Thanks for the suggestions. Would a P12 be too high-end for my current system? Bearing in mind I paid around £300 for the Tannoy TFX 5.1 speaker package and £150 for the AV receiver. What would an ideal spending ratio normally be between the AV receiver, speakers, and subwoofer for example to get the best results?
Have also been keeping an eye out for a P12 on eBay but they never seem to have any in plain black and FF!
You can spend as much or as little as you like. To give you detailed information as to make a better decision read on;
Speakers are built to do a specific job - subwoofers (bass - low frequencies), tweeters (mid - high frequencies), mid bass drivers (low - mid).
So when it comes to subwoofers you want something that is really good at producing low frequencies and nothing else. This requires big massive drivers when compared to tweeters and mid range woofers. Ideally you want the sub to be doing 120hz and everything below that too. Size is everything for a subwoofer. The bigger the driver then it can move more air easily and replicate the frequencies properly.
Biggers drivers means more money. But also louder too. But that doesn't mean you can't turn them down.
For me I would say buy the best you can afford right now regardless of what your amp and other speakers cost. As they have no relevance as the subwoofer is doing a different job.
It's like saying I have a £15 hammer and a £300 drill how much should i spend on a saw. Well it has no real impact apart from it would be stupid to have a £10K sub with a £300 amp and £250 seperates as you would get a much more balanced system if you spent £5K on a sub and the other £5K on the amp and seperates.
I bought an XXLS400 my AVR was double the price of my subwoofer but my seperates cost me same as my subwoofer. I bought AVR new and everything else second hand but the XXLS400 was brand new the guy bought it and decided he didn't want it. He gave me the receipt which was 1 month old and it was still fully boxed. So he had it for less than 30 days in his possession and decided to go down a different route.
Personally I would go for any BK sub they are all good for the money. The p12 300sb is probably the best for movies after the monolith. the XXLS400 is the best all rounder (music and movies).