crawl, but it may be a while before I can give that a go with my wife around. I don't know how "acceptable" it would be lol.

BTW ack_bk I was able to see the pictures from my mobile, for some reason not on my PC, that is a massive Sub! Got a cute little one there too :P

I got it in today! "Is this real life?" Is my first impression, I'll come back with something more tangible tomorrow. But wow, for 1 sub in a 7200 cubic foot room(s) this is great.

Been Demoing it to the neighbors, they've never heard anything like this (of course they never tried to either). It's great, in that size room it will be plenty of power (overpowering if you want it to be). I must say I'm very impressed with the output I am getting in such a large volume room. I see what people are saying about having 2 or 4 subs to even out the sound. The output is honestly great, I don't have the best home theater placement locations nor room acoustics so there are some listening positions that would benefit from having another sub. Do I need another sub? No. Can I tell where there are "Null' zones, yes, but there is still bass there, just not as strong if I move a few feet in the other direction. THat's just being critical, as far as I'm concerned anyone that listens to this that is not into the Home Theater experience is going to be utterly shocked and amazed. I've got the volume on the sub @ 6, it goes 0 - 10. I've pushed it close to reference levels and it is a BEAST. No distortion, my house shakes. The scene in Transformers: Dark of the moon where Sam is in Bumble Bee and they are chasing the 3 Tahoe Decepticons down the highway where he jumps over the wreckage and transforms... goes into this Sick Bone Snapping Low Frequency Symphony and this thing gets LOUD, Clean,Tight, Punchy and puts a smile on my face.

It's big, bigger in person than in the pictures I've seen but boy does it look good. The paint is wonderful, this is a well built sub. I didn't tell my wife about it, it was a surprise, she loves it! When we were demoing I had it up loud, I mean LOUD, when she brings the neighbors over she raised it up another 10db... LOL??? (Yeah, she likes good sound too lucky me).

I'll definitely be getting a second down the road, they would think I was crazy if I got another right now the way it sounds (they just don't understand though LOL).

I've got a question for you, I've got the sub crossover all the way over @ 200hz (I believe is the top), I use the AVR crossover at 80hz, is this right? I noticed in the manual for the sub it says put it at 80hz (but doesn't mention anything about AVR, so maybe that is in a non AVR crossover usage? Also what volume settings on the sub have you played around with, did you leave it at 6, turn it up from there, go down from there?

I know this is probably relative but when we watch movies, using the Yamaha 493 reciever, we usually have the volume between -10 and -20, it's pretty loud, I kind of want to push the sub up even more I don't know if that is not recommended and/or I should let it brake in more.

It's great, I actually turn it down a little bit for music. (I don't have the best setup for music). Did you end up getting it? It will destroy that size of a room, literally...