subwoofer how much space

kenshingintoki

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How much space does the actual woofer require on a subwoofer from the nearest physical object whether its a wall, radiator or sofa?
 
More like 5 cm - at least that's what my sealed down firing sub has - ported subs probably the same but may need more space between the port and a wall as opposed to the woofer itself - distance from woofer to nearest surface might (?) Need to be increased as the woofer size increases since it will be moving more air.....
 
How much space does the actual woofer require on a subwoofer from the nearest physical object whether its a wall, radiator or sofa?

Arendal said 10cm as minium to one member who was battling with space. @DodgeTheViper probably can confirm as he had gear close to Sub2 & 3. 🤔 You are still leaning toward Arendal woofers i assume... :)
 
Arendal said 10cm as minium to one member who was battling with space. @DodgeTheViper probably can confirm as he had gear close to Sub2 & 3. 🤔 You are still leaning toward Arendal woofers i assume... :)

Waiting for Ricky to get in any demo units of S1812.
Arendal have the 60 day return/trial policy so I'm planning to trial both if possible.

Likely Arendal 1V (in sealed mode) versus the S1812.

The woofer for the arendal sub is annoyingly to the side of the power plugs. so I'm not sure how this will or won't impact performance as I'd prefer for the plugs and wire to not be visible in the room but that means the sub shooting into my radiator or couch which I assume arent ideal.
 
Waiting for Ricky to get in any demo units of S1812.
Arendal have the 60 day return/trial policy so I'm planning to trial both if possible.

Likely Arendal 1V (in sealed mode) versus the S1812.

Nice! Keep in mind that there is some return costs with Arendals, 10% of the price? Max 150€ or something..

Why buy vented model and run it sealed? I don´t think it holds a candle against S1812. Get the 2S straight as they are both price about same 1820£ and both have sealed cabs. I mean you had some tiny 3x3 room, right? 🤔
 
Nice! Keep in mind that there is some return costs with Arendals, 10% of the price?

Why buy vented model and run it sealed? I don´t think holds a candle against S1812. Get the 2S straight as they are both price about same 1820£ and both being sealed cabs. I mean you had some tiny 3x3 room, right? 🤔

Yeah its 150 which isn't a big deal for a 2 month trial.

I have the option to run vented in the future if I need more output, which I assume the vented Arendal will provide more output than the S18? Also I've been told some people just prefer Vented with the extra near field tactility it provides so it would be nice to experiment with that for myself.

2S and 2V are no-gos as I can't give both woofers 10cm of clearance either side.

I'm in the middle of house moves so the room size is subject to change from 3.5x3.5ish to god knows what so its planning the gear for the imminent future (6-12 months). Given that in my area a mid-range budget gets a single male basically nothing, I'm not that optimistic that my new media room is going to be more than 4mx5m.

Sealed S18 is still in my mind but my Arendals sound so good, that I just trust Arendal when it comes to sound now. Thats why I've decided to try and hear both subs for myself, in my own room, rather than go blindly off of forum opinions as opinions from people who have helped me seem to be split on the situation.


S1812 seems awesome from the US prices but our prices seem a tad expensive when Arendal are offering the superior build quality, the option to easily buy a second subwoofer easily (I assume PSA will in the near future get an S1813) and the 10 year warranty with an easy returns policy straight to manufacturer if something goes wrong. S1812 on the otherhand has that massive woofer and awesome in-room extension from a very reputable company.
 
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Arendal said 10cm as minium to one member who was battling with space. @DodgeTheViper probably can confirm as he had gear close to Sub2 & 3. 🤔 You are still leaning toward Arendal woofers i assume... :)

Probably a little different with mine as they weren’t pointing toward a solid/flat area. I would still be mindful even if someone just had the minimum recommend clearance.
 
Probably a little different with mine as they weren’t pointing toward a solid/flat area. I would still be mindful even if someone just had the minimum recommend clearance.


Yeah, Arendal said minimum 10cm clearance each woofer so its a no-go. They advised it can distort the sound.

I do have a place I could put one, but I'd rather have the versatility of a simpler design (which the single woofers like the S1812, 1V) have.
 
Yeah its 150 which isn't a big deal for a 2 month trial.

I have the option to run vented in the future if I need more output, which I assume the vented Arendal will provide more output than the S18? Also I've been told some people just prefer Vented with the extra near field tactility it provides so it would be nice to experiment with that for myself.

2S and 2V are no-gos as I can't give both woofers 10cm of clearance either side.

