I tried posting this over on the Rythmik AVS thread and didn't really get any responses, so I figured I'd try over here too.

I have the layout out my theater room that I would like to have built. Next week I plan to get estimates on the construction. I have all of the equipment plans decided except the subwoofers. The room with be 2000 cubic feet sealed and rectangular. I purposely chose the layout so that the corners are all open for subwoofers, with the plans to get 4 subwoofers to go in the four corners. This is supposed to give a massive gain in efficiency. I know that I want to go with Rythmik for subs, but I’m struggling to find a good option for me.

I would say that listen movies and TV 95% of the time and maybe 5% for music, so I figured I would go with a ported model to give me more tactile response. I’m not sure how much tactile response I would get with the theater being in the basement on a concrete floor, no subfloor or room for a subfloor between the concrete and carpet. I don’t listen to movies at more than -10dB, in fact I mostly listen at -20dB to -15 dB. I wanted to have the ability to keep the extension on the subwoofer as low as possible, but also be able to play with the damping (high, medium and low) independently. However, in the ported models you only have the control when you step up to the FV15HP. Corner loading 4 of these would be great, but massively overkill and spending lots of money for output I would never use. Even if I stepped over to the a sealed subwoofer instead, I only get the ability to keep the extension and yet adjust the damping independently when I step up to the F12 models and up. I think that I would end up preferring medium or high damping, but I’m not sure.


If I do like high damping I could save and go with 4 x LV12R’s or 4 x LVX12’s and I’m not sure if I would be giving up much over the 4 x FV15HP’s. Just keep the LV12R’s or LV12X’s in low music and I would have the most extension and high damping. Yes I would lose a little bit of extension with the LV12R’s and a little bit less with the LVX12’s, but other than that I’m not sure if there would be much of a difference other than spending $1000 to $2000 more on the FV15HP’s, where I don’t even need the extra output anyways. Would there be significantly more tactile response with the FV15HP’s, once I run Audyssey and have the receiver set at the same level in comparison?

I’m not sure how I can determine if I would like high or medium damping (or maybe I prefer low), unless I actually have subwoofers shipped to me and I listen, but them I’m spending lots in shipping, because all of these range from heavy and big to very heavy and huge. I already have Sierra 2's for mains and plan to upgrade my surrounds to Luna's, the center to a Duo, HTM 200se's for rears and some in-ceiling speakers that will blend well with Ascend's for my overhead Atmos speakers. Because I have the Sierra 2's Raal ribbon tweeters, and I love the sound, I would imagine I'd very much like the improved transient response of the medium or high damping setting, but I'm just guessing here. Any suggestions would be helpful?