New Sound System - Part 6: An Additional Subwoofer

 

The thought of adding a second subwoofer to my system had crossed my mind but was low on the priority list. With one sub, all of the deep sounds come from one corner of the room, and I thought adding a second one would help balance the sound source. Subs are large and expensive, however, and I don't have a great space to put it a second one. I have a second version of my current sub on my Crutchfield wishlist to watch the price, but that is as far as I've gone towards getting a second sub. 

Klipsch released a new line of subwoofers earlier this month. My office manager's husband is a sound engineer at Klipsch and worked on the new line of subwoofers. Last week she sent me a text asking if I wanted one of their new subs. Apparently they throw the test subs away once they're finished with them since they are unable to sell them. Adding a second sub that is free was a no brainer, so I took him up on the offer.

My first impression of this sub is that it is huge! My current sub sits in the front left corner of the room. I don't have space in the front right corner for a second sub, as the stairs and entrance to the bathroom occupy that space. I had planned on placing this new sub in the back left corner (which is about the only other space that I have for a second sub), but it won't fit because of its massive size. Instead, I swapped locations and placed the new sub where the current sub sits. I plan on moving the old sub to the back left corner, but that will have to wait until Operation TV Swap (more to come on that in the future) because I will need to have additional wiring to run a second sub.

Back to its size, it weights an impressive 70 pounds. It's a two person job to haul this thing around the house. It has a 400-watt amp (800-watt peak). By comparison, my current sub has a 200-watt (400-watt peak) amp, making the new one twice as powerful. I haven't had a chance to really test it out yet, but my initial observation is that the new one sounds similar to the old one. I think once I get a chance to hook up the old one and run a two sub setup, I'll notice a difference. Also, I'm probably only utilizing 5-10% of the sub's potential on a given day. I'm sure if I pushed the issue I'd notice this new one out-performing the old one. I also want to mention the price. This speaker retails at $1,000.  That makes this 12-inch Reference Premiere sub by Klipsch the largest, most expensive, and most powerful speaker in my collection.