Need a subwoofer reccomendation.....


Greetings!

My former subwoofer, the Klipsch RW-12d blew its amp board after only 3 years of very "light" work. Just slightly out of warranty, too. After some discussions with Klipsch, I was told a new amp board would cost $256 plus S&H costs both ways or I could drop it off at their local repair facility to save some money in Holland, MI.

I am in Dallas, TX.

Yeah. Since the entire subwoofer only cost $350 through Newegg (on Super sale on one Saturday only), I am not about to pay that kind of money to repair it. Incidentally, I would also like to say the Klipsch tech's attitude was very...un-Klipsch like if you remember Klipsch from back in the day as I do. I point blank asked him if they'd been acquired by Pioneer :) I mention this so that people that might be looking at Klipsch gear right now know that certain things have changed there in just the last few years so...buyer beware.

On to my question...I need a new sub (not THAT kind of sub) and my price range is around $500. I can stretch to $600 if I have to but my wife will start really yelling if I go above $500.

I have conferred with a couple of close friends and we are mostly in agreement and I am staring at the HSU models in that range as well as the Sunfire models. Sunfire makes both a $500 sub and a $600 one but if memory serves, I heard they were having some QC problems when they first came out. Did they ever get those issues cleared up? I am very happy to see they offer a 5 year warranty on all their subs (which is a lot considering you potentially can abuse both an amp and a speaker if you screw around).

The blown Klipsch worked fine in my media room. Here are the specifics....

20x20x13 in feet so a lot of cubic space to fill. The rest of the system is beautiful vintage equipment....

B&K ST-202+ Sonata amp (1993), matching B&K Pro-10 MC Sonata preamp, Oppo Digital BDP-105 as the source, and Monitor Audio Silver RS 8 speakers (10 years old now, I guess they are vintage, too).

You would not believe how beautiful this system sounds. Now..you would not REALLY want to listen to a string quartet on it (though you could, the B&K gear DOES have that "soft" tube-like sound...as much as you can get from MOSFET electronics) but it truly shines with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, pretty much all electronic dance music (I drove my wife out of the room playing Chemical Bothers over and over), and it does not do bad at all with large classical pieces like Beethoven's 9th. I highly recommend those Monitor Audio speakers.

But in the end, in a room that size, it was just missing a little punch on the lower end. And a subwoofer is the answer unless I wish to break down the whole system and start over with something more powerful. I can hear my wife screaming even as I type that.

So, HSU, Sunfire, and I am open to any other suggestions you all may have for subs in the $500-$600 range that will will blend nicely with electronics like that, in a room that size.

Thanks for any and all replies...

j
stereoisomer

Showing 5 responses by stereoisomer

This idea of running the OPPO straight to the amp never occurred to me! Yes, in retrospect, I know it can be done, there is very little an OPPO cannot do but I just never put 2 and 2 together on this one. I guess I am getting old. I saw a blown component and thought, "Blown sub, need a new sub."

Huh. I do NOT think it is a weird suggestion at all. Suggestions like this are why I asked. It is a part of getting older, I suppose. Stuff like this does not occur to you. Thanks to you both for the suggestion!
No, sadly, the amp board is blown. The tech and I went through the steps several times. There are no external fuses and the tech said there were no internal fuses, either.......

However, it IS out of warranty, I think I shall open it up just to make sure. Wouldn't it be a great money making scheme to charge people $256 for a "new" amp board when the repair is actually a simple $8 fuse. Note; I am not accusing Klipsch of doing this, I am simply keeping an....open mind :)

Thanks for the tip!
Have not cracked the case yet so I am not sure if a fuse is involved but I did follow up on some suggestions. I found a new REL T7 under full factory warranty from an authorized dealer and since a few of you have at least heard these (more than I can say), can you give me a clue how that sub might compare to the Sunfire SDS-12? The best part is the REL T7 is on sale for the very same price as the Sunfire sub. It seems the dealer needs to clear some floor space because he is bringing in new Sumiko subs. So....I could be getting an $1,100 sub for the same price as the SDS-12 (about $600).

What do you think?

Oh, and FWIW, nearly all my applications are for music, a tiny bit of HT, and a bit more for gaming (Xbox One). But almost entirely for music. I am an old, stuck in the mud, 2 channel-only, aging gracelessly audiophile geek.

Thanks again for all the replies!
No, sir, Dweller, you are right. After doing some image searching across the Web, the REL T7 lacks the line-level inputs the Sunfire has which does limit you to running speaker wire to them. This is an important factor in my equation because it makes my (somewhat expensive) interconnect I was using with the Klipsch superfluous and it also means I would need to purchase a new length of rather pricey speaker cable to run to the REL T7.

BOTHER!

I have no problem with devoting an entire weekend to dialing in a new sub after spending another $200 on speaker cable....in fact, the 25 year old version of me would totally enjoy spending weeks and weeks doing that.

THIS version of me would like to spend a few hours doing a somewhat easier hook up with cables I already own and then retire to the couch to listen to the Crystal Method while sipping from a drink with a little umbrella in it. Line-level inputs make that scenario much more likely.

I do confess I find it odd that a $1,200 subwoofer lacks line-level inputs...or inputs of any other kind. From the photos I saw, there is only ONE WAY to connect this to your system and that is by using speaker wire. Hmmm.