lenb

Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience. I'll follow your advice and go with a stand-alone powered sub (or maybe a pair:-). I think the in-wall RW-5802 would have been appropriate if I had to squeeze into a wall that is shallow throughout. But on my front wall I have some spots where I can recess a front-firing unit like the RW-10d or RW-12d. (Althought he Synergy line may be more thump/$ than the RW line, its down-firing design will not work with my in-wall needs. Also, while it is fun to read the IB discussions here and over at http://ibsubwoofers.com, but I don't think I have the cleverness to make the IB scheme work with my room layout.)

Does anybody have experience with the RW-5802 subwoofer + RSA-500 sub amplifier and how they stack up to the Klipsch powered subs? I'm looking at putting a HT into a basement playroom. It has to be be somewhat kid-proof, so I favor built-in speakers which are less likely to get destroyed. So as I mentioned in the Architectural forum, I'm looking at Sony STR-DA5300ES 7.1 AVR Klipsch RC-53 Center (built into an unused fireplace, immediately below a 50" Pioneer PDP 5080HD) Klipsch R-5800-W Left/Right Klipsch R-5650-S Sides Klipsch R-5650-W Rear And for the sub, I'm looking at a Klipsch RW-5802 with its RSA-500 amplifier. When I e-mailed Klipsch technical support that the room is 12' deep by 23' wide by 86" high, Steve suggested that I wire for a 2nd RW-5802 in case I didn't think a single 5802 provided sufficient bass. But now I'm wondering if even two 5802's will leave me wanting. The specs for the RW-5802 say it bottoms out at 45Hz. Even the L/R R-5800-W's go lower -- spec'd down to 40Hz. Do these Hz numbers mean anything in real life? In other posts I see references to movie channels going down to the 30Hz range -- but do you really notice the difference between a 30Hz and 40Hz floor? The specs on the standalone powered subs go much lower, and maybe even more importantly, the prices are lower too. The Synergy Sub-12 looks like it will sound better and cost much less than the above. But I think I still favor an in-wall design that is out of the way. (this is a play-room after all, not a dedicated home theater). So I'm thinking I'll pay a few more pennies and go for the front-firing RW-12d. Whille the 5802's were to live directly between the L/R channels, I'm more limited in the places I can recess a powered sub. I can either put it in the unused fireplace directly below the RC-52 center channel. (and find another home for my receiver:-( or I could put it in the wall directly below the right channel, where I have the option of raising it as much as 16" off the floor. I've never done any of this before -- does it make sense? thanks, -Len

I'm looking at almost exactly the same setup, except I plan to also put a pair of R-5650-W's on the back wall to make it 7.1. I'm planning to use a Sony STR-DA5300ES for the receiver. I made paper cutouts of the screen and speaker grills and taped them to the walls, then put chairs about where we expect people to sit. This was useful for checking the angles of the speakerrs (eg L/R at 22-30 degrees recommended by Dolby). I wrote Klipsch technical support about this setup and they recommended that I keep the L/C/R tweeters about the height of the viewer's ears. For this reason I plan to keep the center below the screen instead of above. Also, I plan to install the L/R 5800's upside down (woofer on top). But sitting in my chair and staring at my pretend screen I found that I didn't like looking up at it. So I lowered it as far as possible, and now plan to use an R52 center instead of an R-5800-W center. The screen is immediately above an unused fireplace, so the center will actually recess into the top of the fireplace.