Thasp, the lingering bass effect i am referring to was heard on songs like Hollly Cole's "I can see clearly now" which is one of our test recordings. There is a bass viol playing to start then Holly begins to sing. With the EP350, the viol note set 1st hits, ends, 2nd set hits and ends and Holly beings to sing. With the SVS, the viol note set hits and almost rolls into the second viol note set. The second viol note set hits and lingers into the start of Holly's voice. We are talking about a short time frame but the oxymoron of 'fast bass' is actually a reasonable description for the EP350 vs. the SVS. As i said in the review, for those who like a little more bass for their music, this won't be a bother.
Explanation?
Well of course room acoustics have to do with everything, but unlike the situation that TonyM describes, most people do not have acoustic panels and specifically designed rooms to control typical wall resonance that adds to things like bass. However, i am playing these 2 subs in the SAME room and SAME location so room effects are considered equalized in this situation. This means as we've made all other conditions as equal as possible, the observations being made are due to effects from the two different subwoofer brands and their build design.
The lingering bass of the SVS compared to the EP350 has to do with the length of the SVS tube. The notes linger because the tube is so much more long.
Let's take an extreme example.
If we had a 50 foot SVS tube in our listening room and compared it to the EP350, the EP350 would play a bass note, recover and then play another note. Depending on how fast the notes are being played determines how fast the driver should react. Now if the first note played is close to the second note, the relatively long wavelength of a low frequency sound wave travels a short distance in/around the smaller EP350 and then the second note begins. Now in the 50 foot SVS tube, that first note would play and the 50 foot tube would still be vibrating from note #1 (the subs are braced but far from perfect) and air would STILL be exiting the port of the tube 50 feet away long after the second note has been struck. Vibration from the long tube very much makes a difference in how 'much' bass sound comes from the SVS.
The long tube also greatly adds to the extension of the bass notes that the SVS is capable of hitting. Note how SVS makes their lower extension cylinder subs by making them taller in height (longer tube). Bass notes come from moving alot of air and you can do that primarily by using larger drivers, more powerful amps and bigger cabinets.
That is exactly what this SVS does and in comparison to the EP350, that greater air movement means alot more bass energy has to dissipate, hence the lingering bass notes.
Of course as i also mentioned in the review, you can compensate for this by turning down the gain on the SVS and therby creating less bass. However the issue i had then was at 30% or less on the gain, the movie bass was just not good enough for heavy explosions.
There are always trade offs to be made with any speaker design.
