I am trying to finalize my outdoor setup, and I am stuck on deciding what outdoor subwoofers to choose. I have selected the Boston Accoustics Rock Speakers (the RK8T2 x 4) to provide the mid and high end because they get great reviews. But I have not yet decided on outdoor subwoofers because reviews are lacking to help me make a decision, and the prices are either quite low or really high without any middle range price. For example, for $150 to $200 I can get the TIC subwoofers (i.e. the green ABS variety seen at amusement parks), and for $1000 I can get the Boston Accoustics Voyager Subwoofer 12, and of course there are more expensive ones too.

Therefore, given that I will have pretty good speakers covering the mid and high end through an ICBM crossover, my question is how much of a difference can there be between subwoofers--after applying the law of diminishing returns--such that I should likely try (or perhaps avoid) the cheaper versions. I know this is a tough question based simply on price and diminishing returns, but please let me know your gut feelings given your experiences with various fairly inexpensive and expensive subwoofers (especially when paired with solid perfoming mid/high end speakers).

To let you know where I am coming from, I would be hard pressed to pay over $1000 for any single sattelite/bookshelf speaker covering the mid and high end (and in fact, given the great performance of my $400 NHT M6s, I would have trouble paying anything over $600 for any single satalite speaker) as any appreciable improvement would not be worth it to me (and besides the improvement, if any, would likely be lost on me as I would not likely easily hear the difference unless I was doing A/B testing).

Also, each of my outdoor speakers and subwoofer will be run with 100 watts of power for now (although I will likely increase the subwoofer to 250 watts at some later date so as to avoid overdriving the amplifier).

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Ed.

OK, I know this is not what you meant, and won't blend with your backyard or budget, but hey, fun to look ... down to 28Hz (lower than most outdoor systems) and 146dB capable:

http://www.realhorns.de/index.html

I'm just sayin' (if you had to) :-D

Hmmm, as someone living in Brooklyn without a backyard, I wonder if there are environmental/weather concerns that might govern which sub you should choose. I hesitate to recommend anything, but I have an Orb Audio Super Eight, and the thing sounds amazing (clean and non-boomy when applied with the RR2150's bass management) and is built like a tank. It's 200w and $399 new; Orb Audio also makes a 10-inch model that's a bit pricier.

Hope this helps…