# Best $300 sub for people in the US



## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Ive seen this question crop up somewhere, and wondered what the best budget subs in the US are considered to be. Here in the UK, for a cost of £500 or under there is pretty much nothing to touch BK subs, but whats the norm for you guys in the US?


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## klinger886 (Mar 2, 2010)

this forum has led me to the conclusion/decision that the best you can do for 300 bucks is a diy. i think i'm gonna stretch my budget to around 600 or so tho.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Got a link to the BK sub? I'd like to see the specs.


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## JBL Fan (May 1, 2010)

There's some okay Klipsch subs for around 300.00 but even a DIY'er would find it tough to stay on budget with 300. A plate amp cost over a 100.00 and then the MDF and glue and driver and finishing products...


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2010)

I've been in audio for awhile and I've never been aware of a good/great $300 sub.

Sometimes this goes on sale, but currently is $19 over http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-770 , but I think they do free shipping over $100 so tax or shipping would cost $19+ at other stores. I can't imagine a branded sub being able to top that in the $300 range. All it takes is a screw driver and making two connections to build it, so anyone should be able to do that.

DIY could still top that as long as someone already owns tools and has the knowledge. MDF and glue is cheap. Now making it look pretty.... Not so much, but primer and black paint doesn't drive the cost up too much.


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

klinger886 said:


> this forum has led me to the conclusion/decision that the best you can do for 300 bucks is a diy. i think i'm gonna stretch my budget to around 600 or so tho.


I agree: more for your money, or equal for less money. That's not taking into account buying a sale priced or used amp and/or driver. I think the performance difference between a retail $300 sub and a diy $350-400 sub is staggering, and that's at retail component prices. Figure in a deal on a used amp and KaPOW! :boxer:


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

This BK sub is *£437.36. *How much is that in U.S. currency?

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/monolith-df.htm


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

At the current exchange rate it's $633.60

Sorry it's $637.67 as of May 28th 2010


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Thats a tough question, The only subs I could find that I would even consider were the Velodyne impact 10 for $267 and the ED A3S for $350. My personal choice would be to not go less than the SVS PB10NSD for $475


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

ironglen said:


> I agree: more for your money, or equal for less money. That's not taking into account buying a sale priced or used amp and/or driver. I think the performance difference between a retail $300 sub and a diy $350-400 sub is staggering, and that's at retail component prices. Figure in a deal on a used amp and KaPOW! :boxer:


SVS being a good value in subs is still $475 for a quality 10"er. That much money can get you quite a bit more in displacement, power, and resultant output through DIY, with your time investment, of course.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

ironglen said:


> SVS being a good value in subs is still $475 for a quality 10"er. That much money can get you quite a bit more in displacement, power, and resultant output through DIY, with your time investment, of course.


Very true, the only issue is that many dont have the tools or the time to build one. I would love to try a DIY build but I simply dont have that kind of time I would want to spend on building one. If you dont live in a home with a garage or unfinished basement this becomes even more difficult.


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

Yeah, time and tools alright. I spent a lot of time and they look alright. Kind of like sub enclosures with the size/depth/output interaction, building a sub has the aesthetics/money/time interaction. I skimped on aesthetics and a bit on money (these are heavily intertwined), yet still invested in time and have the result.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

klinger886 said:


> this forum has led me to the conclusion/decision that the best you can do for 300 bucks is a diy. i think i'm gonna stretch my budget to around 600 or so tho.


For the purposes of this thread, I'm ignoring DIY for the minute and focusing purely on off the shelf subs.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Mike P. said:


> Got a link to the BK sub? I'd like to see the specs.


Their homepage is here, the Monolith in particular offers a level of performance unmatched at its price level. The BK range though starts at £200


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2010)

Moonfly said:


> For the purposes of this thread, I'm ignoring DIY for the minute and focusing purely on off the shelf subs.


I would probably trust BIC America to make some of the best budget subs. The Formula F-12 can easily be found under $300. They have a Acoustech Platinum Series PL-200 that can be found at $325. A tad over, but both use BASH amps and BIC seems to have very little markup compared to other speaker companies. I've had Valodyne before, and they easily beat Polk and Infinity and other big box store subs in the same price range, but I didn't think it sounded all that great, but it could pump out bass. If I had to buy and couldn't build, I'd try the PL-200.


