Subwoofer advice please


I'm hoping to find a little bit of clarity with your help.

I've got the itch to buy a pair of modestly priced subs, (SVS SB13 Ultra or REL S/3 SHO).

Here is my dilemma; I use a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP driving a pair of rebuilt and completely upgraded Quad 2805 speakers.

The PrimaLuna has one subwoofer out. Okay, great I think.

My dilemma is when I research proper subwoofer integration almost all posts and articles state that an external crossover is needed to really dial in the sound.

Obviously I can't do that with the PrimaLuna.

It would be less expensive to sell the Quads and upgrade, (a topic I'd love to talk about) than to buy a new front end and hope that the subs worked out for me.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated and if you're ever in SE Washington state I would repay your kind advice with world class bbq and cool, refreshing beverages.

Thank you in advance,

Bob
jzzmusician

Showing 1 response by shadorne

@willemj

Subwoofers are hard to do well and 8 inch woofers are rather small for that application. Room modes are certainly part of the usual problem. If you have a chance - try a JL subwoofer before buying another PV1D - you may find it integrates better. B&W make superb products but they are often bass heavy and resonant. An important factor in subwoofer design for audiophile high fidelity quality is group delay - hardly anyone measures or quotes this but I have seen measurements for JL and they are superb - measurements for many other subs I have seen tested were terrible (primarily because higher output is achievable at the expense of high group delay)