Polk PSW110 subwoofer?

[Ikabob]

I am thinking of making an addition to my main sound system . The system consists of the Squeezetouch going into two midrange speakers which are about 25' apart. As an auxiliary speaker I have a hidden boom in the center area. I think a subwoofer from the Boom would add considerably to the sound. Agreed?

I am thinking about the Polk PSW110 sub from Best Buy when/if it goes on sale for $125 or so. Does this sound reasonable? Also, I'd like to hide it about 12.5' to the right or left of the Boom. Are there appropriate cables that are long enough and what cables are recommended?

Thank you.

[Soulkeeper]

Did I understand you correctly: Are you using a synched Touch/Boom pair as a source for a single sound system?

What kind of sound system is it? What I mean is; what's its purpose, with 7 meters between the main speakers and all?

[Ikabob]

This particular area is in a sun room with built in speakers on either side of the wall. It is powered by our main sound system located in another room. Yes, the Touch is the receiver source for the system . The speakers are about 25' apart for stereo separation and I placed a synched Squeezebox Boom in the center to add to the audio quality( in my opinion it does this). So, to continue to add to the quality and since the Boom allows for this, I thought that some additional bass would be nice. Am I wrong? Thanks. It can't hurt IMHO .

[toby10]

Adding a sub to a Boom really does sound awesome, particularly at higher volumes.
Sub placement can be very important, you may have to try several locations to find the best sweet spot.
Also, set the subs x-over to MAX as the Boom will handle the x-over @ 100hz when set to Sub Out.

The necessary cables are pretty straight forward, but verify what the sub's input type is (most are a single RCA).

I pieced together my Boom to sub connection from three cables I had laying around.

From Boom Line Out:
- 3.5mm stereo to RCA stereo (two RCA's)
- 3 foot basic RCA stereo (red & white)
- RCA "Y" cable (two RCA's into a single RCA)

The above single RCA goes into my subs input. You would simply replace my 3 foot stereo RCA cable with a 25 foot length.
Being a low pass sub signal I'm not even sure "stereo" needs to be anywhere in my pieced together example, maybe even a mono 3.5mm to a single RCA to sub would work, I dunno.
I just used what I had laying around.

If you need to start buying cables for this setup I'd suggest www.MonoPrice.com for such basic cables.
I'd also suggest buying their "premium" listed items only because these are not much more than their budget listed items.

[maggior]

I'm not 100% clear on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are setting up a Boom in a listening area that has a system already, it wouldn't be a great idea to use a Boom as an "auxilary speaker". You would be much better off connecting an auxilary set of speakers to your existing system, assuming your receiver supports it (most do).

Also, putting a subwoofer 12' away from the source isn't a great idea. It depends on speaker placement, but having that much distance will most likely allow a listener to be able to locate where the subwoofer is, which is not what you want. You want the subwoofer's sound to blend in with the main speakers in a way that a listener cannot hear where the sub is.

I have a couple of Polk speaker setups in my house and I love them. I have a pair of RT-600's and a pair of Monitor 60's. I have a polk sub (dont' remember the model) from about 10 years ago that I love. I don't think you can go wrong with a Polk Audio sub.

[maggior]

This particular area is in a sun room with built in speakers on either side of the wall. It is powered by our main sound system located in another room. Yes, the Touch is the receiver source for the system . The speakers are about 25' apart for stereo separation and I placed a synched Squeezebox Boom in the center to add to the audio quality( in my opinion it does this). So, to continue to add to the quality and since the Boom allows for this, I thought that some additional bass would be nice. Am I wrong? Thanks. It can't hurt IMHO .

OK, that clears up that :-).

The issue as I see it is that you are relying on the Boom and Touch being 100% in sync. With both players playing in the same room, *any* drift will be noticed. When syncing between rooms, any drift in sync isn't too noticable, but in the same room it will be VERY noticable.

I'm running 7.5.1 and when syncing my duet and Touch this past weekend, I noticed some drift between rooms.

[aubuti]

Everyone's tastes differ, but 25 feet of stereo separation is a _lot_, unless your listening position is 25-30 feet from both of the speakers, ie, an equilateral triangle. That would be a really big sunroom! The Boom may be working for you as a fill-in solution, but I wouldn't recommend investing more in that direction.

Instead I would follow maggior's suggestion and put another pair of speakers in, connected to the same source. If you're hooking them up to the same amp then you need to be careful about matching the impedence with the existing speakers, as well as the overall load on the amp, especially since you are also using it for your main system. In fact, depending on the capabilities of your existing amp you may want to consider getting a separate amp for the sunroom.

And unless you get the exact same speaker model that you already have for your built-in speakers, you may have to experiment a bit to find a pair that sounds good with what you have.

Unfortunately, you're unlikely to be able to do any of these suggestions for $125. I just can't resist window shopping with other people's money... :-)

[Ikabob]

Thank you all for your advice. To explain further, I do not really want to have new speakers from the source since the wife would not like the visible cables and going through the drywall would be too major. I really like the effect of the boom in the middle and it is really camouflaged under table. Yes, the separation of about 25' is a lot. That's where the Boom fills the gap a little. Since the main speakers are not huge I just feel that a boost to the bass would be awesome. Just wanted to run it by you guys. Thanks for your recommendations.

[aubuti]

Thank you all for your advice. To explain further, I do not really want to have new speakers from the source since the wife would not like the visible cables and going through the drywall would be too major.

Yeah, I hear you. How would she feel about renovating the sun room? Then you could run the cables while the walls are open. ;o)

Something else to consider is paintable flat speaker wire. They have stuff now that is pretty close to invisible, especially if you run it along a baseboard or something. I know Crutchfield carries it, and I'm sure a lot of other places do as well, though probably not Best Buy.

[Ikabob]

Re: Paintable flat ribbon cable

Would work for me, but not her. :-). Don't want to press my Squeeze obsession too much. I'm already pushing the envelope.