How Much Do Your Subwoofer(s) Cost Relative to Speakers

In my secondary system, which is a five speaker AVR/TV system, my five speakers consist of three NHT Super Zero 2.1 speakers and two small wall mount Definitive Technology speakers.  I have had them for quite a while.  When I listen to two channel music, the NHT Super Zero's are the stereo speakers.  The Super Zero's are little acoustic suspension speakers with 4.5 inch woofers, which I have mounted on the wall  Those speakers now cost about $250 a pair. 

My first sub woofer in this system was an inexpensive Pioneer SW-8MK2 that recently died.  I replaced that with an SVS 3000 Micro, which cost $899. Once that I got the SVS 3000 Micro dialed in, the improvement in sound quality was astounding for both 2 channel listening.  It was like listening to a different set up speakers.  Changing the crossover to 120Hz instead of 80Hz made a big difference as did fiddling with correction settings on the SVS sub woofer.

The sub woofer cost to speaker cost ratio in this setup is extreme, but it shows how much difference a good sub woofer can make with smaller speakers. With the SVS sub woofer, 2 channel music in this modest system comes much closer to the sound of my much more expensive primary system.

1/6

Pretty close to 1:1.

Good bass is expensive.  While you can buy a modest set of new monitors today for $500 to $1,000 that don’t absolutely suck and can give you plenty of hi fi enjoyment with decent electronics ahead if them, the same cannot be said for a subwoofer.  I have not heard any sub recently that retail for below a grand that I consider adequate.  And if your room is large, you can at least double that.  If you want to smooth out room effects you can double that again and buy at least two.

The plus side of subs in addition to providing bass extension almost no passive set of speakers, floor standers or monitors, can provide, is that you can use stand mounts and in principle get both the imaging advantages and full frequency bass.  The cost is that setting up subs to fill in higher bass frequencies can be tricky.

Harbeth 30.2 XD with 2 REL T/9x

Running 1 sub in a stereo set up is pointless.   

A lot of people advocate a minimum of 2 subs but some rooms (including mine) can’t accommodate more than 1 either due to the size or arrangement. Nevertheless, there are reports that one sub can work very well, and there are few who use a single high end sub in their systems to great effect.

Instead of creating a new thread on experiences with a single subwoofer, I’ll just post this here. Have a look at the photo below which is taken from another forum. This is the top of the the line REL No. 25. The sub looks small as the speakers are huge in real life, weighing in at more than 200 pounds each.