Last weekend I went and saw a friend's band play at a local bar. First of all getting me in a bar was a big event, I'm not exactly a drinker, water is about all I drink anymore. Anyway, the band was a bunch of guys that have been playing for the last 30 to 40 years, pros to semi-pros. Not too bad of a cover band. Well when I got home and started up my Torii, it sounded like shit in comparison to the live music. None of the percussave bass that slaps you in the chest. This is where I went off the rails. I went out in my garage and dug out a JBL sub that I had used on a old surround sound project 20 years ago. I hooked it up to my Torii, plugged it in and Wham, there was what I was looking for. I know that I'm supposed to like the bass from my MG944's but now this thing just rocks. I know that the bass is turned up way too far, but it now sounds "right" to me. So where do I go from here? I'm thinking a House Wrecker or even Imperial SO's. I've got the room, I'm pretty sure that I have the cash, I've spent the last 30 years making things down to the .0001". What should I make or buy to put the thump in my music?

Donnie, if you dig deep into the forum you'll see posts by Randy about the Imperials and what it did to his listening. I think the Imperials would be the cat's meow for you. Maybe even for me one day.

I have Randy's homebuilt Decware Imperial SO Subs.
Bought them and still have not got a room big enough or bought a new house with enough room.
Donnie you want them?

http://meta-gizmo.net/Tri/adv/STONEO_TONE.html

Harvey was to cool man.  Lars

This means that if you don't have righteous tone, you have nada, zip, zilch. If you have the widest stereo image, have woodifying micro-dynamics, and whopper size bass…none of this matters, if you don't have natural tone.

Do you get it? Get tone right first, even if you have to sacrifice other values…which explains why Japanese audiomaniac culture obsesses over tone, their "compass in the audio storm, and I subtitled my first book about tube circuits…"Natural Harmonics Audio".

Here is, my beloved bros', a beautiful Haykoo* poem I wrote in your honor:..................... .

dive in to the thread, and "stay thirsty my friends"!

Stone of Tone

Chris, I only meant the size as well. I was there in 2005 an heard them  too. "Subterranean" is a good way to describe them. Plus, clean and pure with integration. I envy the fact your wife is giving you a shot at accommodating them at your future house if you keep them.

Stone of Tone

Good Lord Donnie! I'm sorry to hear that. I hope it will resurrect again. Time to call Steve!

I've been putting in a little thought into my original problem of wanting/needing more bass.
If I went with a Imperial how would I power it and how would I manage the bass?
How much power would I need? I've always been of the mind that too much of anything is just a little shy of what I wanted.
I'm lucky in the fact that my listening room has some built in cabinets that were built around a refrigerator, sounds like a perfect place for a Imperial SO.
Today I dragged my Onkyo TX-DS989 in from the garage and hooked it up as a pre-amp between my Ipod-Wadia and my Torii. I'm using it mostly as a DAC because I'm still too depressed to look at my dead  ZDAC-1.
Anyway I guess I could use it for bass managment or even as a sub amp. The main problem with this is that it really sounds like crap. And I also like to use it in my garage to annoy my neighbors  by playing "Father Rapin' " music. A guy has to have hobbies.
The JBL sub I am currently using sounds a lot like the one that the kid up the road has in his Honda Civic, you know one with a "Fart Can" exaust, kind of one note thumpin'.
When did it become "cool" for a young guy to drive a 4 door Civic? Maybe about the same time that it became "uncool" to work on your own car, I'm kind of rambling now.
I guess I have the Subterranean Bass Homesick Blues.
How do I get from here to where I want to be?

Hey Donnie, I know what you mean. I am still quite happy with the bass output of my ERRs. They sound excellent. But on certain classical recordings, e.g., Bach organ works, and obviously on some well-mixed 5.1 music discs such as the AIX Blu-Ray discs, there is a slight lack of weight in the very lowest registers. Bob is going to build me a pair of DBK212 subs. I will drive them with a Carver M1.5T, and I will use a Paradigm X-30 subwoofer control unit to control the sound. This will all be for 5.1. Although I am not a big fan of all the LFE garbage in so many movies, there are occasional movies (Inception, the rerelease of Jurassic Park, and several of the Marvel Comics franchise, and others) where the LFE contribute favorably. I do not anticipate running the subs with the two-channel output from the PerfectWave DAC/Bridge.

I just keep looking at this hole in the wall down in my bunker thinking that a Imperial would just slot right into it. I'm also drawn to the House Wrecker if for nothing else than the cool name.
What I have now is sounding pretty damn good, but I'm getting antsy. I read about all of the cool stuff that everyone else has and it starts a "Stereo Envy" within me. I'm just like a junkie, give me more!