I've almost finished assembling my first attempt at a planned audio setup. I'm happy with things so far, and a subwoofer is the next step. Rear/surrounds are going to be very difficult indeed to place properly, see the floorplan, but hopefully a sub will be easy enough to place. I've included everything I can think of that might be relevant, but the question briefly is whether to get a ported or sealed unit. I've done a bit of reading on this, have some ideas, but I'm looking at a budget of around $700, a fairly large purchase for me, and as speakers are something know little about I'd rather be guided by knowledgeable people with first hand experience. I have done some reading, and I think it's a fairly clear decision as to what kind of speaker would suit me, my room, my music and budget.
I really like the SVS units, the SB-1000 and PB-1000. They get great praise everywhere I've read, and I haven't heard of any misfortunes with them. I'm not overly impressed with the Monitor Audio sub in the Bronze range that I've been buying from, it seems to be quite overpriced. The Bronze range seems to have a sweet spot of value for money for the BX2s, but the sub steps out from that.
The SVS units
SVS SB-1000
http://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/sealed-box/SB-1000
SVS PB-1000
http://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/ported-box/PB-1000
I've looked at and researched a few other subs, the BIC PL-200, the Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Plus, but given the fairly loose coupling between a reviewer and the client (me) I came away liking the SVS gear more. Did I underestimate the other subs ? SVS also make 12" subs, would that be worthwhile given the large increase in cost, or simply excessive ?
Gear I have already:
Denon AVR-X1000 receiver
http://au.denon.com/au/Product/Pages/Product-Detail.aspx?CatId=20ea224d-25b8-4cb0-bff0-e17b72b04593&SubId=b317010e-18ac-4dee-ab7a-5d374a9c8050&ProductId=AVR-X1000
Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 front
http://www.monitoraudio.com.au/products/bronze-bx/bx2/
Monitor Audio Bronze BX Centre
http://www.monitoraudio.com.au/products/bronze-bx/bx-centre/
I have a home built computer/HTPC as source, with content aiming for high quality high bitrate video and flac audio using WASAPI.
The attachment is a reasonable diagram of the lounge / listening area. Grey objects are bookshelves / cabinets, blue is furnishing & curtains. The solid red boxes are my speakers (drawn to scale !). The hatched red boxes are some possible locations for a sub. The space is fairly small, 1548 cubic feet, carpeted. The two openings in the walls are open archways leading to the kitchen and the hallway. The swinging door at the rear is the front door. It's a bit over 2m (6 1/2') between the lounge and the TV.
The shelving on the back walls breaks up reflections nicely, but the TV/front speaker area is cramped and I can't do much about it. The area is reasonably small, too, given that I really only use the 'front' half of it, ie the half closest to the TV.
The centre speaker is sitting on 75cm of concrete building blocks and are at almost ear level when seated, the fronts are sitting on styrofoam that's sitting on an old pair of speakers, hardly ideal but the foam seems to stops resonance and again puts them at ear level. I'd be most interested in other ways to mount the small (35cm tall) BX2 speakers. I've seen steel tubing stands for hundreds of dollars, surely there's a better/cheaper way? I can't attach them to the wall, this is a rental unit, and sitting them on the floor would make them too low I think.
There's no plans for extra zones or extra amps (the X1000 sold here in Australia is different to the one sold in the USA, it has no pre- out, most noticeably). I may investigate USB - S/PDIF devices at some stage but that won't affect anything else. And I hope to devise something better for the BX2s to sit on (more concrete blocks standing on end?). Otherwise, no major changes foreseen.
One review site summarised the subwoofer issue, and the purpose of this post :
" If you have the room, and you want to get loud, go with a ported box. If you're limited on space or are looking for the best sound quality possible, it would generally be best to go with a sealed box. "
http://www.klausaudio.com/subwoofer-box-articles/sealed-vs.-ported.php
And that seems to be a consensus from all I've read. From my reading, it seems sealed boxes are more accurate and tend to be best in a small listening environment, while ported boxes will produce a louder, 'larger' sound, though perhaps at the expense of a little distortion, and they commonly use much larger cabinets. That's certainly the case with the PB-1000 / SB-1000.
Also, I tend to listen to a lot of 'alternate' music, with hard electronic drums - Dead Can Dance, Moby, and also something softer - Mazzy Star, Sarah Blasko, where IMHO a clean drum and bass is far more important than a loud one. I don't imagine for one second that ported subs suffer from the boombox maladay that affects a lot of people, but I have a small apartment, don't push the amp up to anything beyond 'a bit loud' and really appreciate what one of my friends calls 'complicated' music- that which has many tracks mixed down.
I've discovered the 77 page thread on the SB-1000 and PB-1000, exactly what I want! I'll be eagerly reading that. I wrote this in a text editor, being not quite sure where best to post it, came here and noticed a massive helpful thread that probably answers all my questions, but thought I'd post this now it's written, there may be some very strong opinions and while I'm not going to buy anything immediately it'd help to know I'm heading in the right direction.
