I have a pair of good Klipsch towers (they're about 5 years old and I can't remember the model number off the top of my head.) Very solid, very pleasing performance. Their low-end is good, but a sub would complete them nicely.
From a separate system, I also have a relatively lame Advent powered sub. Certainly nothing great.
Would it be a mistake to pair this mediocre sub with the towers? What's your thought?
1. Don't do it... it'll only hurt. A $1000 pair of Klipschs with a $150 sub? What are you thinking man?!?
2. For subsidizing the bass output (instead of providing all of it) it would probably work nicely...it could fill out the bottom end, and extend the overall frequency response of the system.
Im with berny. Try it and see how you like it. If anything, you can set your crossover at 40hz, keep your speakers set to large, and it might help. The fun part is experimenting. You wont know until you try it
Naw, I'm not with Berny. Why bother? It's a lot of effort to move a lousy sub. Hooking things up, using cables, listening. Good grief! How much work do you expect someone to do, Berny? Just forget it, forget audio, forget everything and most importantly, forget you asked the question.
Rush... great idea. I'll make sure the crossover is very low. (I don't know if I can go down to 40Hz, but 60Hz might be one of the receiver's options.) My inclination is to try it and hope it doesn't muddy things up too much.
I know "try it" is always the best suggestion, so I'll go that route. My question here was mainly to see if others had similar experiences and if there was any insights to be had.
As for what makes a sub "mediocre," well, considering the price of the thing (about $150) and its internal power amp putting out all of about 65 watts, it simply is no comparison to powered subs that offer larger cones, massive power supplies (like 300+ watts) and better enclosures. I've had the pleasure of some extended listening with a Sunfire subwoofer as well as a higher-end Velodyne, and wow--incredible. The puny little Advent shouldn't even be in the same room!
I'd also try it with the speakers set to large and the sub to LFE+R/L on the receiver, with the lowest crossover point you can get. If the usb has a filter as well, you can enable it and cut down the cutoff frequency some more.
I had good results using a Hsu STF-3 sub below 60 Hz to fill-in the bottom end of Klipsch La Scala speakers when I used them as front speakers (they are now my surround speakers).
