The sub in my family room crapped out last week and I'm pretty sure I need to replace it. The old one is a JBL SUB160 (10" driver / 18"H x 15"W x 17"D) and sounded great so I'd like to get something similar. Any advice, and does the dimension of the room or the other speakers matter here?

edit: given the layout and the room there's space for two smaller ones to the left and right of the entertainment center if that is better or makes things easier. With one it's off to the side which has been noticeable but not too distracting.

Rythmik Audio.

If your in Austin you can pick up in Cedar Park for a discount.

This is the one I use in my home theater: http://www.rythmikaudio.com/FVX15.html

Game over...
https://stereointegrity.com/product/hs24-24-subwoofer/

For real though...
What's your price point? The Monoprice Monolith subs seem to get good reviews. I have an SVS sub and have loved it for over 10 years.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24456

https://www.svsound.com/products/pb-1000

Those are only a couple of examples. I'm sure there are other great subs that fit too.

Room size definitely matters. If you are going for one sub then it helps to put the sub where you sit and then crawl around along the wall until you find a place where it sounds good. Once you find that place put the sub there. Two subs is always better than one if you can swing it.

SVS and Rhythmik are both good options. Is the family room enclosed or open to the house?

I haven't thought much about price point yet to be honest. I have a bunch of Amazon cards that I was going to use towards this and figure for something I'm going to use for the next couple of decades $500 might be reasonable?

This is what the room looks like. It really lends itself to putting one to the left and right off the entertainment center (getting replaced with something that looks better roughly the same size). Behind the sectional doesn't work well.

'Scuse the mess, I'm working from home today

Looks like you need 2 monoprice monoliths which you can get on Amazon.

You also need a bigger TV

spanky said:

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You also need a bigger TV

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I designed the space to be able to take something like a 105" TV, whenever those become common someday. Looks like Hisense sells some for the low, low price of 10 grand!

What's in there now is a 65" one I bought 3 years ago.

It looks like you already have the Atmos height speakers above the tv. What are you getting for your main left and right channels? I kid...

Hsu Research

I have a couple from Hsu. I found them via the Nerdery many years ago.

THey don't make my model anymore, but it was on the lower end. Back then I paid about 350 + shipping and their cheapest I think was 250.

They are absolutely incredible.

When an AV company was doing my media room in our new home I heard the installer telling their sales guy how incredible the sub sounded.

Since you are limited in your placement options, the benefit of 2 subs is diminished greatly. The idea behind getting 2 subs is eliminating peaks/nulls so the bass sounds the same no matter where you are sitting. The best positioning to achieve this is generally in diagonal, opposite corners or the midpoint of 2 opposite walls. Two up front isn't really going to help much with that, so you are better off with one for now.

The square footage of that space doesn't matter since it is open to the whole house. Square footage only comes into play in a sealed room, so you need a sub intended for very large areas. I would be looking at the SVS PB16, Rythmik FV15HP or higher, Hsu VTF-15H, or the PSA V1512 or larger. You could absolutely have a good experience with a smaller sub and anything made by the above companies will be an upgrade over your previous subwoofer, but once the bug gets you, you might end up upgrading again in a couple years if you pick a smaller sub now.

Also, I'd upgrade my LCR before doing anything else. My computer speakers are bigger than those!

10-4 on upgrading the center speaker! Over time I'll probably wind up changing out all of the speakers, they're part of a set my brother got for Christmas in 04. As-is they still sound a hell of a lot better than the built in ones the TV has at least.

Good to know about the sub, I guess my motivation for getting two was that with the current placement the sound is noticeably off to the left a bit. With one per side I thought that might fix the problem? I never set the fade and balance for the system so that part is on me.

The Fife said:

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10-4 on upgrading the center speaker! Over time I'll probably wind up changing out all of the speakers, they're part of a set my brother got for Christmas in 04. As-is they still sound a hell of a lot better than the built in ones the TV has at least.

Good to know about the sub, I guess my motivation for getting two was that with the current placement the sound is noticeably off to the left a bit. With one per side I thought that might fix the problem? I never set the fade and balance for the system so that part is on me.

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If you can tell where your bass is coming from, that usually means an issue with your audio correction rather than the sub or your placement. Your audio correction built into your AV receiver should be used to make sure that your sub isn't playing anything above 80hz (and that your speakers aren't playing anything below that). Sound is almost impossible to localize at low frequencies. Be sure the crossover for your sub is at 80hz and that your speakers are set to "small" (no matter how big they are) in your audio setup.

Your balance may seem off because of room acoustics/reflections/etc. If you have a receiver with a mic use it to eq the system.

Goes into store to buy bread, comes out with dual subs, center channel, AV receiver, and 80"+ display

spanky said:

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Goes into store to buy bread, comes out with dual subs, center channel, AV receiver, and 80"+ display

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I learned long ago... never share a picture of your setup to a bunch of A/V nerds. They will never be satisfied and you will always leave with an empty wallet.

tfunk02 said:

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spanky said:

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Goes into store to buy bread, comes out with dual subs, center channel, AV receiver, and 80"+ display

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I learned long ago... never share a picture of your setup to a bunch of A/V nerds. They will never be satisfied and you will always leave with an empty wallet.

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Go heavy or go home.

spanky said:

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Goes into store to buy bread, comes out with dual subs, center channel, AV receiver, and 80"+ display

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I admit we have under achieved so far. Give us a couple more days and we'll have him in a new home with a dedicated theater room.

javajaws said:

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Your balance may seem off because of room acoustics/reflections/etc. If you have a receiver with a mic use it to eq the system.

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It can do that - I just need a longer cord to get from the media closet to where I sit. A 99 cent cord to get the job done already will be on my order from Amazon in a couple of days.