NoDestiny

That receiver you have should work fine for 2 channels, but I don't think its going to get you far if you want surround sound.

The way it would connect is that you would connect speaker wire from the left and right of the receiver and instead of going straight to your speakers, they would connect to the amplifier of the sub amp. Then, the amplifier would have outputs for the speakers. There are better ways to do it, but thats the best way I would assume with that receiver.

B&W's are very high end speakers and if you have heard them, you know your audio well enough. Without a side by side of those and the Alesis (or any speaker for that matter) its hard to say. The Alesis would be better in general as a computer speaker simply because they are nearfield monitors, which work best being rather close and pointed directly on axis with the listener, where bookshelf speakers are meant to fill a room with sound and be designed to please a listener more off axis.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you what speakers you will like best, only you can. Hit your local guitar center, home theater, home audio, etc. places with music you want to test with and try every pair that you can possibly try out... always consider the room a factor, though! Most good stereo/theater places should have a treated room for testing, though. Best if you can have each set of speakers in the exact same spots in each room, but some won't value their customers that much

Sub wise, there are plenty of good subwoofers out there. First, I would start off with what size box you can use. Have you ever "crawled for bass" before? Simple... put a subwoofer in your chair, play a range of bass tones (bass mechanic or whatever) and crawl on teh floor all over the room. You should notice that some areas are far louder and the low end strikes much harder... you want your subwoofer placed in one of those areas specifically. Then, figure out how big of an enclosure you can put there.

Even if the box has to be small, the way cancellation works, you will probably get more bass and low end out of that spot with a smaller subwoofer than an improperly placed large sub

Fast bass (well say 50-100Hz) is going to rely heavily on teh speakers, not the subwoofer (or I should say, SHOULD rely on the speakers and not the sub!). A good pair of speakers should have no problem doing 60Hz and up. This is what you want, so make sure whatever speakers you pick can get that.

0m3g4

nicely put
rep +

__________________

gorb

if you want a beast of a sub, look at the seaton submersive. expensive though >_>

Nick911

Thanks for the crawling info, I found a sweet spot to put my sub (under my desk to the right of me facing straight ahead) and DOES IT SOUND GOOD! I can feel the vibration/recoil in my game when I'm shooting a car 98 in Wolfenstein! I think my sub is good but need some new speakers to go with it. I will choose the speakers you told me but first I'm going to listen around to see what I can find. I will also get a new sound card on black Friday since a high end sound card always comes down to about half off.

When I look for speakers, what company do I look for? Speaker spec wise, what do I look for? Bass wise what spec do I look for?

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NoDestiny

There is a lot more than just simply size or power handling in a sub. There is Xmax, BL, Qms, Qes... there is a lot to a sub there. Your best bet is to download WinISD (google it) and find a couple subs you are interested in, throw the specs into it. What this is going to tell you is basically in what enclosure, how low the sub will play and how it will roll off. This is important because a good sound quality setup will have a sub that plays at least down to 20Hz with minimal peaks and dips in the response. In other words, from 20Hz to 100Hz, its going to nail every frequency without being any louder or quieter in there.

But, again, a room in going to change this drastically, even with treatment!

You can find the Theil/Small parameters on most manufacturers website and put them in WinISD. WinISD will then calculate what the best possible enclosure size and tuning will be to get you the most desirable response.

From there, you can change the tuning and airspace within the box to what fits your needs.

Note that this does NOT tell you how a sub is going to sound, just give you an idea of how its going to respond in whatever box you put it in. Nothing beats actually listening to the sub and letting your ears tell you what it likes.

The eD sub that was posted earlier would be a good way to get a good flat response in a package that is affordable and easy to implement. If you have the time and patience to put a subwoofer box together yourself, especially if you are willing to put more money into it, you can easily get something with more output (which sounds like what you are after).

I don't do a ton of bass myself anymore... doing stereos for SPL compitition that go anywhere from 140-160dB has definitely got me filled in for the rest of my life. I often recommend what I personally like, which is something that has the capability of complimenting the rest of the stereo (but I usually make sure I have plenty of headroom to turn it up for those occasional days that I want to make my walls rattle a bit ).

Its hard to recommend to you anything simply because I don't know exactly what you are after in terms of a subwoofer (at least, in output). A budget is always an important factor... some subwoofer setups are going to be $1000+ for the driver alone! Not to mention amplifier and enclosure, cabling, etc.

Nick911

will respond to your statement later when I fully read it. My issue is this: how do I connect 3.5mm ( http://img490.imageshack.us/i/stereojackszp8.jpg/ ) to this: http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-BU120.../dp/B00000JI2G

All it has for the jacks is something called low level in ( left and right). i ask this since any sub I buy that I want to hook up to my PC won't work. Does this mean i have to buy a receiver? I'm so lost lol.

http://www.dansdata.com/images/al641/backdetail480.jpg back of my sub

my bass says inputs but the new sub says low level inputs.

I tried it and get some weird VERY low sounds. How do I make this work?


I just realized that there are kits that I can buy and assemble it myself! http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=300-640 that sound good?

also what frequancy response rate do i look for in a sub and speaker wise?

i know bass you want a low like 20-180(what does this part mean since I know first number means bass). Speaker wise first number is bass but do you want a high second number?

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NoDestiny

One way to try is to take a 3.5mm jack w/ wire, split it open, and run the wires inside directly to the speaker wire inputs (should be 3 wires inside: white, red, and just bare sheild wire. Run the white to the left, red to the right, and the shield wire to both negatives).

