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2 subs better than 1?


dubs

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I know the answer is YES! 2 subs are better than 1. But, is one 15” enough to satisfy the bass tooth? What I’m asking is, by adding a second 15” sub, does it give me 200% better bass? Or, by adding the second 15” sub, I’m entering into a bit of diminishing return, and only gives me 150% better bass. What it comes down too, Is it worth the extra dough? 

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15 minutes ago, dubs said:

I know the answer is YES! 2 subs are better than 1

I would think so from what I read, never tried it, not enough room and I wouldn't add a smaller one than I have (it's big).

 

15 minutes ago, dubs said:

But, is one 15” enough to satisfy the bass tooth?

Depends on the tooth. And even more the design of the sub will have more to do with bass than the size. My guess is a well designed 12" horn sub will beat the average 15" direct radiator sub, and sound cleaner. imo

 

15 minutes ago, dubs said:

and only gives me 150% better bass

I never tried it but just guessing i doubt you will get 150% more bass with the second sub.

 

 

You can't have to much bass because it can always be turned down a little to match your speakers.

 

Others will give you different opinions and ideas, this was just one.

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1 hour ago, dubs said:

What I’m asking is, by adding a second 15” sub, does it give me 200% better bass?

The quick answer is "no" you will not get 200% better bass, or even 200% more bass.  A second sub has a little more bass output, not double.

 

A second sub accomplishes two things.  The most important is that the second sub will even out nulls and peaks in the bass response.  There will be fewer spots where the bass is greatly diminished, and the "one note" thumping is diminished.

 

In terms of output a second sub adds 3 db to the peak SPL.

+++

 

Edit:  "Is is worth the extra money?"

 

The majority opinion is "yes" a second sub is important to good overall bass response.  I am in the minority, I am happy with my single 15" sub.  I listen to mostly Youtube vids through the computer in 2.1, and in a small room.

 

My living room setup is 3.0 and at one time I had a 15" sub and a 12" sub in a 5.2 setup.  I was advised to lose the 12" sub, which I did.  I thought the 5.1 setup sounded good, and about the same as with the dual subs but I sat in the MLP most of the time. 

 

My wife sits in the null.  B)

 

 

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If more than one person is in the room it is very difficult to have consistent bass with 1.  In that case 2 subs is imo a big help.  The Geddes paper which is a landmark study suggests that 90% of the maximum benefit from placing say 50 subs can be achieved with 2 subs.  4 subs is better than 2 but has that large diminshing return.   But to make a room almost perfect within a listening area 4 seems to be the key number.

 

1 sub is required to do HT.  2 subs adds say a 50% improvement to flat response across multiple seats...4 subs another 10 or so.  

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I do mostly streaming service watching, and occasional PS4 gaming. The ps4 playback is in 7.1, I wonder if that means it would negate the second sub. Meaning only one would fire during the ps4 gameplay. If that’s the case my decision is easy. No need to pay the extra Money if I’m only going to use it 25-50% of the time. I’m wondering if my receiver will treat the 2 subs as one? Never had 2 subs to play around with. 

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2 minutes ago, dubs said:

I’m wondering if my receiver will treat the 2 subs as one? Never had 2 subs to play around with. 

I have two AVR's a 7.2 and a 11.2, two subs directly supported by the AVR.  Both outputs are mono, and both have identical output.

 

If your 7.1 supports a single sub a splitter will do the exact same thing as a 7.2 and is a very commonly accepted practice.

 

Note:  I'm only being specific about the .1 and .2 because technically the .1 represents the LFE channel, and not the amount of subs supported.  In the nomenclature commonly used these days the .1 and .2 represents the amount of subs which is the way I use it.

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14 minutes ago, dubs said:

I do mostly streaming service watching, and occasional PS4 gaming. The ps4 playback is in 7.1, I wonder if that means it would negate the second sub. Meaning only one would fire during the ps4 gameplay. If that’s the case my decision is easy. No need to pay the extra Money if I’m only going to use it 25-50% of the time. I’m wondering if my receiver will treat the 2 subs as one? Never had 2 subs to play around with. 

 

If you use y splitters you can connect as many subwoofers as you'd like and they'll all play with any x.1 source your receiver receives.  Or, if your receiver has two subwoofer outputs they're both always active.  There isn't any material encoded with two independent LFE channels that I'm aware of such as 5.2, 7.2, etc.

