Short list of musical subwoofers

@mijostyn

Describing a sub as "musical" is odd. Turn everything else off except the subwoofer and play a record. Does that sound musical? Aside from the sub moaning and thudding away you will also get to hear the rest of your environment buzz and rattle. The music masks it. Subs add visceral impact to the music and when used correctly unload the bass from the main speaker increasing headroom and lowering distortion. I suppose you could say they make the main speakers more musical. None of the subs mentioned incorporate a high pass filter for the main speakers so one might assume that none of them are musical.

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First, at least I know SVS SB 1000/2000 has a built-in HPF fixed at 80Hz. If you connect RCA line out from preamp/DAC to SW line-in and then connect the SW line-out to power amp, the power amp will filter out anything below 80 Hz (at some slope) and only send the higher freq. to the speakers.  Second, being a "musical" SW is also to do with the connection based on my understanding.  A SW aimed to provide more musical application should have a high-level connection, like Rel T/ series all have high level input via a Neutrik connector, which allows the amp puts out the same analog signal to SW as to the speaker system to achieve better integration.  On the other hand, the Rel HT series (for Home Theater application) do not have a high-level connection.  Mr. Paul Mcgowan provides better explanation for it as below.

@mijostyn,

It is interesting that you disapprove the high level connection. May I know your reason why. Rel believes that the high level connection provides purest signal possible to get to SW. According to Zero Fedelity, circuitry inside SWs adds delay to the incoming signal. Most of time is 0.03-0.04 second but with Rel is down to 0.008 second, with the goal that the signal can pass to the SW, circuitry and finally the driver with as minimal alteration as possible. It is about correct phase and speed to make sure the SW is in tune with the speaker.

On the other hand, although providing high level connection in their gears, Rythmik does not recommend using it. If interested, you could tune into https://www.rythmikaudio.com/faq.html#nospeakerinput for their reasons. Here I just want to warn you that, due to the fact that this connection uses a common ground, it could possibly damage the power amps that have fully balanced output.

Emotiva also believes a line level connection will usually deliver a cleaner signal, with slightly less distortion and noise, and so is usually recommended.

You could see even the manufactures themselves do not agree with each other quite a bit in this matter. Maybe you know something that we don’t.

@oliver_reid Thank you for letting me know about the Dynaudio 18s which is the first sub equipped with the DSP.  Did you find it useful / impactful to achieve better integration between your main speakers and the sub?

@phusis, Thank you.

@mijostyn, I get it now. I am convinced that is the way to go and seems not a costly and difficult thing to do. So correct me if I were wrong. I will go buy a miniDSP 2x4 HD (assuming HD version is better) and miniDSP 2x4 HD1 plug-in and make the following connection to integrate the main speakers with the SW:

source -> DAC/preamp -> MiniDSP HD -> main speakers/SW

I am not sure how good is the DAC inside the miniDSP so I feed the digital source to my DAC first and let the miniDSP process the analogue signal before distributing to main/SW, right? On the active SW side, I will by-pass the Xover (or set it to the highest frequency). Anything else I should pay due attention to please let me know.

I have only tried SVS subs so far, so I may not be of much help. However, Rythmik offers more adjustments, including the low pass frequency (LPF) slope and PEQ adjustments that others do not have. You may want to give it a try.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/rythmik-l12-subwoofer-review.12140/