Looking for a new Subwoofer


I am looking to replace my Definitive Technology Supercube 6000 with a new subwoofer to augment my Fyne F-702 speakers. My listening room is about 13 x 22 ft with 8’ ceilings and an 8’ opening to the dining room to the left of the listening area. I try to avoid major products made in mainland China—in spite of their at times very good quality, and I have narrowed the brands down to Paradigm, Vandersteen, and JL Audio, specifically, a single Paradigm XR11 or dual Defiance X12s, the Vandersteen Sub Three with “required” crossover, and the JL Audio Fathom f110v2.  My budget is about $4K, with the XR11 and Fathom right at that price, the dual X12s at about $3K, and the Vandersteen with required crossover at about $5300 (including two crossovers, as they are sold in pairs).  I may be able to audition the Paradigms and the Vandersteen; a friend has told me the room correction software with the JL Audio sub is way behind that of the Paradigms.  In light of the excellent advice I have received in this forum, I wonder if folks out there have had an experience with these subwoofers and what they might recommend.  Many thanks.

mike4597

Showing 2 responses by grislybutter

my 2 cents:

everything about the Fyne F-702 screams that they go down to cover the bass frequencies (30Hz) and do it well.

To add a sub to those without massive overlap is challenging. You either cut off the lows of a full range speaker with crossover control or you double the lows almost all the way, both are questionable approaches. I would get the least powerful 10" or 12" subs (2) and see if they improve anything. I spent a year trying different approaches until I successfully dialed them in.

I ended up ditching the crossover and turning down the subs to 85Hz and very low gain. They just add a subtle accent to the lows, helping with the soundstage, but helping a lot.