Based on the previous post, one might wonder "if a CEA-2010 test is not that great an indicator of performance, what is?"
And that is a legitimate question.
I would look at a few items at Data Bass, with some understanding about what happens in the real world.
Let's take two specific subwoofers - two with which I have auditioned extensively: The Velodyne DD-18 plus and the SVS PB-13 Ultra.
In the CEA-2010 tone burst test, the PB-13 Ultra in its 15 Hz tuning deliver 109.2 dB vs. 103.4 for the Velodyne DD-18+.
In forum world, the PB-13 ultra, at $2000, "wins" easily over the DD-18+ at $6000 retail and $4000 "street price".
Let's look at the data further, and long term output:
From 10-40 Hz, the Velodyne delivered 103.4 dB to the SVS's 103.9 dB.
Here is the main issue - the last 5 to 6 dB in output in the Ultra will have increasing chuffing sounds. It's unavoidable in all of these subwoofers which are ported, especially when one starts plugging some of the ports.
The Ultra, in 15 Hz mode, has less than 20 square inches of port area, and to try to deliver high output in that 10-15 Hz range is to guarantee a lot of chuffing.
In our VS-18.1, we used a 30 square inch port, tuned to 19 Hz, and chuffing was an issue there, too.
In a real world listening situation, the Velodyne will sound better, deeper and more powerful than the PB-13 Ultra.
The good news for SVS fans - for $3000, you can get a pair of SB-13 Ultras. On paper, the PB-13 Ultra delivers about the same 103.8 dB as a pair of SB-13 Ultras, but in reality, the sealed pair will always sound better. There will be no noises. There will just be clean, distortion free bass, well worth the extra $1000.
This brings us to the EP-500/600/800 subwoofers. They are an unusual design, with a DSP setting a flat amplitude regardless the frequency, up to the max output available at that frequency.
I have tried a single EP-800 against an SS-18.2, and the EP800 sounds better, and more powerful, on every scene.
Last night, my kids surprised me, brining over "Jurassic World" to watch. The old man kicked it into high gear - he lugged the VP180 up from the basement, along with the M50's to replace the M3's.
The PC-2000 was swapped out for a pair of EP800's in our room, and I dialed the system in the old fashioned way: A Rad Shack meter and no Audyssey.
As an aside, at 55, I can still easily carry an EP800. Thanks to my son and his weight training regimen he put me on.
During the movie, the kids had a BLAST (they are 22 and 24). They declared the system has never sounded better, and it was the VP180 and the EP800's doing the heavy lifting here.
Velodyne and Axiom use similar thinking in terms of subwoofer performance: Long throw drivers, sealed systems, DSP control (or servo control) and make sure the sub never makes an audibly bad noise while also delivering a linear response.
It works. If you want to listen to a subwoofer and never worry about it failing, bottoming, chuffing .... etc .... looking at the design is far more important than looking at a 0.325 tone burst at Data-Bass.
And guys, this is not a fault of Data-Bass: The info is there, we just need to learn to look at what's important.
If I could change one thing that Josh does there, I would have a 16-80 Hz long term sine wave average. That is THE single most important overall curve - much more telling than 10-40.
Of course, he does have 20-80, and if one looks at it, one will see a lot of consistency between 10-40 and 20-80.