Thanks for the response. I looked at the SVS and it does tick many of the right boxes, size, return-ability and remote app. I'm just not sure of the ability of a 12" sub at that price point to be able to run with the 8" woofers and panels on music. If it was movies only I'd think it might be perrfect. I do have more reviews to get into though, thanks for taking the time to respond.
10" self powered sub-woofers.....
I was using an NHT B10 d to supplement the bottom end of my Acoustat 100 hybrid speakers... electrostatic panel over an 8" woofer module. Due to the unexpected death of one of the subs in our living room I decided to move the B10 d there, to augment an NHT C10, and replace the sub in my listening room/office.
Since I've had good experiences with Stereophile Recommended Components over the years I decided to look up their recommendations on 10" subs and found a Martin Logan Dynamo 800X which is a 300 W 10" sub with ARC and phone app controls. It also meets the maximum width of 14.0" I have available for it. The other alternative is the also recommended JL Audio E110 at about double the price. Since there really aren't any salons in Miami to go listen to this gear being able to return it after 60 days or thereabouts if it doesn't work as contemplated is essential. I can get the ML from Music Direct or Amazon... probably Best Buy too.
Any other recommendations are welcome as long as they meet the 14.0 maximum width criteria, are self powered and designed for music as a primary application vs. home theater explosions.
Thanks
Since I've had good experiences with Stereophile Recommended Components over the years I decided to look up their recommendations on 10" subs and found a Martin Logan Dynamo 800X which is a 300 W 10" sub with ARC and phone app controls. It also meets the maximum width of 14.0" I have available for it. The other alternative is the also recommended JL Audio E110 at about double the price. Since there really aren't any salons in Miami to go listen to this gear being able to return it after 60 days or thereabouts if it doesn't work as contemplated is essential. I can get the ML from Music Direct or Amazon... probably Best Buy too.
Any other recommendations are welcome as long as they meet the 14.0 maximum width criteria, are self powered and designed for music as a primary application vs. home theater explosions.
Thanks
Showing 21 responses by midareff1
@donvito .. thanks for the info. Unfortunately there are no real "dealers" with retail stores in my area, just custom installer dealers, and they only deal through stores. It is a very interesting product and if this was for a home theater application it might be AOK and I would probably take a shot. I have a real concern about the response speed of this unit being able to match the response speed of the 8" woofers and panels. While the NHT B10 d could match the NHT C10 couldn't or I would have stayed with it. Instead they are both doing service in living room home theater.. @ghosthouse4 .... thanks for your response. 1) is certainly true. I recently upgraded a digital front end including power and digital cables and this hobby knows no limits. 2).. LOL, might be true but until it proves itself in my system is isn't true and many have marched in with gear and left with it. Setting a sub with a phone app and room correction software is a new world for me after correcting my room with ASC traps, tubes and panels. I wrote down the recommended test track and will try it. Stereophile shows a recommendation for several of their larger subs and that does count for something. I think I'm starting to lean to the Martin Logan unit due to 60 day satisfaction guarantee from MDirect and the similarity of designs in Martin Logan's brand with their electrostatic hybrids and my Acoustats. I tried their app in Demo mode and find it pretty amazing too, better than 70 trips to the back of the sub-woofer to turn dials. Thanks for taking the time to respond. @boxer12 ... appreciate the response. 45.5" high sub-woofer tower is not what I had in mind. ... nor is a three month wait. This is more a story of speed, accuracy and sophistication instead of brute force. |
@ghosthouse4 thanks again... I have a test track for you as well. It has some lower guitar notes and an organ note the NHT B10 d could not handle, the C10 did better but not decently. It’s on a Patricia Barber album, "A Distortion of Love", 24 bit FLAC on Qobuzz, I suppose Tidal has it as well. I believe it’s on cut 1, "Summertime", but without a sub in the system today I can’t tell you where it is time wise in the cut as the 8" woofers in the Acoustat modules simply didn't acknowledge it’s existence. While they do a fabulous job fleshing out vocals and instruments below the panels range their ability to do bass fiddle and low organ notes is somewhat (LOL) compromised. They were rated -3db at 30 hz when new three decades ago and could use help down there now, especially with by a sub with contour controls. The ML is rated 24-200 hz with controls for +/- 10 db @ 20-30Hz Level. The B10 d was rated -3 db @ 29 hz and the C10 was rated @ -3db at 22 hz. I’m going to sleep on it tonight but I seem to be convincing myself that ML from MD is right for my application. |
