Subwoofer for my system

[Tdaut]

Hey there,

I posted a few months ago about wanting to add an EQ to my chain and was quickly talked out of it by several members (lol)

Anyway, I got some great advice which included to ditch my last set of speakers (vintage KEF C15's with matching C200SW stereo subs) and opt for larger speakers.

Well, i went to my local shop (Hifi buys in Nashville) and demoed some speakers in my price range of about $500ea. I was blown away by the Goldenear Trition 7's with the forcefield 3 (the sub made such a large difference i was shocked). in the shop they preformed better than some speakers that costed twice as much.

Went back 2 days ago and pulled the trigger. I was going to walk out of there with the goldenear Forcefield 3 but realized that it doesnt have L/R RCA connections. I'm using a Schiit Saga (OG, not +) and the Schiit vidar so theres no LFE connection.

Is there anyway around this or am i stuck choosing a sub from someone other than goldenear?

Thanks for all your help everyone!

 

[peterp1]

Is there anyway around this or am i stuck choosing a sub from someone other than goldenear?

Congrats on the speaker purchase. You can use the GoldenEar sub by connecting to its speaker-level inputs. Either wire the sub in "parallel" with the mains (second pair of speaker wires from the amp to the sub's speaker-level inputs, or wire the sub "inline" with the mains (amp to sub speaker-level inputs, then wire the sub speaker-level outs to the main speakers). For 2-channel music in an analog system, I actually prefer speaker-level connections because both speakers and sub see the exact same signal (you want the sub to be a seamless extension of the main). Some prefer using line-level inputs to eliminate the amp from the sub signal path. Neither camp is "right" or "wrong" because there are subtle plusses and minuses with either line level or speaker level sub connection types -- the important thing to know is that both types work great.

The Goldenear Forcefield subs have a high-pass filter on the speaker-level output -- meaning that the sub will remove the very low frequencies from what is passed along to the mains (this applies only if you use the "inline" connection above). That helps offload the mains from trying to reproduce low bass they can't reproduce anyway. It's pretty rare these days for subs to have high-pass filters on speaker-level outputs -- that combined with the fact that it's designed to be paired with Goldenear mains -- might make this sub a very good option despite the sub's smaller 8" driver. I suspect Goldenear would recommend speaker-level over line-level for music only given that they added the high-pass filter in the speaker-level path. You could still run the mains full range by using the "parallel" connection instead of "inline" but you will likely get better overall sound quality routing it through the high-pass filter.

I don't have any experience with the GoldenEar sub. The driver is fairly small 8", but that can be more than enough for music. You might be able to get something that will go deeper for the same budget. I would stick with a sealed sub for music only -- something like SVS's 12" sealed subs might be a good option. Hopefully somebody can provide some first-hand experience with the Goldenear sub. Unless you are playing industrial or techno music with ultra-low frequency bass, or playing at very high volume levels, musical quality of the sub is more important than size/power/etc.

 

[Tdaut]

Congrats on the speaker purchase. You can use the GoldenEar sub by connecting to its speaker-level inputs. Either wire the sub in "parallel" with the mains (second pair of speaker wires from the amp to the sub's speaker-level inputs, or wire the sub "inline" with the mains (amp to sub speaker-level inputs, then wire the sub speaker-level outs to the main speakers). For 2-channel music in an analog system, I actually prefer speaker-level connections because both speakers and sub see the exact same signal (you want the sub to be a seamless extensions of the main). Some prefer using line-level inputs. There are subtle plusses and minuses with either approach (line level or speaker level), but both connection types work great.

The Goldenear Forcefield subs have a high-pass filter on the speaker-level output -- meaning that it will offload your mains by removing the very low frequencies from the mains that they can't reproduce effectively anyway. It's pretty rare these days for subs to have high-pass filters on speaker-level outputs -- that combined with the fact that it's designed to be paired with Goldenear mains -- might make this sub a very good option despite the sub's smaller 8" driver. You'd want to wire the sub "inline" to take advantage of the high-pass filter.

I don't have any experience with the GoldenEar sub. The driver is fairly small 8", but that can be more than enough for music. You might be able to get something that will go deeper for the same budget. I would stick with a sealed sub for music only, but something like SVS's 12" sealed subs might be a good option. Hopefully somebody can provide some first-hand experience with the Goldenear sub. Unless you are playing industrial or techno music with ultra-low frequency bass, or playing at very high volume levels, musical quality of the sub is more important than size/power/etc.

Wow! i cant believe i didnt notice that there were in's and out's for speaker wire on the subwoofer. This was incredibly helpful.

I also want to note that if you're around nashville, check out Hifi Buys. They sold me the Triton 7's for $549ea (i've only ever seen them go new for $799ea) and quoted me the sub for $249 when its going for double than that everywhere else! I couldn't pass on that offer, defintiely going back for the sub now that i know it'll work using the sub's in and outs. Crazy impressed with the Goldenear's so far.

Thank you again for your message! much appreciated!

 

[peterp1]

Wow! i cant believe i didnt notice that there were in's and out's for speaker wire on the subwoofer. This was incredibly helpful.

I also want to note that if you're around nashville, check out Hifi Buys. They sold me the Triton 7's for $549ea (i've only ever seen them go new for $799ea) and quoted me the sub for $249 when its going for double than that everywhere else! I couldn't pass on that offer, defintiely going back for the sub now that i know it'll work using the sub's in and outs. Crazy impressed with the Goldenear's so far.

Thank you again for your message! much appreciated!

Awesome -- that seems like a great deal!

 

[Tdaut]

correction: the price I quoted for the forcefield 3 sub is infact $379, not $249.

Still a significant discount.

I havent picked it up yet but hopefully I will this week