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1 hour ago, dubs said:

Money better spent on the second 115 sub? Or spent on two RS-42II’s? 

A quick listing of what you have would be helpful, including AVR.  How much power you have to drive multiple speakers will influence any specific suggestion I might have.

 

I think you mentioned you used your system for games.  Any movies, TV, or music, and in what percentage of use?

+++

The quick answer to your question really depends on you and what is important in terms of audio.

 

In my case my living room AVR Marantz SR6011 supports 11.2, which includes Atmos 5.2.4 and I've got the speakers and amps to support all that if I wanted to.  I don't have the ideal room for all that stuff, but put that aside for now.

 

I am running 3.0 by choice, TV 80%, music 10% and Blu-ray movie 10%, no games.  As I said I could run surround speakers but frankly hearing sound from beside me and behind me freaks me out a little, it startles me.  That means my personal preference is have my sound stage coming from in front of me only. 

 

I don't know anything about games, but if there is sound that comes from beside you and behind you, a 5.1 or 7.1 might be a better choice for you.  If you want an immersive sound stage the surrounds might be better.  If you want explosions that rip your ears off and vibrates your chest cavity, a sub might be better.  That's why your personal preferences are more important than me suggesting you set up your speakers like I have in my house. 

 

I say go with your personal preference, in terms of "what do I want to hear."

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And 4 subs are better than 2!  Clearly, once you've done it. 

 

Extra subwoofers do 3 basic things.  They give you more uniform bass response throughout the room.  They give you greater peak output by 6 dB/doubling (+3 dB for 2x cone area and +3 dB for 2x the amp power).  Finally they reduce distortion by allowing the .1 channel to be "turned down" driving each sub with 12 dB less power, using less cone travel, in my case,  so the individual subwoofer is loafing along.  It's hard to put a percentage on the change.  Two VMPS and one Acurus A250 could not reproduce the sound of The Fallen's staff weapon on the pyramid in "Revenge Of The Fallen" like the theater did.  Twice that many can. 

 

I went from 1 VMPS to 2 to 4 VMPS.  You won't regret it!!!!

 

NASA used a pair of these VMPS Larger Subwoofers and a pair of B&K M200 monoblocks (my first sub amp) to simulate sonic booms.  It was said they could not find another sub that could do it.  ;)

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4 hours ago, dubs said:

Or spent on two RS-42II’s?

I don't think you said what speakers your using now ? What size is the room ?

 

These things can help people answer, so you have 1 15" sub already is seems. Depending on the speakers you have now and the size of the room if not to wide I might say 1 more sub and a center. But it depends on the size of the room.

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Decent size room 20x20. I have two RF-7II’s and I’m ordering a RC-64III with either one or two 115 subs. Sounds like errbody says more the merrier. I think I’ll go with that. I can get a good deal on some RP-160M Bookshelf speakers for surround backs. That way all I have left to get is two surrounds (RS-42II) and 4 in-ceilings (5800II)

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OK your in good shape, not knowing what the fronts were I was wondering if you should have got better mains and move whatever you had to backs, but not in your case. Looks the whole plan is close to being figured out and I can't see how you couldn't be happy with how that will sound.

I Like the size of the room, l think a nice size room like that sounds better, it gives the speakers a little room to open up and sound there best. imo

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One is enough for me... my system is tuned specifically for the main Listening position so bass response is tuned for that space and nulls in the rest of the room are not an issue.

 

That being said, I don't see the addition of a second subwoofer as a negative.

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A while back when it was just 5.1 the bi-directional speakers did great, they helped spread sound around better. But with all the channels out there now I don't think it's that important anymore. Just a guess really i have no idea, I am stuck at 6.1 and not going to change. All 6 of the speakers are the same size and I have no place to put any on the sides and I would rather leave it like this than to use a smaller speaker, sounds great anyway. The one sub is shared with the HT and 2 ch, but it's a huge sub with no room for another this size.

It's only used for Tv and movies, were 80% 2 Ch anyway which is a different system.

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My gut tells me to get 2 subs. But my wallet says one sub and 2 surrounds. We’ll see. Maybe this tax return will help pay for the extra sub 😎👍🏼

 

That’s the cool/fun part of HT. You add or take away as needed. I’m working my way up to building a 7.2.4 system. Time and money. Hahaha

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