Your wisdom and knowledge would be a major help and greatly appreciated in my future purchase of a subwoofer for my Home Theater.
My HT's main use is for movies (75%). Limited use for PS3 and Wii gaming (24%). Very little or no use with music (1%).
Current Set-up: Receiver: Yamaha HTR-56760 (110w x 7) Fronts: Polk Audio Monitor 30 Bookshelves Center: Polk Audio CS1 Surrounds: Vintage Pioneer 2-way Bookshelves (circa 1991) Subwoofer: NONE
Room Size: 23' x 16' HT is in my basement, so 3 walls are brick exterior walls with drywall and insulation over them, 4th wall is an interior wall. Also, my floor is concrete foundation covered with padding and carpet (between seating and tv is a two inch thick 7'x9' Oriental rug)
Questions:
1.) Future upgrades include the separate purchases of a subwoofer and of Polk Audio Monitor 70 Towers to use as front speakers (moving the 30s to surround). Since both need to be purchased 6 months to a year apart for cash flow reasons, am I correct in assuming the addition of a subwoofer (upgrading from 5.0 to 5.1) will have a more dramatic effect on my HT experience than upgrading my fronts and thus I should purchase the sub first?
2.) I know subwoofer placement has a major impact on perceived performance and plan on doing a "crawl test" when I first get the sub home to find the best location within the room, however: - How does driver size (8" vs. 10" vs. 12") effect the sound produced? - How would two 8" subs with 100w rms each compare with one 12" with 200 rms? - How does sound (& vibrations) produced differ between down firing subs vs. front firing ones?
3.) Given a budget of $250 - $500, any suggestions which sub(s) will give me the HIGHEST QUALITY "boom"-for-my-buck?
Buy a Hsu subwoofer, they answer many questions here; http://www.hsuresearch.com/faq.html
Buy your mains according to what the sub can achieve, which, in the case of the Hsu, is quite a bit. The Hsu sub should make shopping for mains a simpler task.
Two subs in a room are typically going to provide smoother response as the different room positions will load the room differently and will often cancel peaks and nulls that can occur with just one sub.
The driver size is largely irrelevant. You cannot defeat the rules of physics but you can learn to work with them. Excellent designers can get excellent results from any size driver and only cheaply built systems must have large drivers to draw your attention. Often it is the cabinet size that is more important than the driver size.
The difference you mention in amplifier power is not of any real consequence. Two subs will work best in most room vs one large sub.
Bass from subwoofers is mostly omni-directional and a downfiring or front firing sub become equal as far as sound quality is concerned. That means the same sub downfiring or front firing will sound equally as good or as bad depending on the sub. Not all drivers care to be mounted facing down.
In your largish room, a PAIR of these, from HSU. 23x16x8 (assumed ceiling height)= 3000 cubic feet. Not a small room, but certainly not huge, either.
Concrete means LOTS of bounce without dissipation so standing waves become a boomy issue. A pair of subs can integrate better and have fewer standing wave issues.
Check these out. Slightly over budget, w/shipping but fine for HT duties;
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/stf-1.html
HSU is also having some holiday deals. If you are SoCal local, you get a cash discount and can skip the shipping.