Subwoofer to pair with computer speakers

[Philbobaggins11347]

I am looking for a decent powered subwoofer that I can use with these speakers.http://www.edifier.com/us/en/speakers/r2000db-bookshelf-bluetooth-optical-rca I will take any recommendations, but know that the top of my budget is at the absolute most $250. So please tell me watch you think about what you recommend. I would prefer that you have first hand experience, but if not that is also ok.

 

[ssddx]

with what speakers?

dayton makes decent budget level subwoofers.

why would you spend up to $250 for a subwoofer for pc speakers? its not worthwhile unless you have decent speakers.

 

[ien2222]

It's always worthwhile to have better low end. The lower spectrum simply takes more to do a good job and with that comes price. Even if I was using a pair of logitech's, I'd still rather have a SUB-1500 that can reach down into the 20's vs a lesser one such as the SUB-800 which may get you into the high 30's with good placement. That's about a note short of an octave more that you get on the low end.

 

[kanewolf]

with what speakers?

dayton makes decent budget level subwoofers.

why would you spend up to $250 for a subwoofer for pc speakers? its not worthwhile unless you have decent speakers.

I will disagree with this statement somewhat. A subwoofer can compensate for the missing bass that most computer speakers have. I will agree that cheap speakers that aren't very linear in response can't be fixed by adding a sub.

 

[ssddx]

i never stated that a subwoofer can not help 2.0 pc speaker sets. i stated that $250 is a waste of money to spend on any pc speakers which is why i asked what kind of speakers he was talking about. in any case you need to be careful about a subwoofer completely overpowering the speakers.

 

[ien2222]

That's what the gain knob is for (or eq). The only time it overpowers is when you are simply playing it too loud. This isn't about loudness, this is about quality and that's not a waste at this price level. I can easily balance out the subs I recommend in the $1000 price range with a pair of Logitechs and they won't overwhelm at all. The sound quality of the subs will be far better yes, but the PC speakers won't be drowned out (except when you hit the limits of those).

 

[ssddx]

a subwoofer can overpower even at minimum depending on size. case in point the mismatch on klipsch's promedia 2.1 is that bad. i've experienced it firsthand at flat eq so i'm well aware its a potential issue.

yes, you can balance them out somewhat with eq but if you're not firing the sub much why buy something that large or expensive to begin with.

yes, its possible to use an expensive sub with crap pc speakers but is it really worth the money to do so? it would be better to upgrade everything in that scenario.

before we make any more assumptions i suggest we wait to hear what the op actually has in terms of speakers as i've repeated twice here. without knowing what he has its impossible for us to know what will sound best or be a better fit.

 

[ien2222]

The Promedia is a very bad example, it's a system that's purposefully designed to have a large mid bass bump as compared with the sats. Sells better when heard in an open store (think bestbuy) vs something that's more flat and because it's purposefully designed that way, there probably isn't enough adjustment to bring it in line.

This isn't that same as using a true separate sub.

As for you're second paragraph, it doesn't matter how much it's firing, what matters is if it's doing what you want it to do. If he want's extension down into the mid/low 20's, then he's getting a 12" sub or larger which costs a certain amount of money. Sure there's 10" subs than can get there, but the ones that do it with a decent amount of quality will be more expensive than a 12".

Pretty much the only time you ever care how much a driver is "firing" is if you're hitting xmax.

For your third paragraph, depends on the application. If they have the money to add a sub up to $250 or get a cheaper one and upgrade the speakers it really depends on what the goal is. If they listen to a ton of EDM, dubstep, etc then the former is the way to go. If they listen to jazz, classical and such then the later would be better (assuming your standard pc speakers).

My issue was the blanket statement that a better sub isn't worthwhile without decent speakers. You're frequency range is ~20Hz to 16kHz for the average human, if any part of that is upgraded, then you are better off than before.

 

[Philbobaggins11347]

with what speakers?

dayton makes decent budget level subwoofers.

why would you spend up to $250 for a subwoofer for pc speakers? its not worthwhile unless you have decent speakers.

