Introduction There’s nothing more satisfying while watching a movie or listening to music than deep, bone-shaking bass. While surround sound in the home has given us a magical experience of movie-watching in our living rooms or home theaters, a lot of home set-ups tend to ignore the lower frequencies, the argument being that as long as it booms and fits in the living space, what more could be achieved? Then came alternatives. High-performance mini-cube subwoofers garnered acclaim by producing a better sound than the subwoofers that come in pre-packaged systems and it didn’t intrude on the décor. People were amazed at what these diminutive cubes could produce, with their long excursion drivers and high-powered amplification. Seemingly, the quest for a home friendly subwoofer had ended. But as impressive as the performance of the space-saving miracles are, they don’t generate the sound pressure levels and true lower frequencies that their bigger cousins produce. In order to get ...

Introduction Paradigm Electronics Inc. has established a well-deserved reputation in the subwoofer market, particularly with their impressive and affordable Reference Servo-1. I have spent considerable time integrating and listening to numerous Servo-15s in a variety of systems and rooms over the last few years, and can verify that the Paradigm woofers are a real player in the field. However, Paradigm did not offer an option for those space or décor-challenged customers who desired a diminutive but powerful bona fide subwoofer. After four years of intensive research and development, Paradigm has answered this demand with their recently released entries into the ultra-small powered subwoofer arena, the Reference Seismic 10 and Reference Seismic 12. It was with a considerable amount of anticipation and high expectations that I received Paradigm’s larger model, the Reference Seismic 12 subwoofer ($1,699) a few months ago. Description Subwoofers are often the hardest things to justify to the significant other of a home theater buff. The large, ...

Introduction The Revel Sub 30 is the latest addition to Revel’s Ultima line of premium loudspeakers. Building on lessons learned with the groundbreaking Revel B15 subwoofer in the Performa line, the Sub 30 comes to the AV market in a whole new class in terms of both performance and aesthetics. Gone are the boring black box lines of a traditional subwoofer. The Revel Sub 30 rounds out the lines with the kind of industrial design that you might expect more from Apple than Harman; however, anyone who has seen the new Harman-Kardon receivers might say the U.S. electronics manufacturer has turned a new page in terms of their products’ physical appearance. The price for the Revel Sub 30 starts at $5,990 for a standard finish. It can also be ordered with aluminum side panels for a $500 premium. The speaker complement includes a 15-inch driver and a secondary 15-inch dual-layer metal dome acoustic radiator. The ...

Introduction The advent of home theater systems and, to some extent, the increased popularity of small monitor loudspeakers has resulted in a boom in manufacturers offering wide varieties of subwoofers. Until recently, only a relative handful of manufacturers produced true subwoofers, and even fewer offered truly high quality. Velodyne has been a constant force in this arena, continually producing some of the most revered subwoofers on the market at any given time. Their recent HGS series of relatively diminutive subwoofers is no exception, generally considered among the cream of the crop despite fierce competition. The HGS series offered high output SPL capability as well as exceptionally low distortion, especially when compared to most of its competitors. So it was a challenge for Velodyne to achieve a substantial step up in performance from this series. The challenge was answered by the new Digital Drive series, offering lower distortion via their trademark servo control, and increased volume capability, ...

Introduction Reviewers at AudioRevolution.com literally fight over who gets the next Linn product for evaluation. The reason is simple: they manufacture ultra-high-quality, cutting-edge A/V components at the very top of the industry’s price scale. Linn Products is located on the serene outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland, where they develop, design and, even to this day, manufacture virtually all of their products in-house. Linn feels that this is the only reliable way to control the quality of the finished goods and ensure that their customers receive the very highest-level ownership experience possible. It all started some 30-odd years back when, in the vision of their founder, the LP12 record playback system was born. This was during a time when few knew or had the vision to see the benefit in perfecting the source component. Previously, manufacturers focused on other areas that they felt were more influential to good sound, like amps and preamps. We all know our ...