So The last time my buddy Kershin (I_G) on the forum brought along his newly acquired Vivere DAC and Bryston NRB power amplifier to my place for some experimentation and i posted the results as per this thread
https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,61948.msg763303.html#msg763303
but During this Easter holidays he brought these over to my place and left them there for a longer time and we also had another buddy who was visiting from Gauteng and basically he agreed to bring one of his Goldenear forcefield 5 12" subwoofers so we could test it out (he actually has two of these monsters) - so heres a picture of the sub next to my Sony
and then we also had the Vivere and the Bryston power amp
and for a limited time while we had a bit of manpower he also brought over his Mission MX6 speakers so we could hear his entire setup in the config that he wishes to use it when he is ready (right now the stuff was just lying around being stored)
these Mission speakers are monsters ie they are actually huge and are around 20cm taller than my Cambridge Audio Aeros and they actually present a lot of bass .... so much so in fact that the subwoofer was almost superfluous (note : i say almost :EGrin: )
So we started off with the Subwoofer alone in my system replacing the Sony that was in place. The Goldenear actually was able to play a fair bit lower than the Sony but this was no surprise since the Sony uses 8" drivers and the Goldenear uses a 12" with the downfacing side consisting entirely of a passive radiator ... but the tradeoff was less midbass output so we had to fiddle with the bass management settings on the AVR and we had to allow the front speakers to be highpassed at a lower frequency to allow the front speakers to play a bit more midbass while the sub took care of the lower frequencies
the Sony runs out of steam far quicker than the Goldenear does for those people who like to play loud ie picking up the volume levels on the Goldenear wasnt a huge problem and it could easily go loud enough to give that minibus taxi type of bass if required ie enough bass to rattle your teeth fillings loose :EGrin: but you could drop levels down to give a drier more accurate bass performance full of detail
It was a close run thing but for me personally i would use the Sony with my current equipment but if the system changed to higher end stuff then maybe the Goldenear would be more suitable .... remember that my system is very entry level so going to a better sub gives it a different character BUT having said that I can easily see myself using the Forcefield 5 in my own personal "End Game" setup ... for now though the Sony just fills that gap between low bass and midrange pretty well and probably better main speakers could make a difference whereby the low bass provided by the Forcefield 5 would really give you all the dynamic range and audible frequency response that you need
https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,61948.msg763303.html#msg763303
but During this Easter holidays he brought these over to my place and left them there for a longer time and we also had another buddy who was visiting from Gauteng and basically he agreed to bring one of his Goldenear forcefield 5 12" subwoofers so we could test it out (he actually has two of these monsters) - so heres a picture of the sub next to my Sony
and then we also had the Vivere and the Bryston power amp
and for a limited time while we had a bit of manpower he also brought over his Mission MX6 speakers so we could hear his entire setup in the config that he wishes to use it when he is ready (right now the stuff was just lying around being stored)
these Mission speakers are monsters ie they are actually huge and are around 20cm taller than my Cambridge Audio Aeros and they actually present a lot of bass .... so much so in fact that the subwoofer was almost superfluous (note : i say almost :EGrin: )
So we started off with the Subwoofer alone in my system replacing the Sony that was in place. The Goldenear actually was able to play a fair bit lower than the Sony but this was no surprise since the Sony uses 8" drivers and the Goldenear uses a 12" with the downfacing side consisting entirely of a passive radiator ... but the tradeoff was less midbass output so we had to fiddle with the bass management settings on the AVR and we had to allow the front speakers to be highpassed at a lower frequency to allow the front speakers to play a bit more midbass while the sub took care of the lower frequencies
the Sony runs out of steam far quicker than the Goldenear does for those people who like to play loud ie picking up the volume levels on the Goldenear wasnt a huge problem and it could easily go loud enough to give that minibus taxi type of bass if required ie enough bass to rattle your teeth fillings loose :EGrin: but you could drop levels down to give a drier more accurate bass performance full of detail
It was a close run thing but for me personally i would use the Sony with my current equipment but if the system changed to higher end stuff then maybe the Goldenear would be more suitable .... remember that my system is very entry level so going to a better sub gives it a different character BUT having said that I can easily see myself using the Forcefield 5 in my own personal "End Game" setup ... for now though the Sony just fills that gap between low bass and midrange pretty well and probably better main speakers could make a difference whereby the low bass provided by the Forcefield 5 would really give you all the dynamic range and audible frequency response that you need
