Would a subwoofer help a pair of sierra1s sound fuller?

[t3ss]

Hey guys,

I've been enjoying my sierra1s for sometime, however I feel like the size of my room poses a bit of a challenge for the speakers to fill the room with sound. My room is about 22x15 with an 8 foot ceiling. Would a subwoofer help the sierra1s better fill my room with sound? I understand that this is most likely a given when you add another woofer, but I've been led to believe from reading other forums that adding a subwoofer also allows your speakers to focus more on the mid and high range. Is there any truth to this?

The subwoofer I'm interested in is the SVS SB-1000.

[hearing specialist]

Heh there new forum member, what are you listening to and what are you mostly using the awesome Sierra 1's for? We are happy your here!

If you watch blue-rays then my vote and opinion is that you will greatly benefit from a dedicated subwoofer. With all the crazy codecs and agressive sound effects, allowing your subwoofer to do what its designed to do will greatly enhance your listening experience and dynamics. My vote once again will be a Rythmik sub to equally match the sound quality of the Sierra's. The servo drive will blend nicely and give you bass quality that easily matches your already awesome sound quality of the Sierra1's.

If your into music alone, some will also encourage a subwoofer to also enhance and elevate your listening experience. Once again the Rythmik sub designs offer top notch sound quality and build. These are those subs you keep forever and if anything you add another later in life. You owe it to yourself to experience and enjoy a full frequency range of listening and sound is what attaches us to message portrayed in music or movies. I'm always going to encourage a subwoofer if your listening space and listening material will benefit. Check out the Rythmiks on the site here and maybe the 12" would be a nice marriage to your Sierra's.

[t3ss]

Heh there new forum member, what are you listening to and what are you mostly using the awesome Sierra 1's for? We are happy your here!

If you watch blue-rays then my vote and opinion is that you will greatly benefit from a dedicated subwoofer. With all the crazy codecs and agressive sound effects, allowing your subwoofer to do what its designed to do will greatly enhance your listening experience and dynamics. My vote once again will be a Rythmik sub to equally match the sound quality of the Sierra's. The servo drive will blend nicely and give you bass quality that easily matches your already awesome sound quality of the Sierra1's.

If your into music alone, some will also encourage a subwoofer to also enhance and elevate your listening experience. Once again the Rythmik sub designs offer top notch sound quality and build. These are those subs you keep forever and if anything you add another later in life. You owe it to yourself to experience and enjoy a full frequency range of listening and sound is what attaches us to message portrayed in music or movies. I'm always going to encourage a subwoofer if your listening space and listening material will benefit. Check out the Rythmiks on the site here and maybe the 12" would be a nice marriage to your Sierra's.

I listen to mostly indie music to future-garage and down tempo electronic music. I'd love a rhythmic subwoofer, but they're just out of my price range. My setup is strictly music listening. For me, something like the SB-1000 from SVS would be a massive stretch of would I'd already be willing to pay for.

http://i.imgur.com/lKPm7.jpg

[merrymaid520]

I have to ask what the device is on the right of your room on the end table? You don't happen to have glaucoma by chance?

:p

[t3ss]

I have to ask what the device is on the right of your room on the end table? You don't happen to have glaucoma by chance?

:p

It's a hookah, a device used for smoking flavored tobacco. :) I too often get those sort of remarks when someone sees my room lol.

[merrymaid520]

I know, just kidding around:). Nice room btw! On a related note, a decent sub will help fill in the low end nicely.

[kinggimp82]

I think adding a sub will give you a nice improvement in the overall sound. In my opinion the Sierras sound better with a sub. It gives the bass more authority and also relieves the amp of the burden of producing those low frequencies. I have my Sierra's crossed over at 60 hz and find I can play them louder this way. Subs are better equipped to produce bass under 60 hz. If you're budget is really tight you may want to consider an HSU STF-2 as they cost $100 cheaper than the svs you are looking at. Plus they are on sale at the moment. The main difference is that the svs is a sealed12'' while the hsu is a ported 10''. I do find the STF-2 to be very capable and think it is quite musical for a ported sub.

[jahjd2000]

In that price range you could get an Epik Legend which has two 12" woofers. I have its bigger cousin, the Epik Empire with two opposing 15's, and it's amazing. I have yet to her it bottom out and I've thrown some crazy material at it. It's sealed and has tremendous output for HT use.

[Brannigan]

I had my sierras for almost a week before my rythmik sub showed up in the mail and can verify that it's a night and day difference. Sierras still sound great but they simply can't do what towers can do in the low end. IMO all bookshelves are incomplete without a sub. I would try to find a used rhythmik F15 and cross over at 70hz. That's where they sounded best (to me at least) but 60hz sounds good too. If you can move them apart a little more they'll sound better too. About 10 feet apart is great and your distance from the wall is already good.

[t3ss]

good to hear a subwoofer has made that much of a difference. So let me get this straight, by using a sub crossover it would allow the woofers on the sierra 1s to act more like midrange drivers? In a similar vein to how the sierra 1 tower sounds fuller partly because of the dedicated midrange?

@Brannigan, I'd love a F15 though even used I'm afraid it's much more than I can afford. My room is 2450 cubic feet, would a 12" sealed sub like the sb-1000 be sufficient for it? I don't need HT rumble, though I wouldn't want my room to swallow the subwoofer either.

[Brannigan]

The svs looks pretty nice and would probably be fine. I only have experience with the rythmik so I know how it sounds but I know svs is well regarded so it sounds like you can't go wrong, especially if you don't care about HT or earth shaking bass from blasting electronic music or rap. I almost got a 12" but the 15" was on sale so I got it to avoid possible buyers remorse but it may be more than I need. Your room doesn't look that big to me. I think a smaller room might actually make it harder to get good bass because of peaks and nulls. The only thing is to see if it has a continuously variable phase knob instead of just 0 or 180 degrees. I could be over thinking it but phase seems to be much more important than I used to think. I thought something might be wrong with my new sierra towers until I checked my sub and realized I had somehow left the phase knob at about 1 o clock. I played a bassy song and turned it slowly up from 0 degrees and found the sweet spot at around 15 degrees. I was an amazing difference and I finally had the full sound I was missing. Slapped myself in the head and went back to the music.

[Brannigan]

On second thought the phase will probably be fine at 0 degrees. Maybe I was over thinking it. I'm sure the svs is awesome.