Add a subwoofer?


I run a pair of Cornwall 1’s driven by primaluna, VPI, and Sutherland 20/20.  Room is 34 x14 x 14 high.  I love the Klipsch, but never felt like they were overly heavy bass.  I’m curious about a subs ability to “fill in” the sound.  I called a dealer regarding REL’s smaller products.  I was told that the Cornwall has huge bass and I’d need a very large sub to notice a difference.   Really can’t afford a quality big subwoofer.  ie thousands of dollars.  Not wanting thumping bass, just fuller sound.  No experience with subwoofers so, ,,,,
Thanks for your input.  

george53

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

@soix Hey, I am all in favor of subwoofers and SVS makes a high value 15" subwoofer. The Cornwalls go very loud, just not very deep. The deep has to go as loud as the not so deep. A Pair of 12" drivers will have to work too hard to keep up creating more distortion. Cornwalls require 2 15" drivers or 4 12" drivers. I use 8 12" drivers and my system does not go near as loud as Cornwalls. The reason I use 12" drivers is to keep the size of the enclosure down. Each enclosure gets two drivers. The amount of gain required to give you the visceral experience of a live performance is formidable. 

@soix You obviously are not familiar with Cornwalls which are capable of prodigious output. They will swamp two 12" drivers. 

I many systems subwoofers do more harm than good. If the OP is a critical listener and continues along the path he is on he will be very disappointed.

In your case adding a subwoofer is a bad idea. To improve the sound quality you would need to add two 15” subs and a two way crossover. This is much more than you wish to spend. One sub will not keep up with your Cornwalls.