@ artemus_5 thanks for the response. The 9i is listed at -6 db at 29 hz. That's really not the direction I want to go and prefer a product more advanced on the phone control technology side. @ oldhvymec thanks for the response. There is one in every crowd, isn't there?! @ m-db Thanks for the response. I am aware they are alive and well and producing and selling new product. What I don't see is any advances in phone app control tech. The NHT C doesn't even have a damping setting (movie, music) so beyond the really nice NHT black piano lacquer finish I think I can do considerable better. . I made a conscious decision to upgrade both rooms low frequency response rather than try and get something repaired in Miami. Boxing and shipping a 15 year old sub for repairs didn't seem to make much sense to me either and I have already given it to a friend who likes to try to do repairs like this would most likely entail.. It's already been picked up......I kept the screw in spikes and power cord.I like NHT gear.... I have a bedroom system which has their original video tower 5.1 set with their 12 sub which I bought after two Velodyne's failed right after their warranty expired. I think 3 NHT powered subs in one house may be enough. :-).. |
@m-db Thanks for writing back. It's not so much the smartphone to calibrate anything. It is, and always will be my ears. OTOH, being able to adjust volume by +/- a db, slope, and eq it in three places within it's response band from my listening chair should be terrific. I'm trying to dial in a pair of 10's in the living room system (5.2) now and to get to one it's move the chair and slide over the plant to get to it and the other has to be accessed from the rear which means open the sliding doors to get to the back from the balcony. I'll probably never get them exactly where I want them due to the PIA factor. @boxer12 Thanks for writing back. Perhaps I could dress them up as a totem poles? ... LOL, in reality there are already tower traps, bass traps and studio traps in place at the front of the room in addition to side and rear panels. A couple of 45.5" high sub towers just won't fit, even if I wanted them too. I'll place my order tomorrow AM with MD if they don't collect Florida sales tax, if they have started it will be Bezosed and be here Friday. |
@doctors11 Seems both Crutchfield and Music Direct provide a 60 day satisfaction guarantee on purchases. I pulled the trigger, see PM. This is for my music only system also. https://www.martindareff.com/Other/HDR-Treated-Images/i-ZmLg23s/A |
@doctors11 Thanks for the kind words. I repeated a PM, hopefully this will get to you. I feel the same way about ARC and whether or not it works just the ability to fully control.the sub in small increments from the listening position rather than back and forth making minor adjustments for what seems like weeks is a huge plus. I already have .75 of a db control over the woofers in the Acoustats via a 47 step Goldpoint passive attenuator in the circuit that handles the bass amplification so control over slopes and finite volume steps will be very useful in getting things dialed in just right. You can download the Martin Logan app and set it on demo and see what you have control over. ... All the way to the right in the photo you see a black box immediately to the right of the right Acoustat... that was the NHT B10 d sub that's now part of the living room system and where the replacement will go.. |
@doctors11 ... I've been getting a lesson on how valuable adjustments from the listening position can be for setting subs Been trying to dial in the two 10" powered subs in the living room video system. Test tones, sound pressure meters.. back and forth endless times. I think I'm getting close... I have them crossing over before they start to "bloom" low male vocals and I can still hear the warp engines on the Enterprise. Have to spend some more time testing different movies and programs but at least I'm in the ball park now. ML sub die in late tomorrow.... so it starts again. |
