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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$400.00
from eBay Summary:
First of all, I'd like to say that I'm not going to write about how this thing "shakes the whole house" or "it bounces across the floor" or "during this scene during this movie, it sounded like the house was going to fall down." What I am going to write about is what a true subwoofer should do, and that is to reproduce the lowest frequencies that your main speakers will not accureately reproduce. With that said, here is my review.
I would like to point out that there is a guy who is an authorized reseller on eBay that is selling these, brand new, in the box with full warranty dropshipped from the North American warehouse for Acoustic Energy. Great Service!
The sub I have is in the real cherry veneer. It is a very good looking unit and fairly compact.
I let it burn in for a whole weekend running a 0 - 250 Hz sin wave cycle at about 1/2 volume.
I am running it with Acoustic Energy Aesprit 309 mains (awesome speakers).
The first thing I wanted to test is how fast the sub was, especially on kick drums. I've never owned a sub that was quick enough to reproduce the kick drum at the same speed and impact as the main speaker. I had in Spyro Gyra's "Rites of Summer" which has good sonics and not overly ripe kick drums. The sub did a great job. I could not tell that the sub was even on (this is a good thing). The only thing I notices was fast, deep bass. It sounded like a kick drum, not just distortion. It's impact was immediate, not delayed. This is a true test of a good subwoofer.
I played some other disks that have nice bass lines, acoustic and electric. The acoustic bass sounded very natural. You could hear the actual plucking of the strings. This is usually inaudible on most subs. The electric bass pieces sounded equally good and fast and accurate. They had impact when they needed to and they were very melodic when they needed to be.
As for you home theater buffs, this thing makes PLENTY of bass to shake the floors and all that stuff.
This sub goes very low. I could actually hear the 15Hz tone (although not very loud) from my test CD.
This not the best sub I've ever heard, but it is the best sub I've owned. I've owned a Velodyne 1012XII, I've owned a Paradigm PW-2200 (which is highly reviewed on this site) and I've owned other lesser end subs.
The best sub I've heard would be a tie betwee the Velodyne HGS-18 and the Thiel SW1. Both of these subs are $3000 and up.
As an overview, this sub is very nice for music and will be great for home theater.
I would compare it to many $1500-2000 subs I've heard. Paying the $400 that I did makes it the best audio buy on the planet right now.
I would place it as being equal or better to the following products:
Velodyne HGS-12, Velodyne SPL-1200
REL Acoustics Stadium 2, Paradigm Servo 15
I will not be upgrading for a long time. Strengths:
Very articulate, accurate bass. Excellent speed and impact. Easily matched up with my mains.
Great Pricing. This thing Retails for $1199. I paid $400! Weaknesses:
For the price, hardly any. Fully adjustable phase control would be nice and a crossover bypass switch would be nice too. Similar Products Used:
Velodyne 1012XII
Paradigm PW-2200
Velodyne SPL 1000, SPL 1200
Velodyne HGS-18, HGS-15, HGS-12, HGS-10
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