to sub or not to sub

Look at the top paragraph in my post. All I am saying is that if you pick the right equipment you can have an awesome woofer system. I have been building this system since 1978. With the help of the AudioMart. Do any of you remember the AudioMart? If you have not than you are either to young or you have way more money than I did or have at present. When eBay and the internet came along, the AudioMart went away. Then a little later AudiogoN appeared on the internet. Those classified publications are how I built my system. Robert Grost owner of Unity Audio now Cerious Technologies has been my best friend for the last 35 years. Being best friends gets me allot of perks, the cable for instance, some is passed model, some he built for me special and the rest is concept/prototype cable. The Unity Audio loudspeakers are all concept/prototypes. The front satellites are huge, a customer he was building then for backed out of the deal after Robert had finished cutting the cabinets out. Since it was a custom cabinet build, he was stuck with then. I talked to him about the cabinet pieces and we made a deal. It took me almost 10 years to finish them. Someone made the implication that the Gauss 18" driver wasn't a very good. That set of woofers was built in 1985 and I have never had to replace a driver. By the way with their efficiency and how low in frequency they go, they are still incredible today [15hz @ 117db 1watt/1meter]. If I had to replace these woofers today, I would try to find a deal on something like the 18" RE XXX Car woofers. Why, because their "free air resonance" value is around 18hz. The 13" mid-woofer cabinets were drawn out for me by Robert and I built them. The DC Hi Fi Chopper 1 gauge wire I purchased off from eBay. It was listed as Military Spec wire from a Military Helicopter. I bought 3 big spools, 2 were 1 gauge and 1 spool was 0 gauge [750' total for $500.00 freight included]. It's all Silver coated OFG stranded Copper. Now, you go on eBay to buy bulk wire like I purchased and you can't find it unless it's by the foot. I have never paid retail for any piece of equipment. I received a tip from a guy of all places Yamaha support that Crutchfield was selling the Yamaha RX-Z11 Receiver for $2500.00 freight included [MSRP $5500.00]. I just sold the Yamaha RX-3800 I owned, so I purchased the RX-Z11 [good timing, that's all]. I was looking for an Amp on eBay and AudiogoN to replace one that was damaged through a series of power surges paid for by my insurance. I found an ad on AudiogoN for a brand new pair of Theta Enterprise Mono Amps for $4200.00 [MSRP $12,500.00]. I thought, no way this guy was a fraud, I called him and he said he is a Dealer for Theta. So, I called Theta, they knew him and said he was a Theta dealer. I bought the amps and they were shipped to me right from Theta. My Son and I built the HTPC "Republic of Gamers" computer by ourselves for $2000.00. Best Blu-ray player I have seen and heard for under $3000.00. You can't buy this same setup from any pre-built computer gaming company for less than $4000.00. The Velodyne Digital Crossovers are awesome. I have spent from $225.00 to $325.00 [MSRP $750.00] on eBay and AudiogoN. The system in my post did not cost as much as you may think. I was lucky, resourceful and did allot of work myself.

jchong
Are forums about insults on grammar. I thought this was about exchanging information. I write most of my posts in Word then copy and paste. I do know how to write paragraphs.
I didn't realize this would become such an issue. I thought this was a forum for Audio/Video.
Edited by dchifi - 2/16/13 at 10:10am

Bill Fitzmaurice
Robert Grost is a genius when designing Sub-Woofer cabinets. He engineered a cabinet for the installation of 2 drivers using a calculated tuned labyrinth from the specifications of the drivers. In his design it increases the internal volume without building a huge cabinet. All of his sub-woofer designs are of this type. As a result of his design it loads the drivers to each other. This cabinet design really kicks butt!

BeeMan458
With any sub-woofer system assuming your amplifier and crossover are a good fit sonically you can make them disappear.
I use Velodyne Digital Crossovers because they have so many parameters that you can adjust. And they come with a remote to adjust the volume during playback. That's the beauty of being able to raise and lower the volume during playback. You can make the woofers disappear or turn them up for a little for more impact.
I use Threshold Amps because they make very good bass amps and they are fairly inexpensive. I have used the older version of the Bryston 4B amp. Two of the 4B's in mono make one incredible bass amp. However, the older 4B's are way more expensive than they use to be.

BeeMan458
I built my room from the basement of a living room addition. Measurements are 28'L X 15.5'W. I did not build the room to be luxurious or pretty. The room was designed by me to be as dead as I could get it on a budget. I did not hide anything. Its a man cave and I want to see as much of the equipment as possible.
The front wall and 3/4 of the side walls are concrete. Since the floor was concrete, I laid 2x4s wide side up and sub-floored with 3/4" OSB. Then laid thick carpet.
I added 2x4 stud to the concrete walls, installed 3 1/2" Fiberglass insulation to the stud walls. I searched and found this material called Techtum [used in schools to deaden the walls and ceilings]. One of the dimensions offered was 2' X 8' X 3/4". This was perfect, because I could install it like paneling.
Since the room is under the living room, I wanted to keep as much noise as possible from going through the ceiling. I stuffed 9 1/2" fiberglass bats of insulation in the 2" X 10" floor joists. Then I installed 2 1/2" X 4' X 8' sheets of Styrofoam to the ceiling, left a 4" air space, then installed a drop ceiling using 2' X 2' X 3/4" compressed fiberglass tiles. The front wall where the main speakers and sub-woofers are, I built another stud wall using 2' X 6" studs inside the Techtum wall and installed 4" of Sonex. Sonex runs all the way acrossed the front wall 15.5' and 8' down the side walls.
And the room sounds great.
These pictures were taken with my Samsung S III cell. When I get a chance I will take more picture with my Nikon.