Subwoofer recommendation

I have studied audio engineering, and my room does have ok acoustics, like I wrote in the first post. Of course not like a commercial studio, but I do believe it’s bad advice to just deny the subs potential because of the risk that the buyer lacks in respect of acoustics! :slight_smile:

I studied audio engineering also and treated my room at home extensively, spent good money and monitors and a quality sub to match, tuned them to the room with speaker tuning software and a mic… thought it was great went on my merry way making music.

Did a mastering course a bit after in a pro studio built by acoustical engineers… and the end of the course we sat with the head engineer in the main studio to master our own tunes we had been writing at home.

I was mortified…

Everything sounded fantastic except the bottom end… it was terrible and not to mention embarrassing.

After that and a lot of feeling sorry for myself and throwing my hands in the “I’ll never be able to afford a proper studio” I did a lot of research and asked alot of pros what they do at home…

One of them said if he was starting over again he wouldn’t even bother with room treatment… just good cans and a subpac.

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Dude obviously wasn’t using it properly then… when you calibrate it properly it’s sound through bone induction… through your body into your skull and inner ear not just rumble.

I can turn off everything but the subpac and still hear bass and yes clearly the difference between kick and sub much more so than with a subwoofer… the clarity is mind boggling.

Anyway was just trying to help someone not make the same mistakes I did.

Good luck with your sub selection mate.

Peace.

Dude, thanks for your input! You have at the very least made me a bit intrigued, I will not dismiss the subpac straight away. If I get the chance, I’ll look for a try out. Cheers!

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And great story about the low end incident haha. I’ve been there too. Not as excruciating as when you sit with everyone’s sober attention in front of a mixing desk, but ive played some tracks at a club that I thought were ready, and I had to make so many adjustments on the mixer, on the fly, that the tracks were unbearable in the clubs sound system, was embarrassing!

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Should I even bother with sound treatment in my room? I don’t know if it’s built to be a studio in the first place but I recently sold my Adam A7Xs to buy a different pair of monitors and a sub.

Im reviving this thread in case somebody googles it and reads this. wanted to share my experience with the subpac.
I have mine built into my IKEA chair. You wouldn’t even see it if it weren’t for the cables. Chair is still comfy.
Regarding differentiating kick and bass: this actually works very well. you sense transients very well. stuff like sidechaining leads to a great experience as you really find that point where it kicks in ans gives the kick space.
as like with everything else, you have to learn the tool. I sat down and listened to alot of tracks with the subpac. after a while you really get a good understanding of what a good balanced low end means on it.

I really like this thing. especially at night when no neighbor knows that I am subbing the fuck out of myself with cans on my ears.

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This is great reading. I am acutally going to try Ollo Audios version. I already have their headphones and they are excellent indeed. My studio mates have an EVE Subwoofer that I can share with them, but it’s too much of a hassle reconnecting, moving it about in the studio and calibrating every session. SO! I’m ordering the Haptic Monitoring package from OA - in about a month though, when I have the money to lay down.

I’ll report here with my findings when I have tried it out!

PS. I am curious as to how it compares to a Subpac. It’s way more expensive, but I understand it’s tailored for the headphones I already have. We will see!

I see two problems with sub pac. 1st is i hear 40-50 hz, and like hearing it, second, i play music in standing position, wouldn’t want to wear it while moving around the room.

Hehe, yes we all hear 40-50 hz. And we all love those freqs. I would never want a monitoring system that tells me accurately what is going on when I am jamming or playing. For that I use my KRK’s in my living room. They are super muddy and bass-heavy, but man, music sounds fun in those.

I am sorry, isn’t this about subwoofers? i like your sarcasm, but it’s of topic. I came here to find out about subwoofers, such is the title. Maybe you guys have to ask the moderators to split this , and have your own discussion about listening with your other parts of the body than the ears ?

Sorry, didn’t mean to come across as sarcastic! But yeah I’m the OP and I was asking about options for monitoring sub frequencies. But please explain what you wanted to contribute with your comment! :slight_smile:

because saying that you hear and like frequencies we all like and hear, and bashing the options that were kindly given, without adding anything to the conversation does not seem like contributing to me, but if I have misunderstood, I will gladly stand corrected!

I think lot of people drive subwoofers to loud. That , and they dont treat the room, which becomes more obvious with low frequencies. So maybe instead of investing in esoteric solutions, it is better in the long terms to invest in room treatment.
Here you go, that’s all.

I wasn’t bashing anything, i was just stating the obvious, and that is that we all like and hear 40-50 hz, not just feel this frequences, and accordingly, having something attached on my body that vibrates is not going to be the same as subwoofer. Maybe again this is obvious, i don’t know, just saying, don’t mean to be rude.

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Let’s say I have a subpac for monitoring, but would like a (little?) subwoofer when I’m playing with friends…
What would you recommend?

I have seen Swissonic Sub10 is relatively cheap, but I wonder if it’s not too heavy a thing (in the sense, more live oriented) than what I’m looking for, or a sub woofer for simple indoor jam sessions…

I have little Focal Alpha 55 as monitors, that’s what we jam on in fact.

Your thoughts about this?

I have ESI aktiv 10S, in a small room, i don’t think 10 inch is to big for jamming with your friends.
I got it recently, i adapted this idea from forums that sub is not a good idea for small and fairly untreated room.
Then i saw a video from a guy who is producing hifi amplifiers, he said that ( having a subwoofer) is actually a good idea, becouse your bookshelf is not going produce subfq 1 :joy: and no matter how bad is your room , it will be better with sub, or in another words, just as bed without it .

What have changed in my case is, my 5inch monitors are sounding much clearer and less fatigueing on my ears, sound stage is better, plus i can hear a lot of energy i didn’t hear before ( and i like the sound of it , which is also nice )

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Is anyone here using the neumann kh 750 along with theor kh80. There is a discount at the moment. It has built in dsp and i don‘t know if this really is helping with non treated rooms.

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No one?