# 110/240V compatible subwoofer advise



## Magical Mike (Feb 18, 2012)

Hi,

I've read many posts on this forum and information I found here is awesome - so I decided to join.

Following many suggestions I decided to start with Onkyo 609 receiver and 2 Polk Audio Monitor 50 speakers + Polk Audio CS3.

Now it is time to buy subwoofer. 

I'm moving quite a lot, mostly renting apartments. At the moment my living room size is: 16'3" x 9'9" and it is joined with 12'-3" 14'-3" dining room. I have neighbors below and above my flat. My lease ends in 4 months, in ~3-5 years I will be going back to Europe (240V)

I know there are 240/110V transformers, but it would be great if subwoofer be dual voltage on its own.

I did my homework and read many posts here in the last 2 weeks. I almost bought Elemental Designs A2 - 250, but this model is no longer listed on their site  also 6 weeks waiting period was discouraging.

Please help me finding right sub for me.

From my wife's stand point it needs to be:
- not huge - I know that size does matter and bigger sub is better, but moving and making my wife happy is high on my priority list too
- shape - I prefer subs that can be put next to sofa - longer but narrower - is this a good idea?
- no wires going across the room - wi-fi desired - with option to add rear speakers in the future - I know it is separate thing but please also advise on this topic,

My requirements:
- good quality bass, doesn't need to be laud and shake the walls, but when I listen to "the prodigy - breathe" I need to hear the low end bass
- 110/220V compatibility big plus, not a must
- price <$700 for the set (wifi + sub), lower is better, higher is doable if it is really worth the money

Thank you,
Michal


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

Glad you could join us, Michal!

This is going to be more than your stated budget, but otherwise fits most of the criteria you have set.

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/uls15.html
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/ULS15.pdf


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## Magical Mike (Feb 18, 2012)

Thank you for reply, this seems to be great sub. 

Bit more expensive and larger than what I hoped for. Would be great to get more suggestions.

One more question. At some point I would like to add rear speakers to my system. I guess I cannot connect those to sub. Maybe I should buy dedicated wireless transmitter-receiver-amplifier for this purpose and connect subwoofer to it?


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## drdoan (Aug 30, 2006)

Welcome to the Forum. Have fun. Dennis


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

Magical Mike said:


> One more question. At some point I would like to add rear speakers to my system. I guess I cannot connect those to sub. Maybe I should buy dedicated wireless transmitter-receiver-amplifier for this purpose and connect subwoofer to it?


Nope, you cannot connect surround speakers the the Hsu. Hooking a sub up to surround wireless wouldn't work either, you want to feed a sub the .1 (LFE bass) signal.

You will need separate wireless systems for surround and subwoofer.


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## Magical Mike (Feb 18, 2012)

Thanks for reply,

Went to showroom with my wife, showed her several subs.
Need smaller sub: width < 15", I've seen separate wireless setups below $100 - so I can buy this separately.

Now I'm considering:
HSU - VTF-2 MK4 or VTF-1 - seems to be dual 240/110 and have width < 15"

What are other compact subs worth looking at?


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## Magical Mike (Feb 18, 2012)

Just to follow up. Due to strict size restrictions I decided to buy SVS SB12-NSD.

Pros:
- size: it is only 14.2 inch cube
- appearance: wife approved
- really good specs and reviews of the sub and customer service
- within my price range
- SVS makes both 110V and 220V version of sub, sub is NOT dual-voltage, but there is option to convert it to different voltage at the SVS for ~$35 - and this is what I will do when time comes to go back to Europe.

The sub arrived yesterday and first impressions are impressive 

I hope this can help someone in similar situation.


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