Subwoofer recommendations Fathom V2, Fathom, E subs and CR-1

[-E-]

Gary...

This is the audio hobby - there is no such thing as overkill.

[shl5+fan]

So I guess Pass Labs and V1 it is. Thank you guys.

[substance]

Pass lab xvr1 is the best. It's actually a Class A design pre-amp in a sense. It certainly operates in class A at all times. The level of flexibility is near infinite. This is at a cost though, as explained before, you will probably need a lot of help and many hours tweaking it with a room acoustics software. It is not as easy adjust as other xovers because almost everything is inside the box. You can buy two modules and run your setup 3 way, you would need another pair of amps and bypass internal xovers of your speakers.


I don't think CR-1 is much inferior. Even the Bryston 10b is a vast improvement over the built in passive networks in subwoofers.

I like V1 but if your room needs a lot of correction, V2 is more capable in that(of course you give up all analog system)

[substance]

Note: running subs all analog vs digital with dsp is probably give or take the same. On a blind test, perhaps no one could tell. Mine is just the typical ocd, once I know the signal is molested, it doesn't matter if it sounds better

[shl5+fan]

Thank you substance. Also the cost of the pass labs is cheaper than the cr-1. I will ask my dealer on what he thinks about this too. This is really a great help. Do you think my Accuphase E470 is good enough using the pass labs since you mentioned about amps.

[trponhunter]

Originally Posted by substance

E subs actually have active xovers and are all analog subs. So if you go with e subs, there isn't a need for cr-1.

V2 versions are all digital subs. They digitize the signal early on and apply low pass filters and room correction in digital domain in its dsp. So on the low pass side, it doesn't need a cr-1. Cr-1 would improve high pass side and take some stress off from your power amps/speakers. If you tune cr-1 well, it can integrate better possibly.

V1 are all analog subs, even aro operates in analog domain. Cr-1 would improve both low pass and high pass side. I prefer these because the signal is kept in analog domain the entire chain. Some claim the analog to digital conversion on the v2 is transparent enough especially in low frequencies. My personal opinion prefers all analog and deal with room correctin in parametric eq in analog as well. Pass labs xvr1 is a xover where you can individually adjust its 4 poles per output.

This is a valid opinion, however, it is almost assuming that there is no negative to running the analog signal through all of the additional interconnects and circuitry. Also, the filters in the analog domain are no where near as phase correct as digital filters. In my experience, running through all the additional analog circuitry and cabling is far more damaging to the signal than converting to digital and back, and your control is not nearly as precise.