[kalio12]

Hello guys, I'm new to the website and all this stuff (you can tell by my post count  ). So i recently bought a pair of jbl 4312a for my house (they have yet to arrive). I listen to alot of house music (alot of bass) and while these speakers produce clear and beautiful sound, they do not produce alot of bass. I'm asking for opinions- what kind of subwoofer should i buy? powered or passive? I'm looking in the sub-$350 range, but any suggestions are welcome. Again, sorry for the weird phrasing and all- I'm very new to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

BTW, the jbl's are powered by my marantz 2270 receiver.

[milford3]

The EP 125

http://www.axiomaudio.com/ep125.html

[medium jim]

Hello guys, I'm new to the website and all this stuff (you can tell by my post count  ). So i recently bought a pair of jbl 4312a for my house (they have yet to arrive). I listen to alot of house music (alot of bass) and while these speakers produce clear and beautiful sound, they do not produce alot of bass. I'm asking for opinions- what kind of subwoofer should i buy? powered or passive? I'm looking in the sub-$350 range, but any suggestions are welcome. Again, sorry for the weird phrasing and all- I'm very new to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

BTW, the jbl's are powered by my marantz 2270 receiver.

Welcome to the AC! 

How big of a room will you be using?  The Marantz 2270 is 70wpc, so it will have no problem driving the JBL 4312 Monitors, but I would recommend a powered Sub.  In the $350 and under range, most will have Passive X/O's and actually can be easier to integrate as all you need to do is dial in the gain and x/o point, i.e., 50hz or whatever works best in your room.

Please keep us posted on what you get and how well it sounds.

Thanks,

Jim

[kalio12]

Welcome to the AC! 

How big of a room will you be using?  The Marantz 2270 is 70wpc, so it will have no problem driving the JBL 4312 Monitors, but I would recommend a powered Sub.  In the $350 and under range, most will have Passive X/O's and actually can be easier to integrate as all you need to do is dial in the gain and x/o point, i.e., 50hz or whatever works best in your room.

Please keep us posted on what you get and how well it sounds.

Thanks,

Jim

Thanks for the responses so far! The room is not all that big (long but not very wide), but its got a weird L-shape (i'm in the basement currently, not very acoustic). I'd say its about 11 feet wide and 25 feet long.  If the subwoofer is passive, do you think the receiver will be able to power it properly, as well as the speakers?

[srb]

In the $350 and under range, most will have Passive X/O's and actually can be easier to integrate as all you need to do is dial in the gain and x/o point, i.e., 50hz or whatever works best in your room.

The Axiom sub mentioned previously only has two crossover settings, 80Hz and 150Hz and may or may not integrate well with your speakers and room.  Obviously a crossover with 10Hz or 20Hz steps will give you more adjustment flexibility.

If the subwoofer is passive, do you think the receiver will be able to power it properly, as well as the speakers?

No.  I think you would be better off with either a powered sub with a built-in amplifier or a passive sub with an external subwoofer amplifier/crossover (which you probably won't find within your budget).

Steve

[roscoeiii]

Thanks for the responses so far! The room is not all that big (long but not very wide), but its got a weird L-shape (i'm in the basement currently, not very acoustic). I'd say its about 11 feet wide and 25 feet long.  If the subwoofer is passive, do you think the receiver will be able to power it properly, as well as the speakers?

If the passive sub is pretty efficient, then you should be able to drive it with your receiver.

The shape of the room that you have may result in some bass nodes (room related dips and peaks) that will have to be dealt with. But heck, almost every room will have them to some degree. Fixes for that are a subwoofer EQ, or multiple subs (to a degree).

[medium jim]

Kalio:

Active/passive is in reference to the crossovers.  Just about all subs are powered.  Based on your room size and that the JBL's are around 92db efficient, I would look for a sub with at least a 10" driver and that is 100 watts or more.

I would search the for sale listings on the forum and see if there is something that fits the bill.

Good luck,
Jim

[roscoeiii]

Since most subs are powered this doesn't get much discussion in the sub related threads, but as with main speakers, how many watts you need is determined by the efficiency of the sub (and how hard you will be driving it). For example, the passive NHT SW2 was paired by the company with an 80W NHT amp. FWIW.

[kalio12]

Kalio:

Active/passive is in reference to the crossovers.  Just about all subs are powered.  Based on your room size and that the JBL's are around 92db efficient, I would look for a sub with at least a 10" driver and that is 100 watts or more.

I would search the for sale listings on the forum and see if there is something that fits the bill.

Good luck,
Jim

Thanks for the correction, what i actually meant is whether the subwoofer is driven by the receiver or it has its own amp built in. Thanks for the responses in general, they've been very helpful! I'm gonna do a bit of research myself, and ill let you know what ive decided on.

[kalio12]

also, one more quick question- would anyone recommend any woofers from klipsch or polk audio? I don't know how good the stuff they make is..