Which sub is better for audio

In a recent special issue by Widescreen mag, they published all of the reviews they had done on subs over the past 3 years. The highest rated subs for audio were the Vandersteens and the powered Velodynes. When rated for both audio and video playback, the Vandersteens are the best choice.

I am not big on subs as I have never heard one improve the musical quality of the bass, but that may be more a reflection of my skills in integrating one with my main speakers. But I have tried a few and was rather impressed with the tightness of the Triad subs, even their cheapest one, which lost little in quality terms to the more expensive subs, just moved less air. I only mention it because I have never seen anyone else mention the Triads before on this site. Has anyone else heard them?

Sorry Redkiwi I have not heard of Triad. I have however heard lots of others and have come to the conclusion that really good base usually costs plenty and is very difficult to do properly. I have a small Kef unit in my home theatre system that is just OK. The best for home theatre I've heard are the velodyne and in the set up we used It took two to work well. They were 15 inch 450 watt downfiring. M and K used to be good makers of subs but now cater to the home theatre market/doesn't everyone/ . Blending subs into 2 channel is hard. My preference to bearly hear the sub and for it to really just add a presence. In two chanel the best I heard was a product call a David by D box. see www.d-box.com. A small company in Quebec, Canada which also makes the better known Mammouth . The David was playing with a small pair of castle monitors and the over all stage was huge. A crossover was not used but instead was fed from a second pre out from the pre amp. Then the volume turned up just till you start to hear it. There was not enough here to do organ well but it could make these small monitors much larger. My 2 cents is unless your budgets is in the many thousands leave it alone. cheers steve

The Vandersteen 2Wq's are impecable in integrating with the main speakers. While bass output is not prodigiousit always manages to reach very lo freq. with flat response. I love em immensely for music & film & would imagine a better sub costing substantially more (if there is one).

Talon ROC is a great sub for music, using it with a pair of Khite monitors, does jazz and classical wonderfully. The sub helped turn me on to Bach cello suites almost every night, get the Edgar Meyers disc and hear the ROC fill the room with his deep bowing.