Many thanks to everyone who replied so quickly to my previous post! Sadly, the Adire Rava failed the Interior Decorating Test: It's simply too big to fit in its designated place, behind our corner AV stand. (All of my creative ideas for alternative placement were firmly nixed.) So...what's inexpensive, musical, and smaller? How about the EP125? It's the right size, at least. Does it ever appear in the factory outlet? Any other suggestions?

i have the EP 125 with M22's and a VP150 in the front. it's small and amazing for music. Not as good for home theatre, though, but definitely amazing for music.

A technical follow-up question: Is the EP125 magnetically shielded? If not, how far away from the back of a tube TV must it be placed?

If you want a sub that will fit anywhere check out the little Sunfire sub. It's a 9" square 1500 watts and will blow away subs 5 times its size. It's reportedly ruler-flat to 22Hz and I'd have to agree. It's an incredible sub that will blow your mind when you hear it. It's about $1000 but I couldn't afford it so I bought my Velodyne, bummer. Go check this thing out!

I also own a pair of M22's and my room is a small room(15 x 13 x 10). I bought a Dayton Titanic MKII Vance Dickason Subwoofer. It comes in kit form but It took me only 45 minutes to ensemble it. It uses the Titanic 10" MKII Driver that has superb specifications. It sounds very, very tight and it is perfect for music. It also does a good job with Movies...

yes, it is magnetically shielded to my knowledge

call Joe at the toll free number if you need some very specific info on its mangetic shield.

Kyle will be able to custom make you a sub for a very competitive price.


http://www.acoustic-visions.com/

just ordered the vmps larger sub kit for my michaura m55s(close to the m22s) setting it up for stereo( 2 sets of crossovers)running it passive till i can afford good amps
if you want oomph thats clean and hard this is the sub-
i think tubes are ugly -so no svs
not thrilled with internal amps-bye hsu,adire ,ect
not much left so i went vmps
and i can upgrade to amps and matched crossovers later

For around a thousand bucks, the EP350 was my choice. I would take a second look at that "1500 watt" rating.

My mistake, it isn't 1500 watts, it's 1200 watts. I listened to it at a local dealer along with many other subs for a good while. That tiny little thing blew away their Polk PSW450, their comparable Monitor subs, and a 12" Velodyne servo sub, and this was in a relatively large room (~20'x20'x15'. It's small size helps make it incredibly musical which it is in my opinion. While it won't go as loud as an EP350 it is probably one heck of a match for it in every other aspect(empasis on the "probably" as I haven't heard the EP350, yet). Combining the wife or decorating factor along with sound, nothing comes close.

Does this sub have a tuned port design? I am intrigued by the comment that it has a flat response curve all the way down to 22Hz. Usually there is a design compromise between output and the bass frequency extension. It would be interesting to see how the designer of this sub has dealt with this age old problem.

The Sunfire Junior Sub uses a pair of 8" drivers, one active one passive on opposite sides of the box. Check it out at www.sunfire.com.

At 1200W that thing could power my uncle's cottage. I still wonder about the accuracy of that number.
I've never heard the little beast though but i have heard several people talking about it. I'm not shocked it sounded better than Polk. In my opinion ANYTHING sounds better than Polk (a rare jab at a company on the whole there, don't get me started on Bose...).
As for the EP350, i'm going to throw together my final review on the last of my speakers probably tomorrow sometime, but in preview, if i turn it up too loud, it WILL blow out my basement window i kid you not!

I wouldn't take the time to use one of the Bose paper drivers to wipe my...

Hi chesseroo, prem, guys,

Subwoofer design is really interesting, but there's no free lunch. As a designer, there are ALWAYS trade-offs. So, if you want ultra-deep bass extension, to 22 Hz, you trade off sensitivity (efficiency), and if you want to achieve that in a tiny 9-inches-square box (a la Sunfire) with a very small driver, then you have to design a driver with a huge cone excursion(the linear back and forth movement). Then you must add a giant magnet/voice-coil "motor" assembly to drive the cone, and use an enormous amplifier to power the thing, because you have to pump a lot of air (to get 22-Hz extension) with a small cone.

You also give up maximum SPL, so the little Sunfire, although it's not "flat" to 22 Hz, it does indeed produce remarkable extension to that frequency and, in a modest room, will get the draperies flapping, as it did in the demo I saw in a Las Vegas hotel room at a CES show. And, of course, it's expensive, because of the necessary large amp and the custom-engineered driver. But if you don't need to fill a large room with high-volume ultra-deep bass, and you want something you can hide behind the draperies, then the Sunfire will do it.

Regards,

folks, Alan is right!! cone excursion is a very, very important factor in subwoofer design. For 12"", DIY'ers prefer the Shiva, Dayton DVC and the NHT have been a long classic... Now the cream of the crop are the BluePrint Drivers... The Dayton Titanic MKII Drivers(10"and 12") also have very good specifications. http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=6934716&St=4413&St2=88059427&St3=71946153&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=15171&DID=7 is the address of the kit I own. There you will find even a review of Wes Helms of the subwoofer. You will also find all the complete specification of the subwoofer. the subwoofer is a 1"4.25" cube so is small... and the cost is only $349... now we're talking!

Thanks again to everyone for the input. Your comments, together with some research inspired by them, lead me to the following conclusions: (1) My dream sub, musical, deep, under $400, and with a footprint of a square foot, does not yet exist; but (2) manufacturers are moving in that direction, with enclosures getting smaller and prices falling (a web search turned up the Sunfire Jr. for as low as $649--still out of my price range, but a far cry from $1,000). I have therefore resolved to lie in wait for a bit longer. Who knows--in the meantime, perhaps a certain Loudspeaker Manufacturer That Will Remain Unnamed will introduce something along these lines!

I have a Velodyne CHT10 sub for my main HT system. Now that I've properly set up the Onkyo 797 THX receiver, the bass is terrific. I picked up a second sub for this system, a Klipsch LF10, supposedly goes down to 19Hz.

I almost bought a Sunfire Mark IV True subwoofer, but luckily I read a gaggle of owner reviews warning about quality problems and listened to one at my local high-end audio shop. Very unimpressive for 2700 watts! Not very musical, but rather, a very expensive one note thumper.

My HT system is now complete.

The Onkyo 797 THX receiver is terrific. I have a pair of Axiom built M60 type speakers up front (M665s) and Axiom built M22 type speakers for sides (M55s) and a pair of Mission 77ds bipole speakers for the back surrounds. These are driven by an outboard amp (Denon PMA 500V 85wpc amp) Center channel? My absolute favorite - an Axiom built Merak MC6H horn tweeter 2x6.5" driver anti standing wave cabinet center channel. This speaker has SLAM, clarity and sweet musicality. (paid $9 or $19 at uBid auction about a year ago).

I've set the front and center speakers at LARGE and the rest at SMALL. I currently have the Velodyne CHT10 connected to the 797THX, but am waiting for the Klipsch LF10 which I'll use in the primary position and daisy chain the Velodyne.

This system is way too good for me! May not deserve it, but I sure enjoy it. Axiom built speakers are AWESOME.

Look at the ACI web site, they are suppose to have realy good subs.

Bestboy4