need help choosing the right sub

Effectively most subs around $100 pretty much stink.

HTIB subs from Sony, Onkyo, etc - are especially horrible.

If your budget is truly $100 you'd better look for a half price sale, or perhaps something used off craigslist or even this forum.

Wharfedales are not a bad set of speakers. You could do MUCH worse. I own Wharfedale Sapphire towers, including a pair of Sapphire bookshelves and like them. They'll sure outclass a $100 sub.

To give you an idea of why I'm not too excited about budget subs - take a look at this Pioneer SW-8 frequency response graphing I performed. Read the review - digest it. Realize how much of an utter failure this sub is compared to subs that cost $200 or $300. Yes it's double or triple the price - but it's way way way more than 2 or 3x's the performance. And we aren't talking big money here - we are talking about saving for another week or maybe even a month if you are younger --- It's worth the wait!
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1401651/pioneer-sw-8-omnimic-frequency-response-graphs/0_20

Keep in mind that the SW-8 sub that reviewed so poorly is a 5 star out of 5 star rating on newegg. I guess people just don't know or care. it's definitely an audible thing - it's not like you can't tell if you listen. Just depends on how much you like listening to music and watching movies on something that sounds good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882117402

The non discerning purchaser hears lower sound and says --- yep this set out to do exactly what I wanted it to do - adds rumble. The majority of folk on this forum would most likely NOT be happy with the SW-8. I'd personally rate it about a 1 star -- 2 if I was feeling generous. I have one - I actually RMA'ed the first one because it was so bad I thought it was broken. Sad thing is - the SW-8 is significantly better than most HTIB subwoofers. A buddy of mine bought a Polk PSW10 on one of the recent sales for $80. If you haven't heard better it's great --- that's what he said to me. My response - Once you've heard better then it sounds like it's farting on nearly every note.

I personally wouldn't recommend much under $300, and then I'd recommend the Klipsch RW-12D from what I know currently to be available. That's way over your stated budget - and if you don't need that much to be happy - then ignore --- but in my mind that's about the cheapest budget sub I've heard that would be satisfactory to me. If you trust the newegg reviewers than the SW-8 is all the rave.

The BIC F12 at $199 is so much a better sub than the SW-8 that any comparison is utterly pointless. The SW-8 taxes out at about 85dB max. The BIC F12 at about 115dB. Both falter a bit above 30hz, but you could actually enjoy watching a movie with the BIC F12. The RW-12D I mentioned earlier covers the majority of the subwoofer audible frequency spectrum for the most part and is a better subwoofer for that reason --- extending to down to 22hz or 24hz or so which is pretty outstanding at the $300 pricepoint.

This thread might be a reasonable resource to you to see what others recommend at pricepoints: I've come to realize I'm a bit of a spoiled subwoofer snob these days - but once you hear a good sub - it's hard to go back and get any excitement boiled up about inexpensive offerings.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1425179/the-subwoofer-recommendation-by-pricepoint-thread/0_20
Edited by Archaea - 1/28/13 at 8:32pm

I'm not an audiophile. I have the Polk PSW10 and for 84 bucks it sounds pretty damn good. I also have the Hsu VTF-15H and that thing is a monster but cost 1000 bucks. Take a look at Hsu smaller subs.

You might be surpised how nice the Polk sounds for the price.

For 300 bucks you could get a new Hsu STF-1, downfiring 8" sub.

junk

but it is active (powered) if dirt cheap you could try it out and throw it in the garage if it's especially terrible.

a passive sub needs an amp to make sound.