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Best €2500 sub purely for music?

I recently was lucky enough to try a demo between a two rel 9tx and one s510, and I though the s510 was vastly superior. My only hesitation for being one was that the EU pricing of rels are kinda steep, and maybe im not someone best suited to use them? To explain, I use a minidsp shd preamp to control my entire system. With that I always use a high-pass filter with a extremely sharp roll off of -48db. Anything above 60hz is given to the speakers. I found this to sound night and day better than trying to cross any speaker with their natural cutoff. This is antithetical to how rel designs their subs. Lastly, it only has phase adjustments of 0 and 180. Its for these reasons why im asking you if there are any alternatives to the s510 you recommend between €2k and €3k IN EUROPE (so no svs or rhythmic or any other US brand of any sort) that might be more appropriate for a purely hifi application?

My speakers are German physiks hrs-130's. They're omnidirectional, but what is important here is they a sealed design that is extremely precise and fast, but its not enough SPL for synthetic music. The lesser rel's arnt as fast as it, so I ask for something equivalent to the s series. I only want one, and my room is 30m^2. I will be using the full Dirac calibration of the shd to integrate it, so subs with on-board dsp is completely irrelevant, and I'd rather not spend on a feature that's useless to me. What other options are available here? 

endymion_joshi-godrez
audiorusty
267 posts
 

I don’t know what brands are available in Europe so I can’t recommend a certain brand. I am also not sure what synthetic music is but my guess is that it is music where the musicians create it by using synthesizers rather that traditional instruments and in my experience it is rather a bass centric style. If I am correct you are going to want a very high output sub since you need to reproduce a 40 Hz signal approximately 20 dbspl louder than a 1K signal just to have them sound like they are at the same volume level. I also believe that you will require a driver no smaller than 30 cm and you will want that in a sealed well braced and damped enclosure. One of the biggest issues with subs is to be able to get the driver to stop quick enough and subs that have servo control are better at doing that. Subs with opposing drivers have less cabinet issues.

Having said that, have you tried bi-amping your hrs-130’s? That might give you the extra bass energy you are looking for with-out the drawbacks of a single sub woofer.

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
902 posts
 

Dynaudio, Focal, Sonus Faber, B&W, DALI are all Euro’s who make quality speakers and subs.  

m-db's avatar
m-db
937 posts
 

Your confusing a -6dB sub-bass speaker with a subwoofer. Nothing wrong with that just be aware.

Californian Silicon Valley technology sold to a German company.

https://www.velodyneacoustics.com/en/

I can’t say if these folks are actually producing the DD Plus or their simply new old stock. I’ve been using these technology advances since 1983 and two DD Plus since 2011 without a problem. I see their price has gone up substantially for American purchase but your getting remote controlled, six customizable presets and total Auto EQ. The Swiss Army knife of subwoofers.

I’m not a fan of total system DSP so another model in there line up may be more appropriate and less expensive to your needs. Good luck with your search.

endymion_joshi-godrez OP
10 posts
 

Did someone seriously just get upset at me because I didn't consider that a product exists in a regoin because it has existed at one point on the used market? That is spectacular.

endymion_joshi-godrez OP
10 posts
 

As biamping, no tower no matter the size is going to give you the bass authority that a sub will carrying the frequencies below 60hz. At least one that is a technically capable. It has absolutely nothing to do with power.

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