@doctors11 I wrote you about three pages of exactly what and where and clicked a wrong spot and it all went away. I’ll juts rewrite this very briefly... the controls mount under the sub when front firing so to use a real power cord I need an Audioquest IEC 90 degree adaptor and 90 degree RCA adaptors. Both ordered as well as some double shielded 3 meter interconnects for the run. All should be in before the end of the week and at that point I can get it down on it’s spikes through the carpet instead of the rubber floor savers. Have about 7 hours on it towards a 50 hour break in per ML. The Flying Pigs album is not useful for dialing it in but the Patricia Barber I cited is near perfect. I can follow a bass fiddle riff all the way down the scale to a Korg type organ ultra low warble note for volume, definition and interaction with the woofer modules of the Acoustats. Playing with settings now in the -24 db overall, +2 db 20 - 30hz, 45 hz 4th order cut out filtering, no phase adjustment. Probably wing up lower of the filtering, need cables, more break in hours and to be on the spikes to get further. Stay tuned. |
@doctors11 had a long paragraph about tuning the NHTs using the CMAs I recorded Sunday + some passages from Fear The Walking Dead. Real PIA having to move a chair and plant to get to the back of one and the other from the balcony but it is what it is. Too much stuff is recorded with such miserable mastering there is great variation from movie to movie and such.They will get there. The ML sub is slowly coming along.. much friendlier on the back and knees since everything is Bluetooth adjust. Should have my Audioquest Z3 power cord, Audioquest power cord adapter and RCA 90 degree adapters and some heavily copper braid shielded 3M RCA cables in by COB Friday. Then I can get it on it's spikes and see how it likes urbane thug tunes compared to jazz blues and such while I figure out what interconnects it will finally get. Stay tuned. |
Your making me laugh now..... that's the heavy bass stuff Heebie and Jeebie listened too in the low rider cruising the hood to check on their ladies to make sure they out street workin'... I have both the Anthem app and the Anthem that seems built in to the ML app. Keeping in mind that my specific application is nothing like full scale for the sub I surmise it will work fine. OTOH, I'm in a fully treated room and expect the sub to perform from maybe 40 hz (+/-) to 22hz or so that feature does not really apply to my application. I'm getting close.. both rooms now. AFAIC, very capable sub I could easily recommend (as Stereophile did) and a winner most certainly in it's price range. I suspect it will be even better with a better power cord and interconnects up on it's spikes. Stay tuned. |
Hmmmm.. I think he might be a bit more concerned about his customer's satisfaction rather than whether or not they are using a sub. I think a sub can have a place in a system.. in mine it's to handle <40 hz down to it's floor so I can hear them run the riffs up and down to the bottom of a big double bass. Patricia Barbara's first cut on A Distortion of Love album at near the 3 minute mark and Karrin Allyson on the first cut of the In Blue album.... and a few others on there as well and many others I'm thinking that feeling a customer should be deprived the enjoyment of hearing these instruments with articulation and detail because he's not a fan of using a sub just doesn't work for me. |
@charliee it would seem to me that if you have a volume control you have a variable electrical result of it's the mechanical movement. I would tend to think that variable output could be paralleled to this or any sub. @doctors11 90 degree RCAs came in last night so this AM I should be able to get them plugged in and the spike covers off the legs to provide a much better grounding. I believe my 9 foot RCA temporary pair should be here today and a 90 degree IEC adapter and an Audio quest cord tomorrow. Making progress. |
@doctors11 My music room is carpeted. I am connected with standard RCAs at the moment but that does put some pressure on them and I can't pull the spike covers and set the sub into the carpet and underlying concrete. Probably should not even have them connected this way but I was careful. Just order up a pair of Audioquest 90 degree RCA adaptors and an Audioquest 90 degree IEC adaptor on the same page as the sub... ... together it's maybe another $40. You will need the 90 degree IEC if you plan on upgrading the cord anyway. |
@doctors11 Thanks for the kind words. My area of interest is the same as yours. I want to follow a double bass riff up and down the scale to the bottom with definition and reproduce anything that a regular acoustic guitar and piano can do at the lowest hz notes. In my case this sub is for the low octave from 20 hz to 40 hz with my woofers picking up there for basically 2.5 octaves to roughly 250 hz where the woofers start the crossover to the panels. The woofers were originally rated at -3db @ 30 hz but I'd say it's more like 40 hz now and the ML is adjustable by the hz and by the db so the only catch point is listening to a variety of recordings so one albums mastering techs' preferences do not become your settings. . IEC cable in hand and waiting on Amazon on the adapter. |