So that is where I am. The ported or non ported SVS units, or other suggestions. The SB-1000 seems to fit my use case very well, but .. I'm sure there's a but, somewhere, there always is. It looks to me like I may just have enough information and a long discussion, in a kindly serendipitous finding.
Many thanks for any thoughts on this.

I really like the SVS units, the SB-1000 and PB-1000. They get great praise everywhere I've read, and I haven't heard of any misfortunes with them. I'm not overly impressed with the Monitor Audio sub in the Bronze range that I've been buying from, it seems to be quite overpriced. The Bronze range seems to have a sweet spot of value for money for the BX2s, but the sub steps out from that.
The SVS units
SVS SB-1000
http://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/sealed-box/SB-1000
SVS PB-1000
http://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/ported-box/PB-1000
I've looked at and researched a few other subs, the BIC PL-200, the Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Plus, but given the fairly loose coupling between a reviewer and the client (me) I came away liking the SVS gear more. Did I underestimate the other subs ? SVS also make 12" subs, would that be worthwhile given the large increase in cost, or simply excessive ?
Gear I have already:
Denon AVR-X1000 receiver
http://au.denon.com/au/Product/Pages/Product-Detail.aspx?CatId=20ea224d-25b8-4cb0-bff0-e17b72b04593&SubId=b317010e-18ac-4dee-ab7a-5d374a9c8050&ProductId=AVR-X1000
Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 front
http://www.monitoraudio.com.au/products/bronze-bx/bx2/
Monitor Audio Bronze BX Centre
http://www.monitoraudio.com.au/products/bronze-bx/bx-centre/
I have a home built computer/HTPC as source, with content aiming for high quality high bitrate video and flac audio using WASAPI.
The attachment is a reasonable diagram of the lounge / listening area. Grey objects are bookshelves / cabinets, blue is furnishing & curtains. The solid red boxes are my speakers (drawn to scale !). The hatched red boxes are some possible locations for a sub. The space is fairly small, 1548 cubic feet, carpeted. The two openings in the walls are open archways leading to the kitchen and the hallway. The swinging door at the rear is the front door. It's a bit over 2m (6 1/2') between the lounge and the TV.
The shelving on the back walls breaks up reflections nicely, but the TV/front speaker area is cramped and I can't do much about it. The area is reasonably small, too, given that I really only use the 'front' half of it, ie the half closest to the TV.
The centre speaker is sitting on 75cm of concrete building blocks and are at almost ear level when seated, the fronts are sitting on styrofoam that's sitting on an old pair of speakers, hardly ideal but the foam seems to stops resonance and again puts them at ear level. I'd be most interested in other ways to mount the small (35cm tall) BX2 speakers. I've seen steel tubing stands for hundreds of dollars, surely there's a better/cheaper way? I can't attach them to the wall, this is a rental unit, and sitting them on the floor would make them too low I think.
There's no plans for extra zones or extra amps (the X1000 sold here in Australia is different to the one sold in the USA, it has no pre- out, most noticeably). I may investigate USB - S/PDIF devices at some stage but that won't affect anything else. And I hope to devise something better for the BX2s to sit on (more concrete blocks standing on end?). Otherwise, no major changes foreseen.
One review site summarised the subwoofer issue, and the purpose of this post :
" If you have the room, and you want to get loud, go with a ported box. If you're limited on space or are looking for the best sound quality possible, it would generally be best to go with a sealed box. "
http://www.klausaudio.com/subwoofer-box-articles/sealed-vs.-ported.php
And that seems to be a consensus from all I've read. From my reading, it seems sealed boxes are more accurate and tend to be best in a small listening environment, while ported boxes will produce a louder, 'larger' sound, though perhaps at the expense of a little distortion, and they commonly use much larger cabinets. That's certainly the case with the PB-1000 / SB-1000.
Also, I tend to listen to a lot of 'alternate' music, with hard electronic drums - Dead Can Dance, Moby, and also something softer - Mazzy Star, Sarah Blasko, where IMHO a clean drum and bass is far more important than a loud one. I don't imagine for one second that ported subs suffer from the boombox maladay that affects a lot of people, but I have a small apartment, don't push the amp up to anything beyond 'a bit loud' and really appreciate what one of my friends calls 'complicated' music- that which has many tracks mixed down.
I've discovered the 77 page thread on the SB-1000 and PB-1000, exactly what I want! I'll be eagerly reading that. I wrote this in a text editor, being not quite sure where best to post it, came here and noticed a massive helpful thread that probably answers all my questions, but thought I'd post this now it's written, there may be some very strong opinions and while I'm not going to buy anything immediately it'd help to know I'm heading in the right direction.
So that is where I am. The ported or non ported SVS units, or other suggestions. The SB-1000 seems to fit my use case very well, but .. I'm sure there's a but, somewhere, there always is. It looks to me like I may just have enough information and a long discussion, in a kindly serendipitous finding.
Many thanks for any thoughts on this.