New Home Sub needed

My home subwoofer amp died this last week so now I need to make decisions on what to do:

Option 1: $400
RSL Speedwoofer 10s. Maybe a pair eventually. They have received many great objective and subjective reviews. Especially at this price point.
https://rslspeakers.com/products/rsl-speedwoofer-10s/

Option 2: ~$400
New sub plate amp and build a new box for the sub.

Sub is Polk Audio MM1240 svc in a sealed box currently. It was a box I built for a car back in early 2011. Looks ugly but it has worked well for the past 6 years in the house.
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-6qAxYy...io-MM1240.html

I would buy the Dayton Audio 500w rms amp. It was using a dayton audio 250w rms amp but it needed a little more. I think the little extra power would make it super nice.

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-dsp--300-8012

Specs for the mm1240 svc. It has some pretty decent specs...I don't know how accurate they are but if so. It does well.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wY...-no?authuser=0

Here is what the current box looks like and why it needs to be rebuilt......if I go that route...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vF...-no?authuser=0

Here is how the sub measured with the 250w amp in the house: IIRC I set the crossover to be 80hz in the AVR for this and potentially had a usb cable issue that caused bad measurements.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/EN...-no?authuser=0




Here is with the front left and front right speakers: This is pre room eq. Everything is just set to flat and IIRC same 80hz crossover and potentially usb cable issue causing bad measurements...

The rest of the speakers are the polk audio monitor series ii. Monitor 70 front left and right, CS2 center, Monitor 40 surrounds. I also have back jbl in ceiling and front height speakers.
https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/home...itor-ii-series
The speakers are driven by a Yamaha RX-A1000 currently (want to upgrade to some vtv ncore amps eventually)


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Nu...-no?authuser=0

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jdunk54nl

My home subwoofer amp died this last week so now I need to make decisions on what to do:

Option 1: $400
RSL Speedwoofer 10s. Maybe a pair eventually. They have received many great objective and subjective reviews. Especially at this price point.
https://rslspeakers.com/products/rsl-speedwoofer-10s/

Option 2: ~$400
New sub plate amp and build a new box for the sub.

Sub is Polk Audio MM1240 svc in a sealed box currently. It was a box I built for a car back in early 2011. Looks ugly but it has worked well for the past 6 years in the house.
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-6qAxYy...io-MM1240.html

I would buy the Dayton Audio 500w rms amp. It was using a dayton audio 250w rms amp but it needed a little more. I think the little extra power would make it super nice.

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-dsp--300-8012

Specs for the mm1240 svc. It has some pretty decent specs...I don't know how accurate they are but if so. It does well.

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I have two of these and absolutely love them. A little more expensive than what you were mentioning, but, you don't have to build anything either.

http://www.rythmikaudio.com/LVX12.html

Ge0

Do you need the dsp of the Dayton amp and does it need to be a plate amp? If not something like this will give you double the power for about the same price.
https://www.amazon.com/Crown-XLS1002..._rd_i=11975151

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ca90ss

Do you need the dsp of the Dayton amp and does it need to be a plate amp? If not something like this will give you double the power for about the same price.
https://www.amazon.com/Crown-XLS1002..._rd_i=11975151

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I was thinking the same thing. I've been running one of ^those^ and an XLS 1502 for a few years, and they're great; and they come with built-in basic DSP function as well.

Ya, I think the 1502 it will be. 6 year warranty on it too!
Then I could eventually upgrade to dual subs using that, possibly the Dayton audio Ultimax 15's...

Now just to find the best price...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jdunk54nl

Ya, I think the 1502 it will be. 6 year warranty on it too!
Then I could eventually upgrade to dual subs using that, possibly the Dayton audio Ultimax 15's...

Now just to find the best price...

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I run a pair of Dayton RF 15s (4-ohm SVC) on my 1502, which matches up well with their 500 watt rms rating.

Given its 800 watt rms rating, the Ultimax might be a better match for the 1502 if it were offered in 4-ohm DVC as well as 2-ohm DVC, so that a pair of them could take advantage of the 1502's 775 watts/channel 2-ohm rating.

Bought the Crown XLS 1502. Should be here Tuesday.


I figured I will get a mini dsp or dayton dsp to EQ it. Might pick up another one of these. I am building the Parts Express C-note speakers right now and plan on using my current one with those.

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-out--325-1300

Got the XLS yesterday, wasn't initially super happy with it, but it was an AVR output gain problem, not amp problem. Fixed the AVR gain issues and now it is rocking my house (pun intended)!

To get the internal amps (powering speakers) and the crown (powering sub) to match, I had to increase the sub level in the AVR and decrease the speaker level. I normally listened at like -25 to -20db and I needed to be higher to get much output out of the crown. -25db was around .05 volts on the LFE line.

In the off chance you're unaware, this series of Crown XLS amps have selectable input sensitivity of 0.775V or 1.4V (the former, for use with AVR and the like).

