Another report, this one from Mark (Huff at AVS). Still undecided about a sub and trying to decide between a pair of EP 500s, a EP600 or the Ultra-13. He prefers the JL113 overall but not at the price.

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First, thanks to John (jakeman) and his wife for the fantastic food, drinks and hospitality. John's house is stunning and could grace an architectural magazine. And that dedicated man-cave of a home theatre! It was better sounding and more enjoyable watching movie clips in there than any other movie theatre I've been in.

Second, I haven't (yet!) purchased any products by any of the companies that make the subs we listened to.

Third, my main goal from the session was to try to make a purchase decision. I'm looking to buy my first "reference" calibre sub and was lucky enough to be invited along (twice now!) to be able to compare some really great subs in side-by-side listening. And my usage is 90% HT, 10% music so that weighs heavily on what I was listening for.

Here are my impressions of the 4 main subs compared (dual Axiom EP-400s were also compared briefly and, while sounding great, were not in the same league for HT as the others so were sidelined). Just layman talk, nothing technical (the others are much more qualified than me on the technical side):

My Overall Choice (disregarding price)
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1) JL F113
2) SVS PB13
3) Axiom EP-600
4) Velo DD18

Throughout the movie scenes it was readily apparent that 2 of the subs possessed the WOW factor. The WOW factor has to do with the width of the smile on your face and the rumble under your seat when the bass effects kick in. The easiest thing to determine when A/B testing these subs for movie effects is which one sounds louder and which one you can "feel" more. It's much more difficult to determine differences in the sound reproduction when all the subs are as good as these. The F113 (hidden sub #2) and PB13 (hidden sub #3) had me thinking "now that's what I'm talkin about!" and the other 2 were a level below. I was most surprised at the fact that the large DD18 did not seem to produce the same output as the F113 & PB13. So it's not all about size.

During "Pulse" - a ridiculously tough assignment for a single sub - I heard the F113 and the PB13 making some strained sounds. The DD18 and EP-600 much less so, likely due to some kind of limiting when the going got tough. This was the only time during the afternoon that I heard any sounds of distress from any of the subs and since I would never play a movie like that at that level in my home, I really didn't care and it would not affect my purchase decision.

For music, it was very difficult to discern any significant differences between these subs on a variety of 30-60 second soundbites. On the Clapton bass guitarist track, I thought the F113 and DD18 sounded best. On a different Marcus Miller sampler track, I thought the EP-600 sounded best. On the Cars "rap" segment, I liked the F113 and PB13 best. It was splitting hairs really. If I listened to the tracks a few more times, I might even have changed my mind. They all sounded really, really good and for the pop music I mainly listen to, I'd be very happy with any of them. If you're into instrumental or jazz or classical (I'm not), then I bet that after extended listening and A/B comparing (with material you are familiar with) you would detect differences that may sway your purchase decision.

The JL F113 wins my overall choice (disregarding price) over the PB13 because of its ability to almost disappear in a room due to its size (extreme WAF!) and still produce pants-flapping, accurate bass that makes you smile so wide it starts to hurt. For HT, the PB13 was equally satisfying and gets its own kudos below.

OK, so the DD18 is at the bottom ... something has to be right? It's there because this is a subjective choice and I'm choosing for primarily HT use. My guess is that the DD18 is targetted toward the discerning music listener, and likely excels at instrumental music reproduction.

My Best Value for $$$ Choice (in Canada)
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1) SVS PB13
2) Axiom EP-600
3) JL F113
4) Velo DD18

To my door, the EP-600 is ~$1900 CDN, PB13 (Rosenut) is ~$2100 CDN. The F113 and DD18 (new) are beyond my budget, but I'm guessing the F113 is ~$3K+ and the DD18 is ~$3.5-4K+ new. If a used F113 could be had for ~2.5K or less, it would move up to #2 in my best value list (and end up in my house!).

In the contest for value-for-the-buck, the PB13 wins this comparison for me. It plays loud, sounds great and has a furniture grade finish. It's worth the extra $$$ over the EP-600 for me, primarily for the extra punch I like for HT. I liked the EP-600 a lot and its finish options are much better suited to my HT room than the PB13, I just wanted a few db more from it.

As of now, I'm still considering the EP-600, the PB13 or dual EP-500s (EP-600's little brother). The EP-500s are much smaller than the EP-600, are ~1.2K each and I expect sound just as good. Duals would be a few hundred $$$ more than 1 PB13, but the finish options are much better (there's that WAF again!) and the prospect of having dual subs, both for effortless output and better freq. response throughout the room, is appealing.

Ah, it's really all about the journey, isn't it ?


John