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"my el cheapo KLH 120W 10" ported sub is about as low as they go."

66.51.146.158

Richard BassNut Greene

In Reply to: RE: "Cheap" is a relative term, when it ain't fightin' words! LOL posted by bartc on January 02, 2009 at 08:11:09

There are many 8" and 6.5" non-ported "subwoofers" that are "lower"
My first "real" speakers were KLH 17's many many decades ago, but I suspect some Chinese company bought the KLH logo used today.
A real audible improvement would be from using two (Left and Right) KLH subwoofers.
Adding another identical subwoofer increases maximum output +3 to +5dB (+6dB if both are stacked in one place) ... and left-right subs prevent a standing wave between the side walls that causes a bass null halfway between those walls (where most two-channel audiophiles sit) ... because left and right subwoofers (or left and right full-range speakers) would be out of polarity for that room mode = so no standing wave will occur!
(565 / distance between side walls in feet = center frequency of standing wave null in Hz.
(This is the important side-wall-to-side-wall first-order axial room mode, that will cause a partial null roughly 5Hz. wide measured by the -3dB points, and up to -20dB to -30dB deep at the minimum SPL point exactly halfway between the walls if both walls are equal bass reflectors = way more than anyone needs to know).
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Richard BassNut Greene
"The Floyd R. Turbo of Bingham Farms Michigan"

Edits: 01/02/09

Follow Ups:

I meant low as in cost! - bartc 09:45:11 01/02/09 (2)
Yes, there are lower freq subs, of course. Yet it does pump out SPLs quite reasonably low for my use, which is exclusively 2 channel music.

My next exploration might be a cheap try at a second sub, maybe a slave if not a matched box. I really wouldn't want another KLH in my room as my wife would go bananas, and given their size and looks, I wouldn't be too pleased myself.

But a couple of smaller slaved subs as an experiment, if I can find them, would be interesting next.
- "I really wouldn't want another KLH in my room as my wife would go bananas" - Richard BassNut Greene 13:46:21 01/02/09 (1)
  Buy it and tell her you won it in a football pool.
  
  If there's a high pass filter in the KLH sub amplifier, it's probably a single inexpensive capacitor for each channel = 6dB per octave high pass filter.
  
  6dB/octave won't do much, but if you ever play your main speakers really loud, some high pass filtering is useful to protect speakers with small diameter ported bass drivers.
  
  I prefer a 24dB/octave high-pass filter with small satellite speakers, but that's rarely built in to commercial subwoofers, and usually requires an external active crossover.
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  Richard BassNut Greene
  "The Floyd R. Turbo of Bingham Farms Michigan"
  - My wife would crack up at that suggestion - bartc 15:22:45 01/02/09 (0)
    As she knows I don't pay any attention to sports, much less bet on them! She's more likely to do that than I.
    
    The sub's specs list the 24db/octave for the X-over, but do not list the high pass specs for the mains outputs, so I have no idea what that would be.
    
    See my response above for info as to why I truly don't believe running mains through the crappy sub is of any benefit to me, while improving the less demanding bottom end with EQed sub does make sense (and it sounds good in practice too!)

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