I'm in the middle of house moves so the room size is subject to change from 3.5x3.5ish to god knows what so its planning the gear for the imminent future (6-12 months). Given that in my area 400-500k gets a single male basically nothing, I'm not that optimistic that my new media room is going to be more than 4mx5m.

Sealed S18 is still in my mind but my Arendals sound so good, that I just trust Arendal when it comes to sound now. Thats why I've decided to try and hear both subs for myself, in my own room, rather than go blindly off of forum opinions as opinions from people who have helped me seem to be split on the situation.


S1812 seems awesome from the US prices but our prices seem a tad expensive when Arendal are offering the superior build quality, the option to easily buy a second subwoofer easily (I assume PSA will in the near future get an S1813) and the 10 year warranty with an easy returns policy straight to manufacturer if something goes wrong.

S1812 on the otherhand has that massive woofer and awesome in-room extension from a very reputable company.

You are in tough situation then. Better would be wait to see what kind of room you get cause if there would be more space then you will regret purchasing the smaller model selling it and losing money to get 2V / 2S as you know with this hobby it never ends unless you get the flagship model and when upgrading you must make sure it´s big enough jump so you won´t leave hungry.

You can send email for Tom V. and ask him to look the data from Arendal site for 1723 1V so that he can compare it to S1812 as he has the data, trust me has done that for years for customers. I can´t see the 1V holding up much other than maybe near the port tune in the lower range. 18" driver is no joke! It definitely won´t be lacking in 3,5x3,5 room! 🤯 Hope Ricky can get one for you to demo, can´t wait your thoughts!

As you asked the output for rough comparison here is the older S1801 with the earlier driver and 725/1900w amp (now 925w/2100w + better driver). The PSA 12 and Ipal models aren´t old so i don´t see 13 serie coming soon. Tom have used the ICEpower amp plates for long time, one of the most reliable ones.


Averages 1meter peak CEA 2010:

S1801 - 125,5db (16-100hz)
1723 1V - 118,7db (16-80hz)

Tom V. commented about the new drivers here:


NEO(new 12 series) on left.

Again, here are the more important considerations when comparing the two.

Current 18
peak thermal rating ~ 1200w
sensitivity ~ 90.5dB
motor strength(bl^2/re) ~ 120
no inductance rings

Those are all good numbers. We have a couple thousand of these in the field and as anyone can review---customers love them.

B&C 18 (*12* series)
Peak Thermal rating ~ 3400w
sensitivity ~ 97dB
motor strength ~ 350
aluminum demodulating ring for inductance control.

So triple the thermal capabilities, 6dB more sensitivity, triple the motor strength, and the aluminum shorting ring. Again---it's on a different level..:)
 
You are in tough situation then. Better would be wait to see what kind of room you get cause if there would be more space then you will regret purchasing the smaller model selling it and losing money to get 2V / 2S as you know with this hobby it never ends unless you get the flagship model and when upgrading you must make sure it´s big enough jump so you won´t leave hungry.

You can send email for Tom V. and ask him to look the data from Arendal site for 1723 1V so that he can compare it to S1812 as he has the data, trust me has done that for years for customers. I can´t see the 1V holding up much other than maybe near the port tune in the lower range. 18" driver is no joke! It definitely won´t be lacking in 3,5x3,5 room! 🤯 Hope Ricky can get one for you to demo, can´t wait your thoughts!

As you asked the output for rough comparison here is the older S1801 with the earlier driver and 725/1900w amp (now 925w/2100w + better driver). The PSA 12 and Ipal models aren´t old so i don´t see 13 serie coming soon. Tom have used the ICEpower amp plates for long time, one of the most reliable ones.


Averages 1meter peak CEA 2010:

S1801 - 125,5db (16-100hz)
1723 1V - 118,7db (16-80hz)

Tom V. commented about the new drivers here:

I agree. It would probably be better to wait and buy a dedicated amplifier instead which I know will not need to be upgraded.. but my Monolith Plus is feeling awfully bloaty these days so I'd love to get something better moved in.


Honestly, you've raised some excellent points which are leading me to lean towards the S1812.

Arendals driver being on the side of the cabinet rather than opposite the woofer has honestly really annoyed me too because ideally I wanted to give the woofer as much space as possible, and to do that now requires me to have the cables sticking out to the side or do have the woofer pointing at a wall. The 2S/2V just seem like no-gos no matter what due to the space requirements. I like versatility in placement which they clearly don't really provide.

Funnily enough I showed the PSA18 and the Arendal to family members and they were torn which one they preferred as some liked the 'classic rugged' look of the PSA18.


My heart (and mind) are telling me the Arendal will look prettier but I will always wonder 'what if I had an 18'' woofer in my room'. Is an S18 more comparable to the 2S or dare I say, the 2V?
 
