Subwoofer to Integrate Into In-Ceiling Speaker Music Set Up

[allgonepetetong]

Guys

I recently installed 4 Blu-Cube CXCL 650 6" in-ceiling speakers at home. http://blucubespeakers.co.uk/acatalog/CXCL_range.h...

The speakers are being run by a Cyrus7 stereo amp with PSX-R and the room is 950 cuFT in volume.

The problem I have is that there is literally no bass. There's a bit of mid bass, but nothing much to speak of. I know the room is pretty large and therefore the speakers are struggling to shift he volume of air needed, so I'm in need (I think) of a subwoofer to get some low end extension.

Can anyone with knowledge of these things recomend a sub that would do the job? I guess I'm looking at something 10" plus and would like to keep the cost proportionate and in line with those of the main speakers (£500 all in). Something with auto EQ would also be good.

thanks

Pete

[OldSkoolRS]

I think that within budget you are going to struggle, especially with your built in EQ requirement. Perhaps if you're willing to look at used subwoofers then you might be able to find something suitable (perhaps an SVS model) as that is still quite a large space. A little 10" sub isn't going to do it IMHO (I have one in my conservatory which is only 4 x 4 metres which is more in keeping with that size of sub).

If you insist on new then I'd suggest looking into BK Electronics range. I currently have the Monolith in my 6.5 x 4 metre living room (though shortly going to replace it with a pair of sealed 15" DIY subs). My conservatory sub is the XLS200.

BK's website (I'd suggest at least the XLS400 if not the Monolith/Monolith Plus):

http://www.bkelec.com/hifi/sub_woofers.htm

Or you could split the difference and perhaps look for two used BK subs as having two subs can help especially if your room suffers from bad nulls (the reason I'm changing to a pair).

Used subs on here (read the trading rules though as no trading via PMs for example):

http://www.avforums.com/forums/speaker-and-subwoof...

[Paul Drawmer]

I'm new to subs and I bought one of these...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REL-QUAKE-Powered-Subwoo...

Not auto EQ, but actually very adjustable. Should be run with both hi-level and low level inputs connected so that it extends your speakers' range and can be used as an effects speaker for movies.

MUST use good quality cable for the LFE RCA connection.

Not expensive 2nd hand - will cost you £100 -£130 to try out.

[Crackie]

allgonepetetong said:

Guys

I recently installed 4 Blu-Cube CXCL 650 6" in-ceiling speakers at home. http://blucubespeakers.co.uk/acatalog/CXCL_range.h...

The speakers are being run by a Cyrus7 stereo amp with PSX-R and the room is 950 cuFT in volume.

The problem I have is that there is literally no bass. There's a bit of mid bass, but nothing much to speak of. I know the room is pretty large and therefore the speakers are struggling to shift he volume of air needed, so I'm in need (I think) of a subwoofer to get some low end extension.

Can anyone with knowledge of these things recomend a sub that would do the job? I guess I'm looking at something 10" plus and would like to keep the cost proportionate and in line with those of the main speakers (£500 all in). Something with auto EQ would also be good.

thanks

Pete

Just a thought, your Blu-Cube speakers have +/- 3dB adjustment on the bass, mid and treble. If the bass is set low ( or the mid & treble are set high ) then the symptoms would be as you described. Blu-Cube's spec says the speakers play down to 45Hz so, whilst not sub territory, it should not sound like " literally no bass " as you've described.

Edited by Crackie on Monday 25th November 23:03

[OldSkoolRS]

I believe that BK are the OEM for those REL subs, in which case the Gemini would be the 'direct' equivalent of that. This is smaller than my XLS200 (8" verses 10" driver) so I'd still say it's too small for the OP's room, though worth a try as not everyone likes to (or can) run at reference level which is my target (minus a few dB to save me ears...).

[allgonepetetong]

Crackie said:

Just a thought, your Blu-Cube speakers have +/- 3dB adjustment on the bass, mid and treble. If the bass is set low ( or the mid & treble are set high ) then the symptoms would be as you described. Blu-Cube's spec says the speakers play down to 45Hz so, whilst not sub territory, it should not sound like " literally no bass " as you've described.

Edited by Crackie on Monday 25th November 23:03

I saw this too and wondered what it was, so spoke to the manufacturer help line as I could only see treble and woofer gain on my installed speakers. It turns out there isn’t actually any bass gain and the literature was copied over in error from a previous model in error.

OldSkoolRS said:

I believe that BK are the OEM for those REL subs, in which case the Gemini would be the 'direct' equivalent of that. This is smaller than my XLS200 (8" verses 10" driver) so I'd still say it's too small for the OP's room, though worth a try as not everyone likes to (or can) run at reference level which is my target (minus a few dB to save me ears...).

Quite. I have tried moving my 8” REL sub in from the front room and while it does help, it gets a bit lost.

So what I’m thinking is to run REW on the installed speakers, without the aid of a sub, to see how low they go and where they are rolling off at and adding a BK XXLS400 (12” 400W RMS) sealed sub ( at OldSkoolRS’s suggestion) and adjust the crossover point to where the mains roll off.

Later I may swap out the Cyrus 7 stereo amp currently running the mains for my Yamaha AV amp that I have in the front room (good excuse to upgrade the front room) and power each speaker off its own 100w channel, rather than 2 speakers per 70w channel they currently receive from the Cyrus. This will also allow me to run the sub off the LFE channel and apply crossover to the mains at 60hz to prevent any bass frequency distortion.

What do you think?

[OldSkoolRS]

The Yamaha will help WRT being able to set up a crossover, but I'll put money on it that the power output won't be as high as you might think for a receiver (even Yamaha). Having said that if you're only running it on two channels then it might give close to it's rated output. Many AVRs tend to cheat with their power ratings and only quote one channel driven at quite high distortion. In practice once the other channels kick in the power supply can't provide enough current to run all the channels at that rated output so the level will be reduced.

It's the reason I run a separate power amp on my AVR and only use it's internal amps to power my surround speakers to share the load out.

[allgonepetetong]

I'd probably run it off 4 of the 7 channels as I have 2 pairs of speakers in the ceiling.

Or do you still think that the Cyrus with the PSXr would still be better? BTW the speakers are wired in parallel and present a 8 ohm load to the amp.

[OldSkoolRS]

There probably won't be that much in it, but at least with the Yamaha you can properly filter the lower bass out of the speaker's signal which should help. One of those things where you just have to to suck it and see. The 8ohm load to the Yamaha should be fine though.

[allgonepetetong]

Cheers OldSkool.

As each speaker would be powered by it's own dedicated channel on the Yamaha it would see a 4ohm load. It's only an 8ohm load to the Cyrus due to it being a stereo amp powering 4 speakers.

I'll give it a whirl somtime and see what sounds better.

[OldSkoolRS]

Yes, can't beat using your ears. Be interested to find out how you get on.