the best use Subwoofer for under 1500

I have shopped around and listened to loads of subs. I don't use mine for HT, but you can, and should be very happy. I use the SUNFIRE ARCHITECTURAL. It's a front firing sub designed for two channel listening. Properly placed it'll do it for your HT stuff I'm sure. It is fast, powerful, clean, quiet, expertly constructed and can be had, new, for under $1400. Probably $1050 or so, fairly discounted. It's a real beauty that you do not hear much about. Bob Carver uses the Architectural Signature in his home system. ( 12" rather than 10") This sub is a 11" cube that is really killer. You will hard pressed to find a place that has one to audition. They are Sunfire's best kept secret. Everyone goes for the True Subwoofers. I guess their HT market is what they're interested in pushing. Most of their subs are specifically designed for HT where this baby is designed for the 2 channel listener. Do your homework. You have lots of possibilities given the budget you're working with.

You will not find a cleaner sounding sub than the Velodynes. I have a F1500 and it is excellent. Servo-controlled for ultra-low distortion. Do not use the internal filters, though. They are not high-quality.

Some have complained about lack of impact with the Velodynes with movies. I solved this by doubling the amount of filter caps in the power supply and put a heavy power cord on it. No lack of impact now. It also dissappears - cannot tell where it is located when it is in the sweet-spot.

Read the reviews of Velodyne stuff. Go on Audioreview.com. You will not hear very good things. That is the test. These past posts are good, but the reputation is not there. Seek and thee shall find the truth. If you have to do all this stuff to a sub woofer, there is somehthing inherently wrong. And you'll be out of your price range with what a great power cord runs.

You dont really need an expensive power cord for a Velodyne, just a larger, grounded one. The total cap upgrade cost me ~$30. A used F1500R is around $700-$800.

I agree with Sugarbrie. REL. I'll argue from a financial perspective. Do a quick search of REL Subwoofers for sale. The current ST III series(StormIII, Strata III, etc) all sell for 70%+ of their list price. That's amazing for a used product! If you look up most of the other suggestions, they are selling for a more typical 50-65% of list. What's more watch how quickly the current REL subs sell. When I purchased my REL Storm III, there were 3 that came on the market within that 2 week period. They all were sold withing ONE day. Also as Scott (SDCAMPBELL) suggested., do a quick search in the discussion forums on REL subs. You'll quickly find they are very well regarded audipphile aub

Ofcourse, all this could mean people are jumping on the bandwagon, and we see how well that works with lemmings. However, what this means is you could buy one, try it out, and if you don't like it sell it FAST at little loss.

I have been really happy with my STORM III, but I can't say the same for my downstaris neighbor. Because of the clever way you can set them, they integrate extremely well with most speakers. One caution, the numerous settings can take a while to get just right and you can tweek it for weeks.

Paul