Ever since my aquisition of a Yamaha RX-V992 AV receiver, I've been itching to add a subwoofer to my system. My main use will be for movie sound.
I hope to keep price within reason.

How much power is enough? What about downward-throw vs. forward throw? Are there any standout values or best-buys out there?

I like my Compact Theater One from Onecall.com. So far so good. Inexpesive system which works well for my room. If you are looking to spend more than $700 then look elsewhere. Velodyne is supposed to have some of the best subs.

Have looked at the Mirage Dual 10". Sounds great and its around $650.00. I am in the same situation. My hifi store say that these subs are great. I am still looking.

Actually the sub that comes with the CCO is much less than $700. The entire system (six speakers) was purchased for less $700. Just about any sub will sound better than not having one at all with most speakers systems.

No doubt about it I have tried many different subs and have been most pleased with the
Velodyn CT120 Its superior to brands like infinity, mirage, and sunfire. You should be able to find and listen to one at any circuit city for
around $450.

Depending on your financial position Energy (made by Mirage) makes an awesome little ground pounder. They come in 8" 10" 12" 15" and 18" sizes. Take a listen if you can you will be amazed at the quality of sound for the resonable price. The 8" sells for about $299 the 12" is $599. You may find an 8" or a pair of 8" is all you need. The new Dolby Lab's recommendation for subwoofer placement in a 5.1 room is to use 2 woofers and place one on the X axis of the room and the other on the Y axis of the room. I have a 19 by 19 theater room and 2 of these 8" woofers and my floor shakes like crazy!

I use the Infinity BU2 12" downthrow sub with 100 watt amp built in, It runs off my Harmon/Kardon
AVR80 MKII THX receiver in a 13' x 13' room and I've been quite satisfied with its perfomance for over a year now. Infinity has stepped this model up to the BU150 with digital circuitry. You can still find the BU2 for around $300 or the BU150 for somewhere around $450.

You have got to check out Definitive Technologies subs! Home Theater Magazine rated it the best for the price. I paid about $600 for my 15" 325 watt...

I have a Miller & Kreisel V-75 Mk II, and I am absolutely delighted about its sound. It got a 5-star on What Hi-Fi magazine for quite a while...which is not bad considering it's an American subwoofer being rated in a British magazine.

I think the one to audition for now is the V-125 THX.

Subwoofer choice depends on both source and room size. If you have a small room, nothing beats something like the Sunfire True Subwoofer, or Velodyne's version of that. If you have a larger room, the larger Velodynes are great. The Klipsch plays really loudly, but isn't nearly as musical as the Velodynes.

If it is music not movies you are interested, the Velodyne IMHO is far more musical than the Sunfire, Klipsch, or others. Their servo controlled subs are really spectacular.

It may be a little more than what you want to spend, but I reccomend the REL subwoofers. I have compared them to some of the "best" Velodyne and B&W subs and they just blow them away. They are not the "bassiest" and I mean that by muddy bass, but you will never hear such clarity. There are some scenes where the sub will pick up each individual firing (each round) on machine gun fire, instead of just one long bass note. Since you don't seem interested on what it can do for music, I won't go into that.

Good luck

I bought a sunfire mark II from someone on the web for 895.00 (audiogon.com) I have it placed in the corner per sunfire specifications.

transparent soundstage and maddening acurracy. I listened to them all and for my room size I don't think I could have made a better choice. I almost bought the velodyne HGS12 but I saved myself around 900 dollars and did not give up an ounce in performance.

This is is loud though (2700 Watts). A sub like this is perfect for a pre-amp that has some type of macro control. I have it set low for music and higher for theater.

You should also do yourself a favor and check out Hsu Research (www.hsuresearch.com). They offer a subs at many price points, some with built in amps, others with seperate amps. All are available only from Hsu on a 30 day trial.

I have a velodyne f1200r in my 2 channel system and a Hsu tn1225 w/ 500 watt amp (about $1k) in my HT setup. The Hsu was easy to set up and sounds fantastic.

I own a full mirage surround rig. I couldnt be happier with my sub. I think it has awesome sound for the money. I have also heard great things about velodyne, sunfire etc. Just listen to them all and decide then. Nick

Just a note. Subwoofer is a misnomer. The subwoofers that are sold are not subwoofers at all but just good woofers seperated from the main speakers. They needed a name for them. Good main speakers with good woofers that go down to 20Hz flat pretty much do the same job. The biggest advantage of the subs is the adjustable amp (not full range and more distortion) taking a load off of your full range main amp. You can also use smaller mains. Unamplified subs are not very good. To be truly "sub" you would be looking at what is called tactile transducers like the Clark Synthesis or the Bass Shakers which truly get down!! I have them and they are great! Just don't talk about hearing them (even though with a full range amp which you shouldn't do you can hear them) because most humans do not hear "sub" frequencies below 20Hz...you FEEEL them. Also note they are not intended for music since real music with real instruments do not go below 20Hz. They are for home theater and I highly recommend you try them. I do have a Klipsh 100W 10" forward firing subwoofer with a 12" rear passive radiator that I think is great. I use it with a pair of mains that are flat down to 70Hz and have the crossover set to that. It is a sweet setup.