Did I really need a sub woffer in the first place?


I recently added a subwoffer which I thought would enhance the sound of my 2 channel music system. I have a Rotel amp (380 watts) with the matching Rotel preamp and Rotel CD player and Energy Veritas 2.4 speakers. I bought a REL Britannia B1 subwoffer to enhance the bass.

Well now that I have it set up I'm not that happy with what it adds vs what I spent ($1,850). I'm wishing I would have put that money toward a turntable instead.

Wondering if maybe I've just got it set up incorrectly - there are so many adjustments like Mode Switch used to set the phase and to bypass crossover for Low Level input. Also has these switches:

Lo Level
Hi Level
Fine Roll Off
Coarse Roll Off

For an additional $100 the stereo shop will send a guy over to 'tune' the system. Wondering if I'm just throwing good money after bad and maybe I'll cut my losses and sell it here on the Audiogon classified section.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

By the way - I love my Subwoffer I have in my home theatre. Could'nt watch an action movie without it.
breuning11

Showing 1 response by darkmoebius

Proper subwoofer setup is an extremely time consuming endeavor. I have two and it took months using both listening and frequency response tests with an SPL meter to find the best location for optimal performance.

Try several locations around your room starting with in a corner behind your main speakers for maximum room loading and enhancement. Then move it forward away from the corner to reduce output. Try the other side. The, exactly between and level with your main speakers. Move it backwards towards the rear wall from that point. Believe it or not, a matter of inches is all it takes sometimes. Have faith, it will work wonders.

There are some great online guides to proper subwoofer integration, I will post the links later today when I get done with work.

Nonetheless, your Energy Veritas are rated 30-20kHz and are capable of really deep bass response when room loading is added in. You may get beter overall peformance by upgrading your amp and preamp without a sub.

For $2k + whatt you get for your current combo, you might want to consider other brands better than Rotel. I owned a Rotel 980BX amp and 990(?) preamp 5-7 years ago. They were great for the money, but not the weak on soundstage, depth, and spatial information. The sound also favored the "dry", hard, and lean side of the spectrum. Part of this could have also been the low end B&W speakers I had.

Check out Odyssey, Bryston, Monarchy, McCormack and other fantastic amp makers who fall in that price range. The difference will be HUGE. But, try a different preamp forst, I found Rotel's pre's to be the bigger weak link.