Favorite Home Theater Subs

[steamboy 2]

What's Your Favorite Home Subs You Own Or Heard In The Last 2or 3 Yrs?

[N. Abstentia]

Yet to hear anything that can top the Paradigm Servo 15..for the money anyway

[steamboy 2]

I'm your average working class person and do not have the money for a top of the line sub yet.But you seem to have a really good sub & by the way i have a velodyne cht-12 a really good sub in it's class.

[PAT.P]

Paradigm PS 1000 and Dahlquist QX100SA (digital bash amp) .Pat.P

[steamboy 2]

velodyne's DD-12 is the best sub i have heard. but i have not heard there DD-15 or DD-18 as of yet.

[swgiust]

Properly set up and calibrated, the SVS PB12-ULTRA/2 is one awesome sub.
It took a couple of weeks and two locations, but I am extremely pleased with
this sub. It blends very well with my other speakers. All's you have to do is look
at the spec's and you know it's low and LOUD.

[nick4433]

Energy ES10XL. I have had that bad boy in my system for the last 7-8 years and have not been disappointed a bit. It is very smooth for movies and music both.

[kingdaddykeith]

A well executed DIY design will easily beat any commercial sub within a reasonable price point, say 5K and below. A 2K IB will destroy any commercial sub regardless of price in my experience.

[mixadude]

A well executed DIY design will easily beat any commercial sub within a reasonable price point, say 5K and below. A 2K IB will destroy any commercial sub regardless of price in my experience.

I recently put together a pair of these that really get wiv it. Then I picked up a BFD to fix some room anomalies. A gut cleanin bottom for less than $1400 total.

[drseid]

velodyne's DD-12 is the best sub i have heard. but i have not heard there DD-15 or DD-18 as of yet.

Yes, all three of these are *quite* formidable... I would have to agree that these are tough to beat on performance in their respective classes.

---Dave

[kexodusc]

A well executed DIY design will easily beat any commercial sub within a reasonable price point, say 5K and below. A 2K IB will destroy any commercial sub regardless of price in my experience.

I've heard a few $600 IB's that would destroy some 3K subs I've heard. I would think a 2K IB system would be unmatched commercially. If I could ever convince tha lady of tha house to overlook a few 15" holes in the wall I'd be going that route for sure. Maybe in my next house

I've built $250 - $350 subs I'd put up against the older Paradigm Servo-15 in terms of sound quality and extension (won't top 110 dB without starting to lose SQ fast though, but that's plenty loud for me.). I replaced my PW-2200 with the $250 DIY unit. To be honest the ol' Paradigm doesn't even come close in performance.

For the capable and the willing, not even buying quality used gear has the value of brand new DIY stuff. Problem is many people don't have the room, tools, or time to invest in building their own - it's not for eveyone.

[kingdaddykeith]

Yea, 2K will get you 4 Avalanche 18's and enough wood and materials to install a Manifold IB, I have yet to hear anything close commercially, I have good output to 7 Hz with mine. The nice thing about IB's is that the attack and decay is unbelievably sudden. The lack of energy built up and slowly dissipating like in any box system makes the bass remarkably clean and dramatic, scared the crap out of me the first time I played the cannon fight scene of Master and Commander, and I'm used to that passage with very good box subs.

Once you go IB, you will throw rocks at box subs.

[s dog]

ps 1000 does the job for me, more than enough for my 18 by 12 room

[This Guy]

My Dad's DBX db-15 subwoofer. It's a passive sub, he powers it with an older Kenwood power amp, about 150 watts a channel, both of them going to the sub. They're both about 15 years old. This thing doesn't have much excursion, but it's very sensitive and goes pretty low (it's in a big sealed box). I have yet to hear a better Home theatre sub, but my 12" horn sub beats it pretty well in the music department, my sub just can't handle the real low frequenices that his 15" can.

[RobertBritton]

Bass is exactly like horsepower in an engine. If you have lots of it, then, at sensible levels of performance, you will have huge headroom, reserves of power and great control of proceedings. I love bass. It's the most challenging part of the audio spectrum to get right in many ways and, correctly applied, is the single best catalyst of goose-pimply emotional involvement in our movies.


Meet a true North American bass heavyweight, the huge Mirage BPS-400 subwoofer. With just under a half kilowatt of power from an onboard pulse width-modulated power amp, driving two diametrically-opposed 12in cones of genuine might under serious grilles, this handsome piece of grown-ups' furniture is about as much as anyone could really need.

The subwoofer is deceptively simple-looking. Three plug holes, two knobs, no switches - that's all you get on the rear of this black cloth coffee table, which is finished with the most delicious expanse of purest piano-black top plate. A mains lead is included. You can connect the lows up to either the left or right RCA inputs that go via the onboard crossover, or else straight in on a mono Low Frequency Effects RCA feed.

The device has an auto on and off system and a clipping protection circuit intended to stop that horrid cough that happens when you get to a loud bit and find out that the overall level is just up a bit too far. This can spoil a film for me, but I can't easily imagine you finding the finite limit of the air this brute can shove around.


I let the bass management system of the reference Acurus ACT3 preamp take care of the output to the sub and married it up to the reference JBL SVA loudspeakers I use. Immediately, it was as if the individual JBL SVA cabinets had become bigger, fatter and tauter, as the underpinning effect tightened up the entire soundstage.

The impressively deep bass at the beginning of the Mars track on the DTS audio demo CD I tried has a huge 15Hz thrum to it. Even at a relatively low level, it scared a small child I had in the house at the time. It produced the heaviest, lowest wobbliest pressures ever heard in my living room. Well below the resonance of my glass cabinet-units, the feeling of moving eardrums was as hectic upstairs while the subwoofer was running, as when sharing the room with the brute.

A vast neo-subsonic weight fills the room, with staggering presence. The kick bass drum on another track was like being in a huge arena when the rock group is sound checking. You can feel the pressure wave simply waft clean through you. All this is achieved with utter control and tight footwork.

Never does it become muddy or strained sounding. An expensive piece most certainly, but absolutely monstrous in output. When explosions occur onscreen, be careful. You could find that without some of the pressure being released, it'll inflate your room to a spherical form for a moment. You have been warned.

RATINGS

Highs : Seemingly limitless low end extension, with a volume level that will wobble the glass in your windows. Like a velvet hammer with tremendous control
Lows : This monster will knock hell out of your relationship with your neighbours. A beastly subwoofer

Slam
Depth
Precision
Overall
FOCUS
All the power and grunting ability you could ask for. A Bipolar Bassmeister with a stunning ability to hurl huge great gouts of air about the room with pinpoint precision

Model : Mirage BPS-400
Approximate price : £1,300

API 01473 240205
Website : www.miragespeakers.com

SPECIFICATIONS

Frequency response at 18Hz : 50-100Hz
Power : 400W from onboard Pulse Width Modulated amplifier
Connections : Stereo RCA input; mono LFE RCA input
Features : Sealed enclosure with two 12in drivers firing in bipolar array and 400W RMS onboard amplification; Auto on/off circuit; clipping protection circuit; gain and crossover point knobs
Dimensions : 597(w) x 546(h) x 459(d)mm
Weight : 50kg


A review by Adam Rayner of HomeCinemaChoice.com


And I have to agree totally.