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how musical is the RT-12d vs an SVS sub?


Ou8thisSN

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i'm in the last stages of completing our 2-channel setup in the family room. when we first moved in, we had the RF7s paired with the SVS PB2+ sub. man did that put out tons of prodigious bass. almost too much bass. That sub, along with those speakers have since been moved to our dedicated theater room where its doing nicely. Now, we have the RF83s in the family room, coupled with a recent Rotel RSP 1068 pre-amp/pro and a RB-1080 amplifier. boy has the soundstage expanded. of course we are all really pleased with the sound we get from the klipsch but now we need the low end to balance the high end. When i was at the dealer getting the rotel stuff last saturday, i happened to have a prodigy CD with me and I wanted to test out the RT12d which is supposed to complement the new reference line. we played a few songs there and it was run through the rotel equipment that i now own, along with the RF83s, and i wasnt impressed. Not at all. There wasnt that earth shattering bass that i've come to expect.

On paper, these two subwoofers are very comparable. the only thing was that this sub wasnt placed in the corner. it was placed against a sidewall, in the middle of that wall, surrounded by other klipsch subs. So i'm wondering if corner placement would have really given me a better feel of what this sub can do? honestly, my primary reason for considering the klipsch are its looks. its gorgeous and dimunative. i love its styling and it would make for a great family room sub thats not obtrusive. The SVS on the other hand, is, noticable, to say the least. Its massive and will be ever present. I went on the SVS site and the new sub that replaces the PB2+, the PB12-plus/2, is no longer available in cherry (which would forseeably match the klipsch we have), but they have a price break on the piano gloss finish (which would also work since it would be neutral).

So i'm essentially asking 12d owners or svs owners to chime in and tell me if its even worth it for me to do an in-house demo of the klipsch or just get the SVS, which I know will work. like i said, the klipsch did absolutely nothing for me at the store. I couldnt even feel the bass. Of course i dont know how they had it configured and it wasnt placed in the corner, but still, its a reputable store, not a mass market megastore, so i can assume they set it up right and it just didnt 'hit'. As I said, this will ONLY be used for music, no HT/movies whatsoever. I have very eclectic music tastes and listen to pretty much everything but every now and again I'd like to have a few parties and when that happens i definitely want a capable sub that will keep everyone rocking. I'd really like to make this decision within the next few days so if you have any thoughts, please post. thanks for reading my ramblings.

btw... the room is an open family room thats 20 x 20 x 11". it opens into a large kitchen which is equally big.

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4400 cu ft.... for that large of a space, you may need multiple units co-located to produce enough bass while maintaining low distortion levels. Infinite baffle or several high displacement units would be the best here. A single RT-12d might not be enough at all. Is there any chance you know the dealer well enough that you could request an in-home demo? IMO that is the only way to know for sure if it would be enough.

As you have noticed, placement definately makes a difference in output, as does acoustic phase to the main speaker and such.

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yes, the dealer did say i could do an in-home trial if i so desired. i was just wondering if its even worth it for me to try. i guess i'm just being lazy as i dont want to lug around a 70+ lb sub for a couple of days and then have to return it. seems like you guys dont think it will do the job, so perhaps SVS is the answer. That one definitely did the job, at least to my satisfaction anyway.

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The peak output of the RT-12d and your SVS is going to be very similar. I personally would go with two RT-12d's though - not so much for the extra output, but for the balanced bass response. I can't stand when the bass comes from one side of the room. But in your situation, it doesn't hurt that one was built for 2000 cubic feet, which would come to about 4000 cubic feet when running two.

As far as your experiences at the dealer - the bass response of a system is mostly dictated by the acoustics of the room. Since your room is large and open to the rest of the house, I have no doubt that it's going to sound infinitely better. The RT-12d's come with their fancy ARC which is supposed to help tame the response a bit too....improperly configured it would make the bass sound much much worse. The cool thing about the ARC is that it allows you to daisy chain multiple subs and make them all work together (even with the effects of the ARC).

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i think i'm just going to go with the SVS. I can get a 5% discount as a return customer, i know it will work in my room and give the amount of bass I want, and the piano black finish should look pretty good and not be an eyesore like the regular black finish. i just dont have any more time to test out different subs.

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5%? Always get atleast 15% when you purchase that much. There is quite the mark up on equipment and if you are a returning customer he should be extra friendly.

You do know that SVS are bought directly from the manufacturer online, right?

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i think i'm just going to go with the SVS. I can get a 5% discount as a return customer, i know it will work in my room and give the amount of bass I want, and the piano black finish should look pretty good and not be an eyesore like the regular black finish. i just dont have any more time to test out different subs.

mmiles is in delaware and is selling his svs pb12 for 600.

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its not 5%, i mistyped that, its actually quite a bit more than that but i probably shouldnt post how much more. Anwyay, i'm leaning more and more towards the PB2+ again. I just dont think the klipsch will do it for me in this application in our room.

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