hi folks, new lister. this problem has been bugging me for a long time.
onkyo tx-sr804 (dolby digital, dts, and thx capabilities); boston acoustics a-100 (bought in '85, woohoo!) for fronts, boston center and rears; and hsu tn1220 sub with the 500w amp.
i've owned the sub/amp combo for 10 years or more, and at the same time bought the crossover chip thing to put in the sub amp to match the a-100's. i wish i could tell you the frequency, but it's been so long ago, if i had to guess, i'd say 80hz?
the sub/amp has always played music well. however, when playing more dynamic sources such as dvd's with dolby digital or xbox 360 games, the sub bottoms out during high-level instantaneous bursts, like explosions. i don't have the sub volume turned up very loud, if "off" is at 7 o'clock position and "loudest" is at 5 o'clock, i have it at about 1030 or 11 o'clock position.
do i have the sub in a bad location? do i need to find a better location for my sub, so i can keep the sub amp volume turned down a bit lower, but it still provides the appropriate frequencies?
Have you tried a sub placement system? Something that goes through the entire process of positioning both you and the subwoofer for best sound quality? You could be sitting at the edge of a standing wave and therefore must turn up the volume to get acceptable levels. If you haven't done a set up procedure, then you should. Place "subwoofer placement" in a search engine.
Otherwise, despite what you consider to be a low level what you've described - explosions - are in many cases very dynamic passages capable of taxing the performance of many systems. The disc manaufacturer makes the decision to provide the highest possible dynamic range for the most sophisticated systems. Not all disc manufacturers do this on every disc but on some they do. Your system, like many systems, isn't up to the challenge. It's as simple as that. If you want clean reproduction from every disc, it either costs money to buy more capable equipment or you make the decision to lower the overall volume to achieve the cleanest reproduction your system can accomodate. Very basically, in most cases money buys superiority.