@doctors11 I guess this is the last post by me on this subject unless someone wants to PM me about some aspect of this I haven't either posted on or been clear about. Sub is now up on spikes, Audioquest 90 degree RCA adapters, .Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 cables ..Audioquest NRG-X3 power cord, on it's spikes + some additional weight for the spikes to couple... some additional lead weight on the top to help the spikes get solid through the carpet...... no consequential changes anticipated. Karrin Allyson's In Blue Album..... Qobuzz ... beautiful. Lots of low double base, some organ and low piano notes... all articulated beautifully. Patricia Barber's A Distortion of Love Album.... also Qobuzz beautiful ... Lots of low double base, some organ and low piano notes... all articulated beautifully. If you want a ghetto banger sub this may or may not be for you... I have no idea. If you like jazz, club and lounge presentations and such I can tell you this sub will follow a double bass riff to the bottom that the double can play.. Sub + decent power cord + decent cables and RCA adapters... a $1100, maybe a bit more.... what's your bottom octave worth? |
@doctors11 An update for this Saturday...... April 24th... 90 degree Audioquest RCA adapters are here and the sub is now on Blue Jeans Cable LC-1, 3 meter length. Admittedly, not my first choice but an affordable one until I have an opportunity to acquire my first choice, LOL, pre-owned. Audioquest NRG-X3 cord is due in today as is an Audioquest 90 degree position 1 IEC adapter. I plan on using 10 - 20 pounds of additional top cabinet weight to make sure the sub is very solidly spiked to the ground. It currently is on its rubber spike covers and has maybe 10 hours of the recommended 50 hours of break in time. If I was going to comment at this point I would say the articulation of double bass riffs up and down to the bottom (and organ) was completely superior to the NHTs. I also feel I’m getting very close to fully dialed in at this point and if I can match them to the roll-off of 30 year old 8" bass drivers in my Acoustats you can match them to anything. Presently set @ -20 db, 40 hz third order low pass, 20-30 hz level at +2 db.... everything is adjustable by the db, hz, and phase angle degree Very worthwhile for my listening so far and will only get better when I get it off the rubber feet... |
@ doctors11 I guess this count be a 4 - 5 month report card on the ML. Final install was with the 90 degree RCAs from Audioquest and a 9' run of Blue Jeans Cables LC-1. Will consider changing the LC-1 to Straighwire Encore if a nice used 9' pair ever comes up on fleebay. Probably would not be able to hear a difference anyway but would like to see, but not for $400. Integration finished up nicely with the hand off to the 8" woofers in the Acoustats and their subsequent handoff to the panels all seamless. Just various instruments playing what they play from low organ and double bass/fiddle all the way up. Familiar pieces with new notes to be heard on the bottom. Zero regrets looking backwards on this one. |
@m-db Thanks for the reply. I have the "Ode to Billy Joe" on the MFSL SACD and that was among the songs I used in the evaluation of various digital cables in the streaming section of my system vs the CD/SACD playback side. If memory serves me correctly it is in Qobuzz as Hi-rez and standard in Tidal. Appreciate the info on Lorraine and Christian, I'll be able to find something of theirs between the two services. @steve59 Thanks for the reply. I'm sure they do but my concerns were more aligned with actual subwoofer speed and being able to match up to the speed of response of the panels and 8" woofers in the Acoustats. I'm sure the Paradigm subs work great. I also wanted control by phone which the ML's have, and very well done at that. You can control things down to the individual hz and db. @doctors11 Thanks for the reply. Between Qobuzz and Tidal I probably have 100 or so albums saved. I have 20 radio presets on the Cambridge I like across genres and depending on mood I'll listed until I find a sound I like and then see what else the artist has available on the services. It's been very rewarding so far...... especially since we are mostly back in due to Delta. Wife is teaching her daughter Old School Thai Tarot Card reading remote via tablet and a "Line" app and I go in my room and play music. It's all good. |