Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater EP350 Opinions

I’m in the market for a new subwoofer. Although I love my other Axiom speakers, I initially dismissed the idea getting an Axiom sub. Well, I’ve spent the last two weeks researching subs, and after driving myself crazy with wattage ratings and frequency responses, I've ended up back at Axiom.

I’ve narrowed it down to:

Hsu VTF-2 MK 3

Axiom EP350

The specs are pretty similar. I like that the Axiom is a bit smaller, but it is $250 more than the Hsu. So, I’m looking for opinions that’ll tip me one way or the other.

Thanks.

I think you are going to have to make the purchases and decide for yourself, they are both good subs and have a slightly different sound. The Axiom will blend with your system like no other sub and it has a nice punch to it, not heavy and should be a perfect match aesthetically to the rest of the system.

I haven't heard the Hsu you are looking at, but the STF3 I have heard had more impact/punch than the 350, IMO(just going from memory, no side by side comparisons), which to me is better for HT. The STF3 was good with music but I had a hard time getting it to blend smoothly with my Axioms, but that could have just been positioning of the sub.

Personally, if it was I who had to chose between these two subs, I would go Axiom.

Also, if you want all your subs to have the same finish, you might want to go the Axiom route, however, that may not be important.

Gotta say that I love my EP350v3, although I haven't heard the VTF-2.

That concerns me. My HT is primarily for film, so I definitely want the best movie experience.

Another concern that I forgot to mention was that I have limited placement. The arrows on the below graphic indicate where the sub could go.



I'm hoping the EP350 can work for me under these conditions.

The 350 will work great, the punch that it has is just a different feel than the Hsu, don't worry.

Don't forget to add shipping costs to the HSU when you compare.

On paper, many other subs go lower than the EP350 (18Hz at -9db dosn't count). I am surprised that that has not shown up in any of the listening comparisons. One would think that would have an audable impact, particularly for HT.

So how low does the EP350 actually go? The Hsu does look to go down to 18Hz.

I found the lower notes are really only noticeable when A/B comparing otherwise anything around 20hz works just fine.

What does "18Hz at -9db dosn't count" mean, though?

What concerns me is that, if you look at the "waterfall" charts over on AVS, some DVDs/BDs go down to 8Hz. If the Hsu can actually push that lower than the Axiom, perhaps the Hsu would be more suited to my needs.