Emotiva Ultra 12 Subwoofer Review

[admin]

"Subwoofer" - it's like a magic word around here and makes all of us audioholics have little dreams of black boxes that cause our walls to crack, dishes to rattle, and rock our children to sleep... from the other end of the house. Some people think a good subwoofer will go down to 2 Hz, cost $200 and live in a box the size of a small laptop computer. Others go for size, wanting nothing less than a small refrigerator that will smack them around like a rag doll. We prefer a slightly more balanced approach, so when Emotiva announced their affordable Ultra Sub 12, we were intrigued. A 12” high quality driver mounted in a modest sized sealed enclosure with a meaty power amp for under $500 sure sounded like a winner to us. Could their magic black box deliver good bass and punch at an affordable price? Read our review to find out.


Discuss "Emotiva Ultra 12 Subwoofer Review" here. Read the article.

[ski2xblack]

Why am I not surprised that a simple, sealed 12" sub, optimized for dynamics over extension, is such a good performer? Does Emo have some old M&K engineers working for them?

For normal sized rooms, room gain will reduce the uber low freq performance gap between the Emo and the JL. And price for price, four of these bad boys will easily trump a single JL.

[templemaners]

Finally! My jonesin' for a subwoofer review can go away for a day at least.

[ratso]

"With a modern AV receiver this shouldn't be a problem, but if you have a lower-tech integrated amplifier or a true legacy system or audiophile rig, you may need to look into an external crossover."

i have to admit i'm a little confused. i have a 2 channel system and a HT system. using my 2 channel preamp's HT bypass i "share" my main speakers between the two. i am planning on getting a rythmik sub that has the dual inputs so i can input my LFE signal from my HT system and also my line output from my 2 channel preamp into the other (so i will be also sharing the subs). if the sub's crossover is set to 40hz, why would i need an external crossover for full range listening?

i know this site is mostly concerned with HT but maybe a quick article in your setting up you sub series dedicated to integrating a sub with 2 channel systems would be helpful - a lot of us are doing it.

[gajenn]

this sounds like an amazing sub..I was thinking of getting the hsu vtf-15h..but at 1/2 the price im rethinking..

[Matt34]

Did you get a chance to see what you were getting for in-room extension?

[GranteedEV]

Some people think a good subwoofer will go down to 2 Hz, cost $200 and live in a box the size of a small laptop computer.

Get me one of those!!!

[sholling]

I'm a deeeeeeep bass junkie for movies but for music this little guy is fantastic. Super clean detailed bass with lots of authority. 4800cuft seems a bit much for a 12" sealed sub but I'll take the reviewers word for it.

[jliedeka]

It looks a little underdamped but a great value proposition. If I wasn't committed to building a sub, I'd seriously consider this for my bedroom system.

Jim

[openvista]

Thanks, Gene, for the great review. However, I believe the MSRP on Emotiva's site is $599.