subwoofer

Saw the framing again this week. Work out your room's square footage, and that tells you how many subwoofers you need. I want to push back on that, because square footage is close to the least useful number in the whole decision. What actually decides it is the room's modal behaviour and how...

The spec sheet on the new Bluesound PULSE SUB has a hole in it big enough to drive a van through. No frequency response figure, no maximum SPL, no weight, no full dimensions, and no clarification of whether the 350 watts is continuous or peak. At a grand and change that is not a rounding error...

Nine times out of ten when somebody here says their receiver has run out of steam, there is nothing wrong with the receiver. Something in the setup menu is quietly handing the amp a job it was never meant to do, and swapping in more watts just buys a bigger version of the same problem. The one...

A 7.7.4 build in a basement nook, three and a half years of work, mostly used and new gear bought piecemeal. The nook is 10 by 14 opening into a bigger basement, the back wall sits 22 feet from the screen wall, and the seat is 12 feet from a 145 inch screen at a 45 to 50 degree viewing angle...

If you've gone to the trouble of covering the viewing area walls and ceiling in triple black velvet, the light rejecting screen might be working against you rather than for you. That's my one question about this 7.7.4 build, and I mean it as a genuine question because everything else about it...

Audioholics has a piece on IsoAcoustics having its strongest year yet, with JBL, Raidho, Marten, LUMIN and EMM Labs integrating its isolation technology into their own products. The new GAIA-TITAN Neo is apparently already finding its way into flagship loudspeakers ahead of a consumer launch...

Interesting problem posted elsewhere and it comes up here constantly in a slightly different form. Someone is moving from a Klipsch RP setup to KEF R Meta, so R7 Meta towers, an R6 Meta centre, R8 Meta surrounds, CI200RR-THX in the ceiling, two KC92 subs, a Marantz AV20 processor with an AMP30...

Secrets posted a preview of the Michi Prestige X430 and the spec that stopped me was not the power. Up to 340 watts into 4 ohms, six digital inputs and an ESS SABRE ES9039Q2M sitting inside is roughly what you would expect at this end of the market. The part worth talking about is the dual mono...

Fifth run at Multi-Sub Optimizer and this one finally clicked, going by a post I read this morning. Two SB-3000s at the rear, two Pretium 18s up front, all four into a miniDSP feeding an Onkyo RZ70 running Dirac with bass control, measured before DBC went on. He had also stopped toeing the front...

The build that holds the all-time upvote record over on r/hometheater just got a two year update post, and the headline is the channel count. It went out as a 7.7.4 and it is now a 9.9.4. If I am reading that notation the way it is normally used over there, that is two more bed channels and two...

Most subwoofer comparisons come down to a few extra hertz and a slightly bigger box. This one does not. RBH's Unrivaled 21 is $11,945 for a single 21-inch carbon fibre driver in a sealed cabinet that weighs 371 pounds. The Unrivaled 221 starts at $16,945, puts two of those drivers in an...

A post on r/hometheater has a problem I recognise. Guy runs 7.1.4 with a Klipsch RP-1600 sitting right behind the couch, and by his own account there is plenty of low end and enough nearfield tactile effect to shake the living room. What he is missing is chest punch - the John Wick gunshot, the...

Good writeup doing the rounds and it is the constraints that make it worth reading, not the gear list. TCL 85QM851G, Denon X1700H, KEF Q350 across the front with the rear ports plugged, Polk XT15 for surrounds, two RSL Speedwoofer 10e subs, and a miniDSP 2x4 HD in the chain. The rental part is...

There is a thread on the home theater sub that I wish more people would copy. Guy posted a while back saying he had upgraded to an Onkyo TX-RZ30 and a pair of B&W 603s and was underwhelmed by the low end and slightly overwhelmed by the top end. The replies mostly told him not to buy more...

Somebody posted their improvised 5.2 in a rental and it's a tidier job than a lot of permanent installs I've seen. TCL 85QM851G, Denon X1700H, a miniDSP 2x4 HD, KEF Q350 doing left, centre and right with the rear ports plugged, Polk XT15 for surrounds, and a pair of RSL Speedwoofer 10e. The...

Monitor Audio has three new premium subwoofers in the Anthra range and Home Cinema Choice went straight for the flagship 15in model, the W15. The detail that made me look twice wasn't sonic. It arrived in one of the smallest boxes the reviewer had seen for a 15in sub, with a courier visibly...

Home Cinema Choice got time with Perlisten's CTO Erik Wiederholtz ahead of auditioning the new R18s subwoofer, and the quote they led with was that the company doesn't want to make me-too products. Every brand says a version of that. Perlisten at least has receipts: they were the first company...

What Hi-Fi went round the industry again this year and asked engineers at the manufacturers which scenes they actually reach for when benchmarking kit. Worth reading, but read it with one eye open. Harman's consumer audio side put forward the Impossible Race from Ready Player One, Shallow from...

Emotiva has a new $1,799 sub, the Nostala FT12, and two details make it worth a thread rather than a shrug. First, the room correction lives in the subwoofer itself - 56-bit DSP, a calibrated mic in the box, and you run it from a Cal/Preset button on the back panel. No app, no computer, no...

DT (Definitive Technology) introduces the new Descend subwoofer DN8 with 8-inch woofers for music, home theater and gaming scenes. Powered by a powerful 500W peak Class D amplifier, the DN8 can play low frequencies down to 34Hz, giving rich detail and a stunning theater experience. DT...