Some people prefer the sound of the mid bass frequency hump as I refer to "thumping". To me its a highly coloured inaccurate peak which I find distracting. I have an old "thumpy" hundred dollar Yamaha sub which I keep in one of my teenager's bedrooms that has peaky coloured sound. It overemphazises that 50-70hz zone which is critical for good reprodution of low frequency sound. Its not a bad sub for rap music or electronica, but for subtle resolution of a string double bass or piano or male voices that peaky humped response gets distracting and annoying to listen too. My kid's friends thought that thumpy sub was pretty cool until they hear the higher resolution that a well integrated EP600 brought to the experience.
If mid-bass hump is your thing, the old SVS subs had that characteristic but also provided greater extension and output. The new improved Ultra subs are quite linear and sound much more detailed as a result. However,they don't thump either. In fact no top flight subwoofer that I know of has that characteristic.
I'm not sure why this keeps coming up but snappy snare drum is not found in the subwoofer. Just disconnect the mains to hear how little the sub contributes. Virtually all that audio contribution comes from the mains with the sub providing subtle LF output. One of the best tests for just how well the sub and mains are aligned for deep kick drum and snappy snare is the old recording by Dave Brubeck, "Take Five" on Time Out. It also has a nice tight string bass rhythm. The EP600 does a wonderful rendition of that recording. The best I have heard from a bass reflex sub and comparable to some great sealed subs.
The fact that a cheap unlinear sub with thump seems to provide better reproduction is further indication of improper setup, especially phase, placement and FR/time alignment irregularities caused by room acoustics. A room with no treatments is a devil's workshop when it comes to accurate sound reproduction and realistic comparison of subwoofers.