Sorry about not replying earlier, for some reason I wasn't getting emails for this thread... I'll make sure to fix that. The speakers I am using are those edifier R2000DB. I'm not sure why I said my max price was $250, I was very tired when I wrote this article. My max price would probably be around the $200 range stretching it to about $250 at max.

 

[Philbobaggins11347]

The Promedia is a very bad example, it's a system that's purposefully designed to have a large mid bass bump as compared with the sats. Sells better when heard in an open store (think bestbuy) vs something that's more flat and because it's purposefully designed that way, there probably isn't enough adjustment to bring it in line.

This isn't that same as using a true separate sub.

As for you're second paragraph, it doesn't matter how much it's firing, what matters is if it's doing what you want it to do. If he want's extension down into the mid/low 20's, then he's getting a 12" sub or larger which costs a certain amount of money. Sure there's 10" subs than can get there, but the ones that do it with a decent amount of quality will be more expensive than a 12".

Pretty much the only time you ever care how much a driver is "firing" is if you're hitting xmax.

For your third paragraph, depends on the application. If they have the money to add a sub up to $250 or get a cheaper one and upgrade the speakers it really depends on what the goal is. If they listen to a ton of EDM, dubstep, etc then the former is the way to go. If they listen to jazz, classical and such then the later would be better (assuming your standard pc speakers).

My issue was the blanket statement that a better sub isn't worthwhile without decent speakers. You're frequency range is ~20Hz to 16kHz for the average human, if any part of that is upgraded, then you are better off than before.

I was looking at this sub my Bic Acoustech, it was rated fairly well and had good specs. It also had a very good pleasing design.http/www.toptenreviews.com/electronics/home-entertainment/best-home-subwoofers/bic-acoustech-review/

 

[jsmithepa]

When people say "PC Speaker" one immediate imaging a pair of $15 logitech but apparently that's not the case and you got nicer ones. The other thing is, "PC Speaker" immediately conjure the speakers sitting 3 ft away from you and for that you don't need anything that fills the room, but we really don't know how you use them.

With the limited info given, usd$200 should get you something decent (enough). Ideally there is cross-over somewhere that allows you to fine tune things.

 

[Philbobaggins11347]

When people say "PC Speaker" one immediate imaging a pair of $15 logitech but apparently that's not the case and you got nicer ones. The other thing is, "PC Speaker" immediately conjure the speakers sitting 3 ft away from you and for that you don't need anything that fills the room, but we really don't know how you use them.

With the limited info given, usd$200 should get you something decent (enough). Ideally there is cross-over somewhere that allows you to fine tune things.

What is a crossover?

 

[jsmithepa]

What is a crossover?

When you have 2 or more speakers that handles the different frequencies, it's customary and desirable to "cut" the audio into frequency bands, so for example, with a L+R and subwoofer, it's desirable to send the low frequencies only to the subwoofer and the rest to the L+R speakers, which typically can't handle low frequency too well.

A typical crossover (cutover) frequency is 80hz for this situation, 20-80hz to the sub, 80hz to 20khz to the L+R but depending on the speakers, performance and your taste, ideally there is a setting on the sound card, or a physical knob to tweak this crossover frequency to something else.

A sound card that has a discrete SW out, the cutting is automatically done for you, whether they let you tweak this number depends on the sound card. In this situation you have self-powered L+R.

If you are going PC --> SW ---> L+R, then ideally the crossover knob and hopefully SW gain are physical knobs on the SW box itself. In this situation, you have passive, un-powered L+R.

 

[Philbobaggins11347]

What is a crossover?

When you have 2 or more speakers that handles the different frequencies, it's customary and desirable to "cut" the audio into frequency bands, so for example, with a L+R and subwoofer, it's desirable to send the low frequencies only to the subwoofer and the rest to the L+R speakers, which typically can't handle low frequency too well.

A typical crossover (cutover) frequency is 80hz for this situation, 20-80hz to the sub, 80hz to 20khz to the L+R but depending on the speakers, performance and your taste, ideally there is a setting on the sound card, or a physical knob to tweak this crossover frequency to something else.

So if a subwoofer has an audio crossover built-in that means I can hook up my speakers straight to it?