Gtg
Had a little get together over at the house to break-in the HT. As you can see from the picture, we were fortunate no glasswear was broken with all the LFE output that day. My comments are below:
As a disclaimer, I am new to this hobby and I’m sure many mistakes were made in the setup of the subs. I wanted to keep this an informal gathering and any impressions drawn should be taken in that spirit.
It was a mix of audio enthusiasts from several of the forums I visit and all are good and knowledgeable guys who are into HT and audio. I don’t have any friends who are “into audio” so it was nice to be able to actually meet and spend some time with guys who share my interest in this hobby. By coincidence, all save me own SVS subs.
My interest was in hearing the PB13’s as compared to the Fathoms in my newly created and heavily treated HT room. We decided to stack the subs (little ones on top) to simplify the setup and to give both sub pairs essentially the same room to work with. All were connected to my SMS-1. The Ultras were daisy chained; the Fathoms were in my usual master/slave config. I used the SMS-1 to auto EQ the Ultra pair (Setup 3 on the SMS-1) and for simplicity sake, that EQ setting was used for both subs during our listening tests. The Fathoms were running with ARO active for most of the demos. I’m not sure about the Ultras settings other than the SMS-1 auto EQ. I believe it was in the 15Hz tune all ports open (correct me if I’m wrong here Keith), then we switched to sealed.
As Keith mentioned, both subs seemed to be running hot. The Fathoms had been level matched to my speakers by using the Avia disk. I checked this after the session and the Fathoms were still within 2 db of my mains using the Avia test tones. In hind sight, I should have used Avia to check the levels on the Ultras as well. I do not know where the gain was set on the Ultra.
HT:
Keith put together a fantastic set of demo DVD’s but we concentrated on one in particular that included the usual suspects WOTW, Transformers, Pulse and my favorite, a PIXAR animated short called “Lifted”. The Ultra was first up and it didn’t take long for me to realize that is a very serious subwoofer. It produced the lowest frequencies at levels I had not previously experienced with the Fathoms. The bass was over the top and the visceral impact had me laughing at what the neighbors must be thinking (I didn’t give them a heads-up). As with my Fathoms, the Ultra has so much output capability that you can dial it back to a comfortable listening level and still feel extraordinary levels of bass. That however is not what we did. This was a “pedal to the metal” sub torture session so I let the LFE fly and fly it did … until we got to Pulse. This bad movie needs a disclaimer printed on the cover for poor unsuspecting bass freaks. Neither of these subs (nor I suspect any commercial sub) can handle that films LFE at any where near reference level. I will never believe anyone who says that they can. The Ultra gave a valiant effort but in the process produced noises that were not included on the sound track. The Fathoms being more aware of their limitations were slightly less rude sounding but still not enjoyable to listen to on the computer room pulse scene. IMHO, stupid movie, stupid audio track and one that should be left for the IB’ers to enjoy in all it’s heart pounding glory.
On to better things, WOTW Ch 5 for the 500th time was still a lot of fun. My 2nd floor room has a 22’ I-beam span that allows the floor to shake pretty good and this scene, it shook plenty. In a room like mine with subs like this, Butt Kickers in any flavor are unnecessary. Again, the Ultra seemed to produce more bass overall but the Fathoms seemed a bit more (for lack of a better word) intense on this one. Same with T3 chase scene when the large crane truck does an end over ender produced incredible levels of intense bass from both subs. I had an SPL meter handy and with all four running it was showing 120db peaks at LP (and this is with my Emotiva DMC-1 running at -20).
Music:
To be fair, neither of the subs was properly setup for musical enjoyment. In trying to determine some music that would please all I failed miserably and the choices and poor setup I’m sure influenced impressions. For me, I prefer the Fathoms tighter more controlled bass for music. The Ultras in sealed mode and wide open (20Hz tune I think) did much better than I thought they would. On my reference bass tester track (Mino Cinelu, Track 2 Moun Madinina) the Ultra produced the very lowest bass notes as well as any sub I have owned. Fast and accurate are good adjectives to apply to the Ultra.
Conclusion:
Bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with either of these subs. I prefer the size and build quality of the Fathoms but this comes at a price. The Ultras are big subwoofers but have nice wood grain or PB finishes and if you can work them into your room without getting a divorce, I say go for it. Generally speaking women plus big subs/bass don’t mix. I’m lucky in this regard as SO likes big movies with lots of bass. I’m sure she would be perfectly content if it was the Ultras instead of the Fathoms pounding out the LFE in our HT. For me, I’m happy with my little sealed subs. The call of IB may be the only thing that changes that. Time will tell.