The kit (similar to some of the speakers I have laying around) isn't a bad one. Great for the money! I would say that the Alesis would be a better setup, though. Without this kit to side by side with my Alesis directly, its hard to say for sure, but that would be my guess.

Speaker wise, you want anywhere from 40 or 80hz and up to 20Khz. Basically, these numbers are simply saying that its going to play a bass tone of somelike like 40hz and play all the way up to 20K (the point where the human ear cannot hear any further, that really really high end) with a decent response.

A speaker that plays from 80-20K is going to lack a lot of detail in the bass area. Though a subwoofer will pick up most of this, you want as much as possible to be capable of playing through your speakers. My minimum I would recommend is something that can play 60hz and up.

LukeG

I love people like you. Its not the fact that the dayton is worse. Its the fact that I know 100% anything he builds with that driver and the 800wattrms, will not even come close to the ED.

Why? he has never built anything by the looks of it.

And another thing. What 1000watt subwoofer with 20mm of xmax. I was talking about the built dayton subwoofer he posted on the first page. Please read before you trash my post.

The 15inch dayton would not be in his price range. 179$ for the sub, 100$ for the box + if your painting etc could be more. And 400$ish for the plate amp, or he could go pro for less.

If your building a sub for the first time, do not have the right tools, or experience with woodworking, it will not turn out.

To the poster now. People could recommend you 1000 different subs. You most likely will not be able to tell the difference in sound, unless its a really bad subwoofer. Output could be much different though. Look for the subwoofer with the most weight, and thicker walls. The stiffer and heavier the walls, means less wasted energy, and more output. And thats the reason why the ED subs I back so much. There boxs are built well. And the drivers are great. I have listened to most of there lineup.

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Sound system: ED 6T6 MTM, Pioneer 5.1 receiver, IXL 18 2.2, DIY towers LR and side, 2 Tactile subs, Yamaha HP-3 headphones

NoDestiny

I'm sure you have lost all his respect at this point. Doubting somebodies abilities by assumption is pretty ignorant on your end. If he has a table saw, likely, he knows how to use it. Also, somebody who has a tablesaw is likely to have the rest of the tools needed to build an enclosure. 90% of the enclosure is in design, the rest is cakewalk.

Edit: Actually I went back and re-read a few things to see if I missed. He does mention not knowing how to build a box... but the question is, OP, can you use a table saw? For instance, if I gave you a cutlist, could you cut all the pieces out with precision? If so, you would have no problem building a box. Thats easily one of the toughest parts of the actual build is getting the cuts right.

Also, my subwoofer box I built for my first time came out fine, using tools I had laying around. Did 3 10"s sealed back in the high school days. Absolutely no issues what so ever.

Post #11 was a post of 2 different Dayton subwoofers, both of which are far superior to the eD you posted. Post #12, you came in and said that the eD would slap the Dayton around. How am I supposed to know which one you are talking about without quoting it? I'd bet the majority of folks on here saw the same thing I did. Sorry for the mistake.

Sorry if I missed where there was a price limit. I usually ignore that and go straight to what the user wants. Many of times, people are willing to go beyond their limit to insure they get what they want.

A subwoofer with more weight DOES NOT BY ANY MEANS mean that it is a better subwoofer. Have you heard of neodymium? If not, you really need to look into it. Aluminum frames have become popular, reducing weight. Plenty of other technologies that insure a subwoofer's weight is minimal but output and performance is maximized.

Thicker walls? Are you talking about cone area? Sturdy cone area is important to reduce cone flex which leads to distortion and lost output, but thicker by any means does not mean stronger. Or are you talking about the subwoofer box itself? Because that, too, is a big flaw to say. A well braced, "thinner walled" box is far superior to that of something with thick wood and no bracing.

I have no problem saying the eD lineup is of great quality and value. But you are really coming off like (and I hate to use this term as it is used too heavily on this forum) a fanboy. Again, eD makes great equipment... one of the guys I did IASCA SQ compition with was really into them and always had very good sounding equipment. Even with eD's 6.5" subs (he had I think 13 of them in his hatchback), he still pulled great low end and very high SPL. I am definitely not ragging on eD Audio by any means (even in my car, I used their sound deading materials). I will even go as far as to say that the subwoofer you mentioned is a good pick for this person, but you can't assume that eD is the end all, be all subwoofer... especially when (I should say If) you compare it to a well designed enclosure with higher end subwoofers.

OP: Do whatever it is that you want. If you want to venture into DIY audio, I have no problem helping you. Pick a driver and amp, figure $50-100 for all the materials you need to build and finish your box, and well give at least 4 hours of your time. If you want an easy method that should sound damn good, LukeG had a good suggestion with that eD sub. and would probably do plenty for your money. Regradless, you can't go wrong either way.

Edit: Oh, and of course... don't just take anybodies word on it. Get your ass to Mars... errr... to a local audio shop of any and all kinds and listen for yourself. Nobody in this world can tell you what sub you think will sound best.

Nick911

Here is the new issue. To get 4.1 true surround sound ,I need to have a receiver correct? I could also hook 2 speakers into one port and effectively halving the watts to each speaker( looking at the of the dayton 12" sub since most subs have those connecters)? Sicne the dayton sub only has 2 ports(2 out speaker options but what are the 2 in?)

Ok, a normal sub can support 2.1 true audio. I need a amp to do above that.

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