I agree. It would probably be better to wait and buy a dedicated amplifier instead which I know will not need to be upgraded.. but my Monolith Plus is feeling awfully bloaty these days so I'd love to get something better moved in.


Honestly, you've raised some excellent points which are leading me to lean towards the S1812.

Arendals driver being on the side of the cabinet rather than opposite the woofer has honestly really annoyed me too because ideally I wanted to give the woofer as much space as possible, and to do that now requires me to have the cables sticking out to the side or do have the woofer pointing at a wall. The 2S/2V just seem like no-gos no matter what due to the space requirements. I like versatility in placement which they clearly don't really provide.

Funnily enough I showed the PSA18 and the Arendal to family members and they were torn which one they preferred as some liked the 'classic rugged' look of the PSA18.


My heart (and mind) are telling me the Arendal will look prettier but I will always wonder 'what if I had an 18'' woofer in my room'. Is an S18 more comparable to the 2S or dare I say, the 2V?

Ask Tom to do the comparison, send him this table as attachment below via email and he tells you exactly how the PSA does against Arendals as he only have the data for the new S1812. :) The email is : [email protected] . Say that you are dealing with Ricky and your room size. He did the comparisons all the time on AVSForum so it won´t be anything new to him. Keep us posted what he replies. I think he would be strongly against ported sub in such small room cause you get plenty of room gain already.. But we`ll see.

Arendal 1723 (2020) CEA2010.png
 
The new PSA subs are very very good , the bass is very similar to the Ken Kreisel dxd super clean bass.

Even with extra cost to us UK buyers, imo they still offer superb value and my money would be on them out performing the new Arendals.

@Rickyj at Kalibrate is great to deal with buy with confidence.
 
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Ask Tom to do the comparison, send him this table as attachment below via email and he tells you exactly how the PSA does against Arendals as he only have the data for the new S1812. :) The email is : [email protected] . Say that you are dealing with Ricky and your room size. He did the comparisons all the time on AVSForum so it won´t be anything new to him. Keep us posted what he replies. I think he would be strongly against ported sub in such small room cause you get plenty of room gain already.. But we`ll see.

View attachment 1385521


Sent the mail.


The new PSA subs are very very good , the bass is very similar to the Ken Kreisel dxd super clean bass.

Even with extra cost to us UK buyers, imo they still offer superb value and my money would be in them out performing the new Arendals.

@Rickyj at Kalibrate is great to deal with buy with confidence.


Does Ricky offer any trade in like Tom does in the US?
 
Sent the mail.





Does Ricky offer any trade in like Tom does in the US?
Yes, he offered me a decent trade in on my previous PSA sub. I ended up selling it privately though to save me a long drive.
 
Yes, he offered me a decent trade in on my previous PSA sub. I ended up selling it privately though to save me a long drive.


Awesome. I've shot him an email. S1812 fits in my space now of a TV18 as I'm going to increase the height of the TV when my GX comes becuase of the hover boss we're building.

My issue is bloaty bass though.. so I should probably stick with S18.
 
Thats the BK Monolith Plus at present, so I'm thinking the S18 should give me a fairly straightish line so no need to dual sub in this small space.
 

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Should be a very nice upgrade for you.

Your plan testing both at home sounds like a good and fun idea.
 
Is that before/after Audussey? You had Denon X3400H or something like that.
 
Thats the BK Monolith Plus at present, so I'm thinking the S18 should give me a fairly straightish line so no need to dual sub in this small space.

The shape of the response curve from the S18 will likely be very similar to what you have now, other than not falling off rapidly below 20 Hz. You'll get more differences at higher frequencies due to the different driver positions of the downfiring and front-firing designs.

On your original spacing question I'm currently using a 10 cm gap with my S1510, which I have positioned with the driver facing a side wall. Tom actually suggested a minimum gap of 1.5" in post 1403 of the main PSA owners thread for what it's worth.
 
Should be a very nice upgrade for you.

Your plan testing both at home sounds like a good and fun idea.
Btw saul, my current sub can sometimes be a bit boomy or groany. will a sealed sub minimise this?
 
Btw saul, my current sub can sometimes be a bit boomy or groany. will a sealed sub minimise this?

I've never owned a ported sub so can't answer that sorry. I would have thought a well integrated ported or sealed sub in your room shouldn't come across as boomy.

I would always buy sealed subs for use in smallish rooms, personally I'd only consider ported for large rooms.

I understand other respected forumistas are extremely happy to use ported in small rooms, I just don't fancy the idea.

I may completely change my mind after hearing such a setup though :D
 
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