What I mean is that if you have two different subs level matched, playing within their limits in the room, with very similar flat frequency response curves (from say 20Hz to 80Hz), is one sub going to have more of an impact (thump you in the chest bass in action movies) than the other?
Nope.
So if you locate the best place in a small room (say 12 ft by 17 ft with 8 ft ceilings) for the EP800 and level match it with the rest of the speakers. Place an EP400 on top of the EP800 and level match it to the rest of the speakers. Have an external EQ, trim the bass of the EP800 below 20Hz, so that it has the same frequency response as the EP400. Then you will not notice the difference (in terms of the amount of tactile bass and impact of it) between the two if you A/B them on heavy bass scenes, like chapter 4 of Master and Commander, or the the bridge of khazad dum in the Fellowship of the Rings, for example?
In my case, I have both types in my system(FOUR total) and either works for any type of sound coming through it equally well. With a multiple sub arrangement especially, as long as they are relatively close in power capabilities and frequency range along with being phased and balanced properly, it won't really matter what type of sub it might be. Room interaction will have a much greater affect on what you are hearing and getting it right than the design characteristics.
What subs do you have that are sealed and ported? You have two of each design integrated at the same time in the same room? Are you saying that you have done an A/B comparison of both of the sealed and ported subs in your room and didn't really notice a difference?
Again, this question came to me when looking at the Rythmik line of subwoofers. They have a 15" sub in either a sealed or ported design with what seems like the same driver and amp and just about the same price. The ported design has a slightly larger cabinet. For a few hundred dollars more they have a sealed sub using two of those same drivers (at least they seem to be from as far as I can tell) the same amp and obviously a larger cabinet to fit the two drivers. So for almost the same money you can have three very different subwoofers, in terms of the design. I'm just confused as to what the difference would be between these. The only obvious difference that I can see is that the one with two drivers is probably more capable in a larger room, due to the amount of air that it can move in comparison with the other two.
Axiom has a slightly similar offering. The EP600 and EP800 are nearly the same size cabinet. The 600 has one 12" driver and is ported. The 800 has two drivers and is sealed. The frequency response curves look very similar (the 800 playing slightly lower), so do they sound identical with those same from 20Hz to 80Hz, if they are playing within their limits?