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## vitocorleone (May 3, 2010)

The Emotiva Ultra Sub 10 is currently on sale for $299 USD (I just ordered one to upgrade my failing Paradigm CT90 10" sub). Otherwise, there's the Elemental Designs A3S-250 I think it is, for $350 USD. If you can get a reasonably used sub from a source you trust not to have abused it, you could do even better for the money.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

I got a energy ESW C-10 sub on ebay brand new under 300.... retails for 499 or 599 ? Anyway.... I think its pretty bad. The wood seems very thin for a sub. I think a DIY project for under 300 , 400 500 would kill a retail sub in that price range . Just getting some 1 inch MDF would make a huge difference. I say this not even having done a DIY as of yet.... most of the 300 subs are coming from china with the cheapest components.

just my 2 cents worth of noob!

fschris


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## arclight (May 1, 2006)

The HSU Research STF-1 at 299 and the STF-2 at 349 are the best subs in my book at the 300.00 range.

The STF-1 is an 8" sub but will outperform many 10" models from other companies same thing applies for the STF-2. 

HSU Research subs in general are hard to beat for the price and performance they offer. 

http://hsuresearch.com/


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## DanTheMan (Oct 12, 2009)

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=309-177

Near field response:









Blue line is the crossover on.

2 of them for $300--a steal.

Dan


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## GreenChemist (May 18, 2010)

Tons of folks on the other forums rave about these two subs:

Premier Acoustic PA-120 and the
BIC Acoustech H-100

I can't vouch for either of these subs personally, but I do own BIC Acoustech (In a 7 channel system) and Premier Acoustic (In my 2.0 system) speakers and they are offer excellent quality/sound for the price.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Dual Dayton Sub 120s is what I'd do.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Mike P. said:


> This BK sub is *£437.36. *How much is that in U.S. currency?
> 
> http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/monolith-df.htm


Mike, I'm using a BK XXLS400 as a stop gap until I make my mind up what higher end sub to go for and have to say it is very impressive for £400

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/XXLS400.htm


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## azimuth (Feb 15, 2010)

I'm quite surprised of your answer. Here in Italy velodyne chtq 12 (deq-r series in usa)are religiously respected as best buys for newbies...Klipsch sub synergy line are considered not very well even if price is quite good about 40% less than velodyne


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## JohnWin909 (May 25, 2010)

I vote for my old Acoustech H100 subwoofer or the almost identical Bic F12 that you can get for under $250.

For home theater you can't go wrong, I measured it down to 22hz before dropping off quickly, my PB12-NSD drops off at 16hz in the same room. Not bad for what you pay for it, at least for movies.


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## Irishsaab (Jan 26, 2011)

Okay... so you want a budget sub... are your other speakers also budget buys? If your speakers are high end then you might just want to wait and save your coins to buy a really nice sub to match. 

For what I say next I might get some hate mail:neener: but I don't care. 

I don't think the budget sub choice is super important. As long as it hits the lows that matter (25-80 hz) and doesn't distract from the movie experience (no popping or extra distortion) then pretty much any sub is going to improve your movie experience. For years I had a 5.1 Yamaha box system that served my needs just fine. I've moved up from there now but saw no need to spend $500+ on a sub. (Okay... if I was rich I would get a Emotiva or top end Velodyne) 

I have a dedicated home theater room measuring about 12 x 15 and am very happy with the BIC Formula F-12 that I bought last Christmas from http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=303-436. 
How can I complain... a 12" sub pushed by 475 Watts for just over $200!


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

Has someone suggested a LAVA sub yet... there were some interesting forum threads on them and overall the people who got to DEMO these were impressed... albeit for the cost performance people said they performed well. If anything for 338 bucks you can get that 12" Lava sub.


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## Irishsaab (Jan 26, 2011)

You know, I almost ordered a Lava sub but after reading forum after forum and tons of reviews I decided upon the the BIC F-12. I too would be very interested to hear more from buyers. They are advertizing all over the home audio forums and from what I've read I too believe that they sound very good for the price.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

I am not sure if it was this site or "another" AV site... but someone called out LAVA subs as some shady White VAN deal and some guy from LAVA sub chimed in and basically was very honest and passionate about his product I think that is where he had some of the forum guys demo them... considering some of these guys have DIY's and subs in the 1500 range they did not do that bad for 350 bucks! I mioght get one to hold me over until I can build my MFW-15 clone.


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Lava makes a good product for the price and I personally think they respond better than the BIC.


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## JoeESP9 (Jun 29, 2009)

You might want to try the MonoPrice sub. Yeah, the same ones that make all those inexpensive cables.


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