My first sub - suggestions?

[tloomos]

I'm just starting to build out a home theater system and need some help selecting a sub. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but I don't want to end up with junk (although that may be unavoidable at my price point).

I'm renting a house right now, and it has built in polk fronts and surrounds, so I'm building off of that figuring that I can't really go wrong with Polk for speakers. I read that the CS20 center is timbre matched with my fronts, so I got that, figuring that even once I move I can't really go wrong building my system with Polk speakers. My current setup includes a Denon AVR-1910 Receiver, Polk CS20 Center, Polk RCi85 In-Wall Fronts and Polk RCi80 In-Ceiling Surrounds.

Although I know the sub doesn't need to be timbre matched like the center does, I started out by looking at Polks. I was looking at the PSW505, but the more I read, the more I hear that Polk isn't really known for their subs and everyone seems to be pointing to Velodyne.

As always, my dilemma comes in with my budget. I was hoping to not go over $200, but the Polk PSW505 got some great reviews and seems like I can pick it up for around $250.

I'm planning to use this for a mix of music and movies, and it's in the family room which connects to the kitchen as one large space - 23' x 40' with 9' ceilings.

Any suggestions??

[maseline_98]

well...your room is huge and your budget is small...here's a suggestion:

Get 2 of these: Dayton sub-120ht

With a room that big, you will never find something even close to $500 that will fill the space...

[htsteve]

tloomos,

First of all, welcome to the forum!

Your situation does present a good challenge. As was noted, you have a large room, and not a large budget. That is alot of space to fill.

A 12 inch sub would be the minimum to use in that room. Anything smaller will like sound pretty thin. Unless you get dual subs, and then you can look at 10" models.

Maselines suggestion is a pretty good one. Dual subs will help to fill that space and give you impact.

For a pair of 10" subs, check these out. A bit more money, but it might work out very nicely.

http://www.amazon.com/Velodyne-VX-11-black-powered-subwoofer/dp/B002ZBJSIM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270746238&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-10-Inch-Monitor-Subwoofer/dp/B0002KVQBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270746562&sr=8-1

Hope this helps.

[tloomos]

Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but although the rooms are connected to form a huge open space, the area where the home theater is covers only about 16' x 20'. Since I don't currently have a sub and this is my first entrance into HT, my expectations are pretty moderate and I figure anything is bound to be better than nothing.

Additionally, since I'm only renting this house, I don't want to focus too much on the right sub for THIS space, but rather what a reasonably good sub would be for an average home theater space (if there is such a thing). I would really like to stick close to the $250 range, but everything I read tells me there are some brands to just avoid and others that are great if you can afford them.

I think at this point I'm curious if there are any brands that I should just not even consider as well as if there are any features or specs I should be on the lookout for.

[David Meek]

Being a long-time Velodyne owner (FSR-15), I second (or is it third?) that recommendation of the VX-11. For $147 you can get one initially, stay well within your budget and expect some reasonably quality output. If you decide you want more, well then you can always add a second later, and still be close to your desired budget. Something else to consider is that when you relocate later, if you do have two subs it will help you to get a smoother bass response in many room configurations than just a single sub would give.

Do be aware that you won't be able to fully pressurize a 16'x20' room (with large openings to other areas) with the output from even two 10" subs. It'll certainly be LOTS better than nothing, but you won't get that "pants flapping" effect that gets mentioned.

Best of luck with your setup. :T