Do I need a SW at all?

[wannabelean 10+ year member]

Need some help folks

I'm getting the following:

Alpine 9857

Alpine 4 ch amp

Rainbow SLC 230 (front components)

no rear speakers

now the question is do I need a SW? I'm not a bass freak. I'm not a big fan of thumping sounds but a lil would be nice. The listen to Pop Music most of the time.

I would have got one for sure if I had some good money. I just do not want to buy some cheap SW/Amp combo just for the heck of it. The thing is that I'm not even sure I need to get one because of my listening preferences.

Thanks

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[Demi 10+ year member]

Full low end requires a sub, but if bone rattling bass isnt your thing why not look into a good SQ 10"? You can always adjust the gain to your liking, so spend the money on sq. Something like a 10" Infinity maybe? Im not really up on what brands are the best for that, but ive heard they sound great, and give the low end some punch to it.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

if you don't want thumping, go for a more HT sound with an 8 or a 10 low excursion driver in a ported or bandpass box

you just want to take frequencies lower than 100hz or so away from your midrange drivers to decrease distortion

the TRUE use of a sub is to minimize distortion for your full-range drivers, 'thumping' is just a product of good ol' americanism //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif and i'm not gonna lie, i love it

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

the TRUE use of a sub is to minimize distortion for your full-range drivers

Not really a major consideration. The purpose of a sub is to reproduce lower freqs at an audible level that your smaller front speakers can't. Low frequency reproduction requires displacing a lot of air. The lower the freq the more displacement is required. The limited cone area and excursion of a relatively small midrange/midbass limits its capability at lower frequencies. Adding a small sub with a modest amount of power will make a big difference in the sound of any system. Something like an Ascendant Audio Assassin or a JL W1 series 10 in a really small sealed box with around 150 watts will do very nicely to fill out the bottom end of any type of music. They also won't take up much space at all and are rather inexpensive.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

^^ but even home audio and pa cabinets that use 15inch or larger midrange speakers use seperate drivers for sub bass

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

^^ but even home audio and pa cabinets that use 15inch or larger midrange speakers use seperate drivers for sub bass

That's because the giant midrange is still only a midrange. It has a tiny Xmax and isn't capable of moving much air. Not to mention the fact that the Fs is usually somewhere over 100Hz because the cone is super light and the suspension is super stiff because it is designed to be a midrange.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

"A more HT sound..."

lawl.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif