Mad Chesser - The reviews on subwoofers would never be permitted with full range speakers.

For example, if all we cared about was MAX SPL for the $$$$ with a speaker, buy a pair of dual 15 inch towers from Cerwin Vega, add a 2000 watt pro amp, and you have state of the art sound, right?

These sub reviews have no listening tests. All they do is measure the max output and report on it. I stopped reading these reviews two years ago, because these guys obsess over 1 dB at 20 Hz.

The two year long subwoofer testing I did with a panel of listeners starting 11 years ago and ending 9 years ago involved hours of blind listening. AFTER the listening, the measurements were taken.

No listening tests are done today, or there are these subwoofer "GTG" parties in which the two favorite "subwoofer guru / company owners" of the guys throwing the party are invited to set up the subwoofers. Amazingly, their subs win each time.

Of the subwoofers you listed, the only one that is "American Made" is the Powersound Audio. It's a good sub, but with a really low WAF rating.

The EP500 is a nice blend of output and refinement. It will shake your floor. It will sound like music. And NOTHING you can do will ever make it overload or distort. That is something that few subs can offer.

Axiom products are for adults. Their subs won't win an SPL contest. What they will do is deliver clean, undistorted bass in a real room. You will never have a moment in a movie where the subwoofer interferes with the performance by "farting" a loud port noise, or bottoming the driver.