Best Rythmik for RAAL Towers

So, I have my new black matte RAAL Towers. I am in the process of doing an AB comparison with the Spatial M3 Turbo S, but I am already starting to plan a sub pairing.

Should I do the sealed 12? The compact sealed 15? Or...maybe even consider a pair of the F8 dual 8s? Who is happy with their RAAL Tower sub pairing? My room is roughly 18 x 28 with a high ceiling.

I will be either be running the Marantz 7702Mk2 with separates, the Denon 7200WA, or maybe the emotive if they get their stuff together in the next month. I'm interested in your suggestions here as well.

Can't make any recommendations without information about the room size and speaker placement. Also need to know if this is planned for primarily movies or music, and if you care more about extension below 20 Hz or high output.

The room is hard to explain. The front wall is roughly 18' across. The room is 28' deep. The right wall is largely glass. The left wall doesn't really exist becait it is the breakfast area and kitchen. Upfront by the speakers is the entrance (about 7' wide) into breakfast area. Then as you move away from the front wall you get to a bar that looks into kitchen area (a requirement for my wife so she doesn't miss any plays on Sunday...God I love her...I married up). The ceiling slopes up from 9' on left to about 16-18' on right. So there is a large volume of air to deal with.

Music is most important. My last sub was a vendersteen that extended well south of 15hz and I loved it. Musicality and extension is more important than bombastic output. I like a more linear response curve over all rather than the hyped up 50-60hz ht curve.

For these reasons I am leaning toward the compact sealed 15", but the thought of stereo dual 8's that aren't working as hard intrigues me

Well based on that then I would definitely go with the big compact sealed 15" or the F8's... I don't have experience with either of them, unfortunately, so I can't tell you which one would be best for that big ol' room with your tastes. I think the F8 can play a big higher up, but that really isn't needed.

From Rythmik's site it also looks like the big 15" sealed subs ultimately have better extension and output, so to me it looks like that would be a better option than the dual 8's. Also, I wouldn't let the whole "working less hard" thing worry you, the surrounds on Rythmik's subs are huge and can flex quite a bit, providing huge amounts of movement when/if you need it. Also, I believe the amp in either sub is the same one at 600 watts, so it's the same amount of power either way.

If that 18' by 28' enclosed room with a sloped ceiling height going from 9' to 17' is sealed off from the rest of the house (you can close off doors, so that the room is enclosed), then I already calculate about 8,820 cubic feet of space. If it is opened to the rest of the house, then you can easily go a little over 10,000 to quite a bit over 10,000 cubic feet. Just 8,820 cubic feet is already a massive space, where if you are truly interested in pressurizing the space, you need to look at the largest ported offerings from the company you are interested in. Since you are interested in Rythmik this would mean the FV15HP. If this room is also open to the rest of the house (open floor plan), then you might want to wait for Rythmik's new 18" ported model that is coming out early in the fall. Some around here have said that they liked their sealed F15HPs in a huge space like this, but if it were me I would go ported and as big as possible for the output you need. The F12s and F8s even if you get duals, I think is out.


Right now I have a 10,000 to 12,000 cubic foot open basement where my home theater area is in. Even though there is a small corner than my theater area is in, is completely open to the entire basement. My ported 12" Outlaw subwoofer did great in my starter house. You could feel the bass as much as hear it at just about all frequencies except any nulls. However, putting it in the huge space, it is quite underwhelming. I can hear all frequencies, but I can no longer feel much of anything. Occasionally, when I crank up a blockbuster movie, if I get lucky and an explosion or big sound effect hits around the frequency of a room mode (a big peak), then I can feel it. But, this is quite rare.

The most important factor to look at when choosing your subwoofer is room size (including all the space that the room is open to). Just because you use a certain area of what you designate as a "room", the bass doesn't really care. It will travel omnidirectionally until it hits a wall and then mostly bounces back. If the subwoofer you choose is too small to pressurize the space, then you will not get the feeling or tactile sense of things with movies or music. Some people are okay with this, but once you experience the feeling sense of bass and then it is gone, it is hard to go back. This is why I am planning to put up a couple of walls in my finished basement to give my subwoofers a much smaller space to pressurize. This means I don't need as much subwoofer to fill the space, though I do plan to upgrade to multiple Rythmik subwoofers.

As far as multiple subs, you typically can get the biggest bang for your buck in going with two of them. You can't really count on getting much additional output from the second sub. Maybe 3dB, which isn't much. In the best case scenerio you will get 6 dB more output if you stack them. But, this is not the point. The point is to get them across the room from each other so that the work together in canceling out room modes. This results in bass that is good in multiple seats and with a little EQ, there is not longer huge peaks and dips below 100 Hz, which is due to your room.

I own a pair of Raal towers with a Rythmik F15HP, I love that it is critically damped with the high q, and low extension, very high quality excellent transient articulation. My room is a little smaller than yours. I think for your for music and your room it would be perfect, but for movies you may want to consider a doubling what you get now in the future. Therefore I don't think you'd go wrong with any of the sealed offerings two f8's, two f12's, or start with one e15's or f15hp's, then if its not enough double what your start with if you need more.

I just got a custom Rythmik/Salk F15HP 3/4 MDF and 3/4 Bamboo in satin dark cherry as different woods when laminated together cancel out each others resonance.

I have a 12 by 23 ft room with 8 foot ceilings. I am still working on getting is adjusted to my RAAL Towers and it is quite impressive. I haven't even started to push the sub yet and on some CDs I am turning the sub volume down to about 1/4. I was a starving professional musician and musically this sub is awesome. I have only listened to a few DVD's, and with a extension down to 14hz it been exceptional.

Chops