AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Subwoofers, Bass, and Transducers › Small sub for bedroom - $150ish
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Small sub for bedroom - $150ish

post #1 of 11
11/29/12 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 
I picked up a pair of Kef IQ10's on their Black Friday special for the bedroom.

Need a small sub to back them up. Small, tight, more musical. Room is 14x14.

I have a Dayton 10" sub that I bought a few years back but like to get something that is of better quality to match the Kef's.

Can go up to 200...even used would be great. I just want to fill in the bottom end, not shake the walls.
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 11
11/29/12 at 10:54pm
Define small, tight, musical. Small is kinda easy, but measurements help. Tight is a strange word as is musical as they're completely subjective and vaguely defined. How does a sub match a Kef brand speaker? Personally I'd say keep the Dayton and save some money for a better sub, i.e. one capable of significant output (so you have sufficient headroom for now and the future) and/or extension (i.e. how low a frequency it can capably reproduce within a small range of the rest of the frequencies it can reproduce). But that's just me.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
11/30/12 at 6:34am

RE: Small sub for bedroom - $150ish

You could take a look at the martin Logan dynamo 300, or try to find a used Outlaw M8

Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
11/30/12 at 12:18pm
Martin Logan Dynamo 300 sounds like a great option - $150 shipped from Amazon right now.

I checked eBay and there's an S8.3 that fits in your budget: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Energy-S8-3-Subwoofer-excellent-condition-/160931555524

The S8.3 is the "baby brother" of the popular S10.3 subwoofer that's often recommended as a great budget buy. It's pretty compact in dimensions (taller than it is deep or wide) so it takes up little floor space, and the SX.3 subs are all very tight and musical with little distortion.

There's also a Mirage Omni S8 (the Mirage twin of the S8.3 from Energy) on Amazon Warehouse for $166 shipped. Says it has some cosmetic issues but functionally perfect.

I think any of these three should fit the bill.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
11/30/12 at 6:56pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the recommendations.

I tried the Dayton, horrible...it was still playing the last note when the next one started.

So by tight I mean fast, no reverb, no rumble. A non-ported sub I think would fit my needs better.


I'll look into the Martin Logan and the Energy. It looks like the Energy is sealed, is the ML?
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
11/30/12 at 7:25pm
The .3 on the Energy is reflecting that it has one driver and two passive radiators from what I knew before being corrected by eljaycanuck! You just want a good sub, the descriptors are marketing terms; accurate is a better term than tight or fast. Why would a sub have reverb? Trouble is the better subs start mostly around $300 on sale, $500 and more otherwise IMHO. Just depends how much the budget means vs the performance you're willing to settle for but personally I don't think you're going to get a lot for $150. You might also look through this thread http://www.avsforum.com/t/1364182/list-of-budget-subwoofers-300-and-less
Edited by lovinthehd - 11/30/12 at 7:40pm
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
11/30/12 at 7:30pm
Quote:
The .3 on the Energy is reflecting that it has one driver and two passive radiators ...
Just an FYI: I've had hands-on experience with several S10.3s and an S8.3, and they are unmistakably single-driver, ported subs. They do not have passive radiators. (Given that there was an S10.2 before the S10.3, I suspect the .3 just a "series number" indicator.)

And, fwiw, they're both pretty impressive performers for their relative sizes. The S10.3 is a wicked little sub, and for $200 - IMveryHO - it can't be beat.
Edited by eljaycanuck - 11/30/12 at 7:35pm
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
11/30/12 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eljaycanuck View Post

Quote:
The .3 on the Energy is reflecting that it has one driver and two passive radiators ...
Just an FYI: I've had hands-on experience with several S10.3s and an S8.3, and they are unmistakably single-driver, ported subs. They do not have passive radiators. (Given that there was an S10.2 before the S10.3, I suspect the .3 just a "series number" indicator.)

And, fwiw, they're both pretty impressive performers for their relative sizes. The S10.3 is a wicked little sub, and for $200 - IMveryHO - it can't be beat.

Thanks, was taking from someone else's supposed hands-on description. I know some others do use that sort of indicator in the model number, too...I've always heard nice things about them, tho.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
11/30/12 at 7:48pm
A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity - after several years of not hearing an S10.3 - to demo my buddy's S10.3 in my HT space. I did a quick-'n-dirty (three-point) calibration of the S10.3 and ran some clips, then did a similar calibration of my SS-18.1s and ran the same clips and, man, was that little 10" sub ever impressive!

Sure, it couldn't do what my dual 18" subs can do, but I was most impressed by the fact that it played reasonably loud, dug reasonably deep, hit reasonably hard in the mid-bass region and didn't make a bad sound that I could hear. Basically, it re-affirmed what I remembered about the S10.3: It's a wicked little sub! smile.gif
Edited by eljaycanuck - 11/30/12 at 7:58pm
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
12/1/12 at 6:22pm
Thread Starter 
Ended up with the Mirage S8.

I had a BB $225 gift card. They had the Mirage for $369, goes for around $329 online.

They had a problem with one of our deliveries on a washer and dryer we were taking care of with the manager, he saw we were buying the sub and knocked it down to $299.

So $75 out of pocket plus the tax on $300.

Really like the sub but it does seem a bit too big for the room. I had to keep turning it down. I have to place it and set it all up correctly but considering between the KEF IQ10's and the Mirage it was $325 out of pocket thats pretty hard to beat.

Now my next step is to replace the crappy Sony receiver in here.

Thanks for the suggestions. That sub does seem to hit the sweet spot in value.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
12/1/12 at 6:50pm
That little S8 is a great little sub, quite the overachiever. It was hard to part with it when I went with the bigger brother S10.3's, so I gave it to my farther in law so I can visit it. You should be very happy with it for a long time. smile.gif
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Subwoofers, Bass, and Transducers › Small sub for bedroom - $150ish