Some questions for the home theater gurus

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grampi

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I would like to replace all of my HT speakers with a sound bar, as well as getting rid of my AV receiver. I realize a sound bar isn't going to give me true surround sound, but considering the odd shape of my living room, I would never be able to achieve a perfect SS setup anyway. To me, the upper end sound bars sound great, and getting rid of the speakers, the receiver, and all of the wiring mess they create would be a welcome change.

The problem I'm going to have will be pairing up a sub with the sound bar. Some of the sound bars come with a powered sub, problem is, none of them come with a sub that's big enough, or powerful enough for my living room, which is big and will require a big, powerful sub. I would like to build my own sub with a 15" driver and a 1000 watt amp. Problem is, the plate amps for these subs only accept preamp inputs, and sound bars only have the ability to connect to a sub using either an HDMI cable, or Bluetooth. How would I connect the sub either to the sound bar, or the TV?
 
I had picked up the Klipsch ICON SB-1 which meets almost all of your requirements, except the fact that it's no longer in production (though you may still be able to find some). It's got a 10" sub with a 250W amp, but more important for you it has RCA outputs (full pass). Klipsch Icon

If you're looking for that level of customization, you should probably look at building the subwoofer AND the soundbar. But then you're getting way more complicated, and likely more expensive than something like the current Klipsch or JBL soundbars. You could take the optical digital output from your TV or source and send to the soundbar, and then use the RCA outputs from the TV as a crude way to get a signal for the sub?
 
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
I had picked up the Klipsch ICON SB-1 which meets almost all of your requirements, except the fact that it's no longer in production (though you may still be able to find some). It's got a 10" sub with a 250W amp, but more important for you it has RCA outputs (full pass). Klipsch Icon

If you're looking for that level of customization, you should probably look at building the subwoofer AND the soundbar. But then you're getting way more complicated, and likely more expensive than something like the current Klipsch or JBL soundbars. You could take the optical digital output from your TV or source and send to the soundbar, and then use the RCA outputs from the TV as a crude way to get a signal for the sub?

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
You could use the Paradigm wireless sound bar:
https://www.paradigm.com/en/soundbars/pw-soundbar

And mate it with one of their subs that has a wireless module, like the Defiance X 15:
https://www.paradigm.com/en/ported/defiance-x15

Or, you could mate it with the wireless amp, which has a subwoofer out:
https://www.paradigm.com/en/wireless/pw-amp

to feed the sub of your choice. Of course the sub I linked is 900W, so I'd expect it to be sufficient for your usage.


Definitely some high end equipment here. I might want to go this route, I especially like the wireless feature, but I will have to do some saving for this setup...
 
I picked up a Yamaha sound bar at a damaged goods/overstock store for about $40. Subs on it aren't the greatest, so I turned those all the way down and paired it with a separate old Sony 10" powered sub via RCA cable. Picked up the sub for $10 at a local thrift store. The two paired together sound excellent (to my hearing anyways.....which might be questionable, lol). That sub will rattle the house to where my teenage daughters will tell me to turn it down.
lol.gif


Sounds great to me, especially for the whopping $50 I spent on the setup.

Soundbars have come a long way in recent years. They work great.
 
Originally Posted by 28oz
I picked up a Yamaha sound bar at a damaged goods/overstock store for about $40. Subs on it aren't the greatest, so I turned those all the way down and paired it with a separate old Sony 10" powered sub via RCA cable. Picked up the sub for $10 at a local thrift store. The two paired together sound excellent (to my hearing anyways.....which might be questionable, lol). That sub will rattle the house to where my teenage daughters will tell me to turn it down.
lol.gif


Sounds great to me, especially for the whopping $50 I spent on the setup.

Soundbars have come a long way in recent years. They work great.


For the life of me I can't figure out how they can simulate rear speakers, but they actually sound like a full surround system...must be magic...
 
I like the iphone app function for the Paradigm X-15...being able to control it's output without even getting out of my chair would be pretty nifty...SVS has some really nice subs too, but none of theirs have this app...
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Not sure how good it sounds, but this Yamaha soundbar has a subwoofer pre-out:
https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/sound_bar/yas-107/index.html

The newer YAS-108 does, too, as well as many of the other Yamaha soundbars.


It probably sounds pretty good, but I gotta love the claims of deep, rich bass...that's one area where the laws of physics can't be altered. For that requires a lot of woofer area, and a lot of power...there are no substitutes for that and you aren't going to get that from a sound bar...
 
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Originally Posted by grampi
For that that requires a lot of woofer area, and a lot of power...there are no substitutes for that and you aren't going to get that from a sound bar...

I think they fully realize that, and that's why at least they give you a way to connect a sub the traditional way.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by grampi
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Not sure how good it sounds, but this Yamaha soundbar has a subwoofer pre-out:
https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/sound_bar/yas-107/index.html

The newer YAS-108 does, too, as well as many of the other Yamaha soundbars.


It probably sounds pretty good, but I gotta love the claims of deep, rich bass...that's one area where the laws of physics can't be altered. For that requires a lot of woofer area, and a lot of power...there are no substitutes for that and you aren't going to get that from a sound bar...


The YAS-108...... I think that's the one I got. The subs on it are "meh". Paired it with a separate powered sub and it sounds just fine......to my ear anyway.
 
I know that Dayton Audio isn't a presitgious name but they're local to me and I have quite a few of their speakers. Here's a soundbar and 12" subwoofer of theirs. I don't have this soundbar but do have this subwoofer and it shakes the house. Our son has the 10" version with a Sony AV receiver and XBox One and when he plays, we think there's a Formula One race, tank battle, or something else taking place in our backyard.
 
Originally Posted by grampi
I like the iphone app function for the Paradigm X-15...being able to control it's output without even getting out of my chair would be pretty nifty...SVS has some really nice subs too, but none of theirs have this app...


You won't be disappointed by Paradigm if you go that route. They make incredible speakers.
 
You can make a smaller sub work with the right location. I have a M&K 12" 90w sub that I placed about 5 feet off the front left corner of the room facing in. You just have to experiment with it.
 
I'm glad you posted this question, I'd been thinking about putting in a soundbar and would also have liked to connect a separate (not bundled or manufacture specific) subwoofer, but never thought to check that there would be a pre-amp sub output. The Yamahas seem decent and they have pre-amp sub outputs. It looks like just the lower end sound bars omit the sub output.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
I know that Dayton Audio isn't a presitgious name but they're local to me and I have quite a few of their speakers. Here's a soundbar and 12" subwoofer of theirs.

I am not seeing a sub pre out on this soundbar, but it has some speaker level posts, so I suppose you could make it work.

Dayton is low end stuff, but not bad for the price.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
[ I am not seeing a sub pre out on this soundbar, but it has some speaker level posts, so I suppose you could make it work.

I forgot he wants to eliminate his AV receiver so yeah, this won't work.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
I know that Dayton Audio isn't a presitgious name but they're local to me and I have quite a few of their speakers. Here's a soundbar and 12" subwoofer of theirs. I don't have this soundbar but do have this subwoofer and it shakes the house. Our son has the 10" version with a Sony AV receiver and XBox One and when he plays, we think there's a Formula One race, tank battle, or something else taking place in our backyard.


This sub doesn't have near enough power...my last sub was a home built with a 15" driver and a 250 watt amp and it wasn't enough...I do like Dayton Audio's stuff though. They have a 4 ohm 15" driver that I'm planning to use if I decide to build another enclosure...
 
In their showroom, they have a 1000w subwoofer/amp enclosure. They don't list it on their website though. Not sure what the deal with it is.
 
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