Subwoofer for Hifi

andythelandy · 7 Oct 2013 at 01:10

At the moment I've got Roth Oli1's running from a Cambridge audio A1 amp, while the speakers are very clear and crisp they've always lacked decent bass so I'm looking for a subwoofer that has high level input and output so I can use it with my amp as the amp has no dedicated subwoofer output. My budget is £100 max the only sub i've found so far is an LTC? Not sure they are particually good, I was hoping someone on here could show me a few others.

Thanks in advance

Marsman · 7 Oct 2013 at 11:30

Better buy a second hand one, as new ones for £100 aren't worth buying. They are not like speakers, where decent ones can be made for £100 price bracket. A decent quality large woofer obviously costs more, then you have the cabinet, which has to be well made; not to mention the cost of the amplifier. It all adds up. £100 for a subwoofer is no money.

There are positive consumer reviews for that LTC on a certain jungle site, but most of those wouldn't know good sound quality if it hit them in the face. A perfect example is one guy who says his friend has a £200 sub, and that the LTC sounds better than that. Those two either are deaf, or his friend got conned into buying a rubbish sub for £200. For £214, you can get a BK Gemini II, which for the money is an excellent sub and will make that LTC sound like it was built by 5 year old's.

Wharfedale SW150 is probably the best cheapest subwoofer you can get at around £150-£170.

andythelandy · 7 Oct 2013 at 17:13

I found a Wharfedale Topaz SW-10 for a very good price, I assume this is a fairly good sub? Unfortunately I don't think it has the high level input and outputs that I require to be able to wire it to my amp could someone confirm this?

Marsman · 7 Oct 2013 at 18:10

It would appear that it's an old model from around 2001. Very few reviews that I can find, although of the few consumer reviews some are good some not so good. A picture on ebay of a SW10 confirms that it does indeed have high level input.

Trusty · 7 Oct 2013 at 20:17

How are you going to connect a sub to that amp? I thought you needed a sub out.

Marsman · 7 Oct 2013 at 22:46

Not if the subwoofer has high level input, which the SW10 does.

andythelandy · 8 Oct 2013 at 00:09

It has high level input so I can wire the amp to the sub, but it doesn't seem to have high level output so I can wire the speakers to the sub like others i've see so I don't think it will work.

Marsman · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:13

Some subwoofers don't have high level output, which is the case with Wharfedale. The idea is that you run a second set of cables from the speaker connections on the amp to the inputs on the subwoofer. It's designed so that the subwoofer doesn't draw power from the amp, but listens to exactly what the speakers are receiving.

mattyfez · 10 Oct 2013 at 18:55

I bought a paradigm 10" 100w active sub years ago, for about £100, it's quite bad ass, but they don't seem to be available any more. Its got high level in puts, line level, and adjustable crossover, the only thing it really lacks is a phase switch.

Maybe there's a newer equivalent?