How about a pair of Martin Logan Balanced Force 210’s, instead?
Subs for SF Amati
I’m looking for recommendations on subs to pair with Sonus Faber Amati Traditions paired with Mc monoblocks. I currently have a pair of REL T9x, but they are not going deep enough and I do not think they can keep up with the Amati. I’m considering a single REL No. 31 (a pair would be great but not in the cards right now). Thoughts?
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Um, go with 15" and be done with this. It's an absolute myth that big drivers are slow. They are not. What happens is that integration is a PITA no matter what you do. Take a look at the AM Acoustics room mode simulator and try to keep your listening location, speakers and sub out of the lowest modes. Measure and clip any peaks so that you can bring your sub up enough. Plug your main speakers if they are ported, this will help you raise the crossover point, minimize IM distortion on your mains and let the subs do what they do best: Amplify your dynamic range. |
@paradisecom 1++ Subwoofers can not beat the laws of physics. Play a 20 Hz test tone at moderate volume and place your hand on the sub's enclosure. It will be shaking./ Newton's third law. Any shaking or vibration of the enclosure = distortion. Balanced Force subwoofers place identical drivers on opposite sides of the enclosure operating in phase. The forces generated cancel out and the enclosure remains fixed in space. Any vibration left is cabinet resonance, another significant problem with subwoofers. Balanced Force subs are currently made by Martin Logan, KEF, Magico and me. Me is way too expensive:-) All other subwoofers are fatally flawed including Rels and JL Audio. Eventually they will all come around and use balanced force designs. |
.......giving this some thought and as a previous owner of the Sonus Faber Amati Traditions, instead of adding two subs why not look into moving up to the the new Amati's G5's ? It might be money better spent and I have '' heard '' that there is a nice improvement in the bass on the G5's. Full disclosure and my opinion for what it is worth, unless you use your system for movies , TV I have never been a big fan of subs but rather looked at taking the money spent on subs and buying a more '' full range '' speaker. You should have no problem selling those Amati's. Enjoy ...... |
@w123ale REL have always been and remain sub-bass speakers. They begin a steep roll off in the 40Hz neighborhood with the T9X dramatically -6dB @ 27Hz. Your Amati's are rated at (I'm assuming -3dB) @ 28Hz providing almost twice the output energy at that frequency than the T9X. Unfortunately, speakers typical middle of the room placement is often in the rooms null, choking their low frequency. This would be my serious consideration contemplating a speaker with even lower frequency response. Example: Many demonstrations of statement speakers are accompanied by satellite boundary positioned subwoofers. Like a beyond human hearing extended frequency tweeter, a -3dB subwoofer can provide far more subsonic at their rated output which enhances the low frequency presentation I think your looking for. A REaL subwoofer. The caveat is their single or dual room positions can be critical to their performance. I've had excellent success using the Crawl test to map the rooms potential bass mode areas taking the trial and error guess work out of the subs room locations for now and with any future subwoofer. Many users add DSpeaker or MiniDSP to an affordable basic subs and report great improvements by adding flexibility and integration control. Good luck with it. |
Thank you all for very helpful input. SF Gravis is an interesting thought, although I wonder if a company like REL that focus 100% on subs would have better performance. I know there are different perspectives, but I’m definitely in the camp of using subs in 2-channel. For my system it has significantly increased the sound stage and the weight and depth. It’s interesting that there a lot of high end speaker options but not many subs. |