With a lot of help from the good folks here, we've been looking for a decent, affordable sub for HT. We have quality floorstanders for the fronts, and a good center, so bass response for music is less of an issue.
One of the leading candidates is the Athena AS-P4000.
However, the Athena does not have a phase switch. In our room, we'll probably be placing it along a side wall, off to the side of the entertainment center. An alternative spot would be next to the seating, across from the left front speaker, but the couch we've ordered is long enough to push the sub out in the rec area then.
The room layout looks something like this: _________________ |.................Office...| |................_______| |.Rec........|_______ |.Area........L..TV..R| |..........................S| |________________|
Main seating is across from the TV.
The long side is about 24' total, with half of that going to the home theater seating. So the home theater area is about 11'x12'.
I understand that the phase switch is for situations like we have, where the sub is not in line with the fronts.
I know that there's no substitute for trying different placements, but can the more experienced among us give me an idea whether I'm going to really want a phase switch?
So after much himming and hawing, we're trying a JBL Northridge E250p.
This sub is underappreciated. Having demoed a Paradigm, Mirage, Infinity, several Velodynes, an older B+W and even an older Hsu VTF-2, we're confident that the JBL is no worse, and actually a bit better than many for our purposes. The Velodynes were simply awful in the setup we heard.
We seriously considered the Athena, until we uncovered the lack of a phase switch. In our room, we've now proven that we do indeed need one.
Quick spec's: FR = 25-150Hz (+/- 3db), 12" forward firing Polyplas cone, 250w RMS digital amp, ported on the bottom to reduce audible chuffing, by-passable internal crossover 50-150Hz, phase switch, 2yr warranty.
We're using this in a small room, 80/20 movies/music, paired with Kef iQ7 fronts and an iQ6c center. JBL Sat 10 fronts are used for the surrounds. So we have a Kef "front line" and JBL "backfield". These play nicely together; timbre matching is not an issue.
Crossover is set to ~80 Hz, using our amp's subwoofer out jack. For a 12", this sub offers reasonably clean, responsive bass down well into the mid-20 frequency range, as advertised. For example, Annie Lenox sounds great, with added thump, but without distracting mud. Surprisingly, Ron Benise didn't loose his fantastic acoustic guitar licks.
For movies, we bumped the sub out level on our DVD player (no bass management in our receiver), so that we don't disturb the sub's settings.
Cost: $230 shipped.
For the money, this sub is hard to beat, as long as you ask it to do what it can, and no more. I would hesitate to pair it with bookshelves or microsats that are unable to carry the mid-bass range.
Most receivers will alow you to set the polarity of the subwoofer to normal or reverse in the receiver setup menu. So in a way, the 0/180 switch on the sub is trivial.
However, what are the odds that the correct phase is at either one or the other end?? What if the best response right in the middle...say 90??
If you're hearing a big improvement with one of the settings, ou're probably pretty close and have nothing to worry about.
Since our existing receiver offers no bass management at all, and we want to keep our options open regarding where we put our resources (better big screen now, stand pat on the receiver for a while vs. better receiver now, lesser big screen for a long time), the Athena just wouldn't work for us.
It seems like you all know a lot about my question: About EA-6040 Elite Audio Home Theater
I live in Europe, where we use 220 volt instead of 120V. I was told, that I will need an adapter, so I can switch from 120 to 220V, but before I buye the home theater EA-6040 AND the adapter, it is important for me to know how much power/volts the adapter switcher (120V to 220V) needs to handle.
I hope you understand my question and will respond as soon as possible.
I can use a transformer .. from 110 to 220 v, but they would not sell me one of those, because they needed to know how much power the EA-6040 use...in Volts or watt??