Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Sub advice : my head hurts

Future Shop has Velodyne VDR12 on sale for $299. You might want to check that one too. There have been some who have reported hearing "pop" though.

lineman. I second hsu subs. I've got the ep500, but if I was to do it all over again I would go with HSU or SVS.

I have also weighing the options between the EP350 and the EP500. Recently I came across an article about the Emotiva Ultra 12 Sub.
http://emotiva.com/ultra_sub12.shtm

Audioholics gave it a rave review.
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/subwoofers/ultra-12

It's on sale for $429 right now.

Listener - Why would you go with HSU or SVS instead of the EP500?

I love my SVS PCi+ 20-39. Love. It's a big cylinder. It's capable of way more bass than my room and my head can handle, yet it seamlessly integrates with my M80's. Absolutely no regrets.

The only drawback to big cylinder subs is that they're a big cylinder. It looks very much like a carpet-covered hot water heater in the corner of your HT room. I like it. My wife likes it. But we do occasionally have guests to the house who see it and say, "why do you have a hot water heater in your den?" ;-)

So, I'll second (third?) the motion to take a look at SVS's offerings.

You can't go wrong with the usual suspects, Hsu, SVS, eD. I see Outlaw has a new sub with an 8" driver which is available as a dual driver system, that should be an interesting one.

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/m8.html

When watching movies I want the sub to have a big impact. While the sub can certainly deliver I have to run it a bit hot for it to do so and even then I feel like it is a bit lacking. I have heard some of HSU and SVS offerings and both were able to deliver the what i felt was the same performance for less money. I am happy with the ep500 but if I was to spend that much money again I would add a few hundred bucks and go for the svs pb-13u... I just checked and it looks like svs recently released a better more expensive version so it's more like 600 more than the ep500 now.

I was wondering why Emotiva only identified 22Hz as the low end of the range without identifying +/- db (which is standard). After seeing the measurements in the review I know why. The Emotiva sub is a whopping -20db at 22Hz than it is at 50-60 Hz. IMO you will not be satisfied with this sub. In reality, it is only linear in it's low end output to about what the M80 is.

I would second taking a look at HSU or SVS.

Axiom has done a very good job at keeping their pricing while others have had substantial increases.

I think the problem you are having listener is that Axiom subs have a very linear output and a fairly unique sound quality that is more textured less dry then most others. IMO, the Axiom sound is much more realistic for music but it isn't perfect for movies.

I am also wondering if you have heard those other subs in your room with your system, apples to apples, as the room is the real factor when it comes to feeling that bass, not to mention your on-walls will not reproduce any extra bass in that key 50-70 hz range to help the sub out which is busy pushing those really low notes that overshadow that punchy range.

That's not a sub, that's a midrange!

That's disappointing to find a spec that bad. Unless it's a DSP-controlled sub and the FR falls off a cliff at 28Hz or something, listing it as 22Hz is a joke as far as I'm concerned!

Hah, I wouldn't go that far, but looking at the measurement curve, I would define it as a woofer. It's linear (+/- 3db) down to about 32 Hz, depending on the curve you look at. The funny thing is that they specify the high end as 200Hz, but at 500Hz it's only 2.5db lower than the 200Hz output... Very "wooferish", not "subwooferish".