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Best home theater subwoofer to mate w/Aerial 7B's

I just purchased a pair of Aerial 7B's for my dedicated home theater room. Although the room is rather small (12x12), I would like to find a sub that will both pressurize the room and mate well with the 7B's. I've heard the REL Storm III and it sounded great and mated perfectly with the Aerial's. How well will this sub work on LFE in a HT set-up? Are there any other subwoofers that I should consider?
zippyy
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Just a note: The Class A in the Stereophile Home Theater magazine is not the same thing as a Class A in the Audio Magazine. I believe the HSU is Class C or D in the Audio Magazine. The REL's are mostly all Class A and B in the Audio Magazine depending on model.
mahandave
153 posts
 
Do you want to relax, stick with the Rel of any kind. But if you want overblown explosions and a room full of presure, go with the new version subs like the Sunfire Sig. - You do not need something as big as the Aerial sub or as expensive when Sunfire is 100percent the equal of it for half the price and one quarter the size in a LFE position (direct a/b comparison in my large room). Aerial 7's are great speakers, I have the 8b's But their sub is way overdone (price and size) for the LFE channel especially if you are in a small room or are going to use more than one. For music my oppinion would be rel only!
zippyy OP
98 posts
 
Sugarbrie, I take it your not an HSU fan. Are these not good subs for HT?
Mahandave, It is after all a dedicated HT room, so natually I would like the "overblown explosions". My friend just bought the Sunfire sub, it's hard to keep that sub from dancing all over the room. I wasn't really that impressed with it. I agree with you that the Aerial sub is too expensive for what you get. I love the REL's for music but how are they on HT LFE?
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I do like the the HSU for the money (they're under $500), but I like the REL better if you can afford them ($1,000+ and up). All the components on the Stereophile list are recommended components, I was just pointing out that the Home Theater ratings are not the same. The REL Q subs were made for HT. I have a Q100E in my dedicated HT setup. It has a depth/slam switch that changes the character of the sub for when you want extra slam. Depth is the normal setting you would also use for music. RELs have two sets of connections; one is better for music (high pass), the other is designed to work with a AC-3 or other decoder. They can be setup and adjusted separately, and the sub automatically switches between the two setups when no separate signal is received from the HT decoder or receiver.
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