Help on buying a studio subwoofer

[isontric]

Ez all,
I produce drum and bass and i have always had difficulties getting the lower end in my mixdowns where they need to be. So i thought it was time to make an upgrade and add that much needed lower end to my setup (currently 2 krk rp-6's).

I have been looking at mostly 10" powered subs on guitarcenter (this is where i need to buy from) and what have caught my eye are these:

JBL LSR 2310SP

Tapco SW-10

iKEY M-10S V2

Any thoughts on any of these, or subs in general would greatly help. Again, im just looking to fill that low end i am missing in my mix with something equal quality to my KRKs.

Thanks!

 

[dintymoore]

I made my own and have used it for about 10 years:

12" no name dual coil subwoofer speaker $70
3/4" birch play sealed cab about $40
automotive crossover (48 Hz crossover frequency) $30
Harmon Kardon used stereo reciever $40

I always mixed too bottom heavy until I made the sub setup.

The cabinet is really heavy and I think that helps.

The No.1 problem I hear with subs is too high a crossover frequency. I have a Behringer sub with a built-in crossover and it's set at 80 Hz. That's too high and you end up sending the 1st harmonic through the sub which sucks - it sounds boomy, not tight. How you get the tight bass is by only boosting the fundamental, not the 1st and 2nd harmonics.

You need to get the crossover frequency down to at least 48 Hz so that only the fundamental frequencies are being boosted. I can't help be skeptical of 10" subs 'cause I think I'd like an 18" and a 12" barely does it.

So I'd make sure that whatever sub you listen to doesn't boost the 1st harmonic as well as the fundamental, that's the problem I hear left and right with sub setups.

 

[isontric]

cheers, thanks for the input. I went down to GC yesterday afternoon and actually found a krk 10s. Only cost me $100 with the check i had from a warranty on a pair of blown studio headphones.

10s has a crossover cut from 130 -50hz. Sounds great.

Right away after hooking everything up and loading up the DAW i could hear the adjustments that NEEDED to be made in mixdowns. This sub was exactly what i needed.

now for some acoustic treatment