Which kind've speaker to get?

Question

I want to get a speaker that has awesome BASS on it, is the bass in the watts or what? i'm really new into stereos and such what should i get for at home? and is it only the speaker i should get or what would a good setup be? ANY help at all would be VERY MUCH appreciated! thanks!!!

Answer 1

If you want speakers that are good with bass, then Cerwin Vega is the perfect brand for you. Any Cerwin Vega speaker is great for bass. Cerwins have some of the tightest, punchiest bass of any consumer speakers out. I have the Cerwin Vega VE-12s and they have 12'' woofers and they go down to 28Hz which is an extremely low frequency for floor-standing speakers. They are also built like tanks,each speaker weighs over 50lbs. The VE-12s are rated at 300w peak, 150 rms. You will need a good amp though because Cerwins love power. The more power they get, the better they sound. Most of their speakers are fuse protected so it will be pretty hard to blow them. Cerwin Vega also makes very good subwoofers. Just go to Cerwinvega.com and see for yourself.

Answer 2

Look for a system with small, monitor style speakers, then add a self-powered subwoofer.

The position of the L/R speakers is usually never the best place for smooth, low bass reflection in the room. A single, external sub makes finding the optimal position easier and is more flexible.

Look into SVS and HSU subwoofers. These are internet brands that are well respected.

Answer 3

Sure, You can get just about any surround sound set-up with an AM/FM tuner and hook it to your TV... and there you go. Just crank up the bass. That's the budget way and it will work...well, sort of.

Next, you can invest in a good used receiver with a built in amp and if it has a sub woofer out that is independent of the other speakers then you can get by with using a sub woofer for your bass and smaller speakers for the rest of the frequencies.

Personally I use this set-up:

I have a Marantz 2226B receiver from the late 70's . It's the ultimate in clarity and has plenty of power to shake a room. I don't have a sub woofer because I don't care about super low bass shaking a room, but if I did i would simply get a passive crossover online and put it between my current pair of speakers. I would get a passive crossover because basically what it would be doing is block the low low frequencies from blowing my FULL RANGE SPEAKERS. That's right, it sounds backwards in a way, but this is another way to get the maximum use from such a great sounding old school, or ANY receiver for that matter, without a separate channel for the sub woofer. I'll explain more in a second, but here is the BEST IN THE WORLD EVER AT ANY PRICE SPEAKER- get a pair of these--

Magnaplanars SMGa's ( avoid the MG1's, or earlier ones because the glue ate the aluminum on the driver)

These speakers can fill a room with sound and it doesn't even need to be cranked up. They are 4 feet x 18" x only 2" deep

That's right they are thin. But because of their surface area the work terrific. If you sit in front of them, close your eyes. You could be in a room that's 10'x10' and you'd swear you were in a room that was twice that big and the speakers twice as far back and the volume up twice as loud. They somehow introduce a new factor into the equation, and it's hard to put a finger on, but no speaker I've ever listened to sounds so well defined and right. Get a pair on ebay for around $300-$400. Surprisingly the company who makes them is still going strong and sells them new for $500, still after all these years.

The company is Magnapan and the speakers are Magnaplanar. They are respected among audiophiles and truthfully i think some of these audio buffs are jealous that such a great sounding speaker can be sold for so little money. However they do have some for over $11,000!

Now if you have your receiver set up for the magnaplanars on speakers 'A' and your sub woofer on speakers 'B' then if you want more bass to get to the sub woofer and not affect the magnaplanars then get a crossover that  crosses over BELOW the range of the magnaplanars ( or which ever full range speaker you choose). This way you can crank up your bass on the receiver and your sub woofer will 'accept' these frequencies, but your 'regular' full range speakers will not be affected by them.

I recommend getting the above and patching a good graphic equalizer between the 'tape monitor' out, and the 'power amp' in. This way, no matter what you are listening to, you can taylor the sound to the room. If you want to shake the room just turn up the lowest frequencies on the EQ.

Now if you look up all of these things on Ebay or wherever, you will see that I must be trying to take you on a trip to the past. Not really, what I am doing is helping you bypass going out and buying the brand new equivilent. The fact is that most of these companies are still in business and they perfected audio engineering in the 50's, made it a reality by the 70's, and other than squashing a few parts down, and making digital a household word, in actuality the only thing digital has to do with sound is...well, nothing at all! That's right. Other than  being the medium for music storage and then being channeled to more than just the traditional 'LEFT' and 'RIGHT' by way of Dolby 5.1 and other coding systems, digital has absolutely not one ioda to do with sound. So with that said, by all means don't get something just because it has a zillion lights on it and a million buttons, and a big old LCD screen for programming this that and the other. If it's sound you want then there is definitely an untapped resource out there, and certainly no current day magazine is going to promote it- they have advertizers who need to sell their new products. Certainly no stereo specialist is going to promote it- they have brand new merchandise to unload. So, you did the right thing by coming here.

Oh' ADC makes great speakers to I have a pair of L500's that when cranked sound like the band is in the room playing. Look them up, I highly recommend them. Oh', and check out your thrift stores. You'd be amazed by what you might find. Last week I saw an almost new set of 'old' Pioneer speakers that were only 12 bucks apiece!