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Review 1 of 1
Price Paid:
$443.00
from SCS Summary:
I'll start from the beginning.
When I first walked into the store 3 years ago, I started looking at subwoofers. Back then, what I had to look at was MartinLogan's subwoofer line (not Descent i, Depth i, Grotto, none of the design line), the B&W 800, 700, and 600 series, and of course Paradigm's subwoofers other than the UltraCubes (not Paradigm Reference, except the Seismics).
I was interested in the Paradigm PW-2200, B&W ASW-750 on up, MartinLogan Descent, and that's it. Over those 3 years I researched and researched. I learned so much about all that acoustics, placement, what to look for, and everything like that in a subwoofer. I recently went and listened to all the subs as usual then my friend there (the manager) recommended I take a listen, so I did. I heard both the UltraCube 10 and 12. I was impressed. I loved everything about both of them, including how well they got down there. I then asked for a blind test, not being told in what order I was going to hear all the subs. I was blindfolded, spun around 3 times, then entered the room...
The first sub I heard was very clean sounding. It had a great extension, and could get loud when I told it to. The second sub I heard was a bit thin and had no tone, I then heard another sub which was very clean sounding but didn't get quite as loud as the first one, but sounded even tighter and deeper to my ear. The one after had was louder than the last sub, wasn't quite as tight, and extended, shook, and rumbled with a little more authority. The last sub I heard was very, very clean, but didn't extend down too deeply. or shake with authority.
The first sub was the MartinLogan Descent, the second was the B&W 750 ( I also heard the 855, sounded much better). The third was the UltraCube 10. The Fourth was the UltraCube 12, and the last was the MartinLogan Depth.
I decided I really liked the UltraCube 10 since it had a tightness I wasn't used to. In my opinion the UltraCubes blow away other subs in the same price range ($600-1700) and compete with much more expensive subs. I also heard the Seismic 10, but decided I'd be better off getting two UltraCube 10's instead of one Seismic 10. That's exactly what I did.
When I finally got them home a few days ago, I first hooked them both up in my small bedroom to see what they sounded like in a small room like that (10x8). I decided to turn off the main speakers to hear what the sub sounded like. I turned the crossovers both ~50hz then turned both their Level controls to MAX and turned the radio to max then let'erip with a rap/heavy bass station from the radio and...boy I'm glad I was wearing hearing protection. When the song that was on came on...I felt my breath being forced in and out of my lungs, eyeballs rattling, so that should be an indication they're too much for a small room, unless you want a lot of headroom. I got out my trusty SPL meter and it was steadily running around 120 dB and every bass drum kick pegged the meter. I turned it down so that the passive drivers on the sides were just pushing out around 1.5 inches, then I left. I went to the store while I let the drivers break in.
When I got back, the subwoofers were still running, but sounded much deeper and cleaner than they did earlier. I then shut them down and relocated to my main listening room. After a bunch of calibrating and phasing until the bass response was very even from both I then moved on to levelling and crossover. I gave them a each a different crossover as to give the deepest bass the boost I like. I gave the primary position to the subwoofer producing the higher basses. I turned the upper bass woofer a crossover turn all the way up and set the receiver's crossover to 80hz so the crossover didn't conflict with the sub very much. I set the deeper bass sub's crossover to 40hz and then adjusted the levels until the bass was pretty flat until 40hz and then it got slightly higher to about 30hz and then evened out at 22hz, where the bass was -3 at 18 and quickly dropped off below that.
I listened to all my favorite music and heard a depth I had not heard before, the image of the sound expanded and grew large, very large. These subs pound with authority for the price, no doubt. I watched my favorite movies and the explosions shook in the 20x15 room. The subs were placed one in the other room at the open area into the other room and the other right inside the listening room. The bass drums and synthesized deep bass gave everything the most extreme depth I had gotten a subwoofer for.
I'm listening to music right now as a matter of fact. I'm going to let them break in even more and expect to change things around until it's even better.
I rated it five stars on value for the price/performance ratio. I gave overall a 4-star because it didn't have the SPL and flatness of a much more expensive sub. Strengths:
Extension, Size, Price, Tightness, can get loud Weaknesses:
So far I haven't found a fault except it's not going to be as good as something ~4x the price or higher. Similar Products Used:
None
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