Subwoofers

[The_Burg]

oh dear. Just bought a tiddler. BK Gemini, was bored and eBay called.
Now just about dialled in, disappeared. Until a proper low note kicks in. Pink Floyd The Wall Pt3 has just exploded.
Apollo 440 has possibly made my neighbours slightly awake.

For a foot square cube mighty impressed.


Initially rather annoying, turn it down has to be the best advice, if you can notice it it's too loud. Once set right very impressive. Blue Sky's power chords just licked in......

[heisthegaffer]

I had a Gemini II for a while and it was fantastic although I found it far better for movies than music. I would love to get another one at some point

[tvrforever]

Now you've got me looking for a good sub-woofer... any recommendations?

[Nelly9]

http://www.mksound.com/subwoofers

[StuH]

What's your budget?

[matt666]

Ive got an XLS200 from BK, the big brother of the Gemini. You won't go wrong with anything from BK, the Monolith is apparently pretty special

[page3]

I have a Gemini II and paired with an Arcam AVR it was good.

Traded the Arcam for an Anthem and after calibrated with ARC the BK is simply amazing.

[OldSkoolRS]

I've got a 7-8 year old XLS200 in my conservatory set up, not bad for the size (and plenty of bass output for the use it gets out there). Originally had it in my living room, but it was lost in there. Then I upgraded to a Monolith plus in my main room set up but blew the driver twice, so I replaced it with a pair of 15" DIY subs.

BK are great value, but they are far from the ultimate in subwoofers; commercially something like JBL or Paradigm would be more like it, but the price of a decent weekend car. At more reasonable budgets I'd recommend looking at SVS or the MK 'V' models (the later V8 starts at £595, upto £995 for the V12).

[The_Burg]

Pretty much dialled in now, take a long while with lots of different material,

Very impressed for such a tiny box. Small enough to wife hasn't spotted it yet!

Running at low level it just fills the bottom end in without being in slightest obvious, initially I was running it way too loud.

[crossy67]

I have a Quad L sub. Big heavy box that shakes the room. I used to have the Kef one that came with my eggs, at the beginning of Transformers when the helicopter flew in it used to bounce round the room, the Quad just sits there making everything else jump round.

[ladderino]

Also have a Gemini and it's fantastic - initially bought for our tiny lounge when we lived in London, but still works reasonably well in the bigger room we have now.

It took a while to get used to - I think because I was used to fuzzy distorted bass (we'd had an old Creative Labs 5.1 system in the lounge before).

[marctwo]

I also have a Gemini II, it's a great sub for it's size and cost. I initially spent ages messing with the cutoff only to realise that this is not nearly as important as the phase. Once the phase was setup properly the whole system just came alive.

[Esseesse]

I haven't had a sub for ages (or anything for movies for that matter), but I have a pair of 12" Adire Audio Shiva's in a box waiting to be used one day.

Edited by Esseesse on Tuesday 21st April 11:36

[allnighter]

As far as reliability and quality you cannot beat the REL subs. I have had the original REL Strata which has been shaking my lounge for the last 15 years no problem.

[gizlaroc]

I love the Strata, I still have two plugged into the back of both my Sony TVs (set to variable out) and set to 120hz crossover and they sound great.

I had the Studio for a while and went back to the Stratas. I bought two and ran them stereo, it was very impressive.

£100 used now, superbly musical.

[allnighter]

gizlaroc said:

I love the Strata, I still have two plugged into the back of both my Sony TVs (set to variable out) and set to 120hz crossover and they sound great.

I had the Studio for a while and went back to the Stratas. I bought two and ran them stereo, it was very impressive.

£100 used now, superbly musical.

Good value too. 60Hz is the maximum I would go for. I don't want to know where my bass is coming from.

Edited by allnighter on Tuesday 21st April 20:46

[gizlaroc]

allnighter said:

Good value too. 60Hz is the maximum I would go for. I don't want to know where my bass is coming from.

When it is used with a flat panel TV that struggles to go down to 120hz it works extremely well, and the sub is behind the TV in the corner, so no problem.

My Studio did everything from 16-38hz and the speakers did the rest. My Stratas did everything from 56hz and below as this gave the flatest room response before adding any room correction.

[AC43]

I was going to suggest an MJ Acoustics Pro 50 but it seems to have been discontinued.

http://www.whathifi.com/mj-acoustics/pro-50-mkii/r...

I also have a Tannoy HTS which does the job nicely

http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-3350-tannoy-hts-subwoof...

The other one I have is an older Mordaunt Short Genie - currently unused due its slightly naff silver finish but nothing wrong with the audio side 0f things.

[TX1]

The BK subs are great value for money, have the XLS200 MK2 which I find gives a nice boom when needed and also offers subtle when needed.
Be hard pressed to find something £ for £ as good.

[hilly10]

I have always been impressed with my 10 inch Kef Sub bought in 2006 really brings the crash and bangs in movies to the forefront . It's on its second motherboard but a £100 for the repair its well worth it