Ya, it is set to the .775v option. At normal listening level it MAYBE flickered the first signal light. Now that light is on and it can get up to the next two lights.

Every checked out fine via scope and dmm too.

Also found out the internal amp goes up to 36v without clipping (no load on it)

Come to think of it, I was initially less than completely satisfied with the output of my first XLS (the 1002). However, given the task of driving four budget 8" subs in sealed 0.5 ft^3/ea. to somehow keep up with 94.5 dB (1W/1M) midbass (and bullet tweeters - of course, I had almost no clue what I was doing when I selected this incompatible combination of drivers), it should have been no surprise that there would be great output disparity. The addition of a miniDSP 2x4 allowed me to substantially raise the subwoofer signal level while PEQing the low end as well, while substantially attenuating the signal to the receiver (midbass and treble).

It was a very similar situation when I added the pair of 15" Dayton RF subs to my main system. While the sensitivity of those two subs is far greater than that of the four 8s in the other system, the XLS 1502 is tasked with driving them to somehow keep up with a pair of 3-way horns of characteristically high sensitivity. Enter the Dayton DSP-408 (to raise the sub signal while attenuating the horns signal).

:)

Ya, I think if I was pure external amps coming from the AVR, I wouldn't have any issues. The combination of using the avr internal amps makes it interesting if you do not want to buy a cleanbox pro or some other type of line driver. I had to ultimately set the loudest speaker at -10db in the avr level and the sub out at +10db. This still only allows for me to be listening at the -20db to -15db volume levels. I might get some movies to -10db but that is to the point where you can't talk anymore during the movie because you can't hear the other person.

I wonder if a minidsp would help too. I know my avr says 1.0v preouts but when I measured playing tones I was able to get well beyond that. I think I got it up to +6v before it clipped, this was at volume level +8db though on the avr. The internal amp clipped at +4.5db.

But ultimately, I am happy now. My sub definitely has more power than it did. The crown can be ran near maximum if I want. Nothing is clipping anywhere at my volume levels and I can get to painful levels.

Now just to eventually get some hypex ncore amps for my speakers and build a ultimax 18 kit from parts-express...

FWIW, I've found that the Dayton DSP-408 has a considerably lower noise floor than that of the miniDSP 2x4, though I'm not at all sure how they might audibly compare with respect to subwoofer signal alone.

That is good to know....maybe I upgrade my dsp.2...then put that in my wifes car....then pull her dayton out and use it in the home stereo... ;)

I actually want a minidsp for dirac though...the minidsp hd can do dirac with an upgrade...

Or I just buy this eventually (but that necessitates external amps for all speakers)....but that would leave me with not quite enough channels for home theatre use (currently running 7.1 channels but have 9.1 speakers already installed) So a minidsp 2x4 with dirac and the 8x8 with dirac would get me the 10 channels I would need all with dirac...
https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/ddrc-88a


Then there is also the fact I am running a yamaha rx-a1000 and would love some 4k or 8k support and the use of all 9 speakers..and the new denon avr-x3700h or 3600h gets great reviews over on audiosciencereview.com for their internal amps (LOVE THAT SITE AND THE OBJECTIVE DATA!!!!). It is the best rated avr over there right now. Also the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 seems to be a good contender against dirac (especially with the app control)
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-review.15031/




Either way, my wife semi-ok'd the ultimax 18 purchase (just not this month)..I don't think I could swing $2k in hypex ncore amps to get the 9 channels I would need and the $1500 in dsps to get dirac..... She might not be ok with that since she just tolerates my audio love.....


I think a realistic obtainable plan for me (meaning getting my wife's approval) would be to get the Denon AVR, the ultimax (maybe could swing 2 but from where we listen there is only one real sweet spot for a sub anyway..also that I would go from 1500w max with a single to 1000w total for two due to impedance), get some type of dsp for the subs (I don't know if the denon does sub eq....my yamaha does not have that option).

Maybe then I could pick up a 2 channel (or two, 2 channels) ncore 502mp (350w x 2 @ 8ohms) and use that to drive the main speakers.

Much of that is over my head. LOL I've got mostly ancient equipment, and haven't run surround in many years.

I can't speak for the miniDSP hd. I suspect those are cleaner than my entry level 2x4, but I really don't know.

Yeah, a single 18" Ultimax seems like the way to go ("Now, why didn't I think of that?" LOL), and I doubt you'll need more than that.

OP, how did the Crown work out over time? I was wondering if something like the Crown would be a better choice over a plate amp.

I'm another Rythmik user, loved the sub until it stopped working, I still have to open it up and make sure its not just a loose wire but I know they had Servo Plate Amp failures from the time I picked up my DS1500 Kit

It has been working very well. I convinced my wife to eventually let me buy two ultimax's (or something similar) to drive off of this. The 550w is plenty of power, now I just need to smooth it out for multiple locations. It really opens up the options of what I can purchase as far as future sub upgrades go.