Greetings HT enthusiasts. I’m finally considering getting a subwoofer after using my 5.0 system for over a year now. I recently moved from my small and HT unfriendly apartment and into a decent sized house that I can have better speaker placement in, and more importantly, have a good subwoofer in. I can finally experience those low frequency effects I’ve been craving from a subwoofer. I’m looking for something that will really punch me hard in the chest and kick my ass, but I really don’t want something that will overwhelm the experience (I keep thinking about the really loud car subwoofers that blare so loud that you can’t hear anything else but the loud and horrible boom.) I probably listen to more music and games than movies in terms of HT use, though naturally I want to really feel the LFE from movies also.

Because I’ve never actually heard a HT subwoofer that I can recall, I have nothing to go by but reviews and comparisons. From reading the differences in ported and sealed subwoofers, it seems that a sealed subwoofer might be what I would prefer, due to the sound quality advantage and tight bass that I’m reading they can have over ported subs. However, I see that with the exception of the EP400 and EP800, Axiom only makes ported subs. I see that many on here that seem to be true audiophile experts have Axiom subwoofers in their system. Insight on ported versus sealed please?

There’s also the DSP consideration to look at, which seems to be a big deal in some subwoofers but not all. I now have a 12’ x 17’ x 8’ HT living room that my system is located in that’s also completely open in an L-shape to the dining room and kitchen, so there’s quite a bit of space to fill. Space is not an issue really so I’m willing to fit an 18” or bigger sub in if I can afford it. Is it safe to assume bigger is not always better in driver size with relation to bass output? Remember, I’ve gone for a long time without a subwoofer and have never really heard one in a HT setting so any sub will be an amazing addition to have for me.

My budget will be about $1000 max. Shopping around it looks like there are quite a few out there that are considerably cheaper in the $1K range than Axiom subwoofers that are both larger and more powerful. Elemental Designs seems to be a good deal for the price, such as the A7s-450 (sealed 18” for $850.) HSU and Paradigm also seem to be good choices. SVS seems to be among the best, however are very expensive, as are Axiom subwoofers comparatively. (SORRY AXIOM!) frown

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Last edited by Crimson Wrath; 07/17/10 09:28 AM.
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