EMP ES1010i Subwoofer Initial Report

[gene]

My Sister-in-Law took advantage of the holiday EMP deals and purchased a full 7.1 system from them including the new ES-1010i subwoofer E55Ti towers, E56CI center, E55WI surrounds and some RBH TK-615 in-celing speakers. I convinced her to get two 1010 subs b/c she is in a large open room and she is Colombian and loves to have LOUD parties with lots of bass.

I spent the last 2 days installing and setting this system up for her (pics coming).

I have to admit, I was concerned that the EMP subs wouldn't have enough bass b/c of their hohum specs but I was sorely mistaken.

One sub was located front left wall and the other was opposite back wall (diagonal configuration). I ran the E55Ti's fullrange in hopes their six 6" woofers would assist in bass response in conjunction with the subs. The whole system is powered by a Yamaha RX-A1010.

Take a look at this in-room measurement. This was taken at the listening position 12 ft away and 1/12th octave smoothed. NO EQ was used! NO YPAO!

That's a +-5dB response from 20Hz to 80Hz in-room at the listening position!

It appears that although these subs aren't flat to 20Hz, they have a shallow enough rolloff to benefit from room gain. The towers themselves were helping to smooth the bass response. No matter where I sat on her couch, the bass was tight with tons of slam and respectable extension. I played Animusic HD and Yes Live at Montremx on Blu-ray.

I plan on taking these subs outdoors to measure them next week and I will write a formal review.

Overall I have to say, I am quite impressed. These subs aren't SVS beaters by any means but man do they play nice with the big EMP towers. The system as a whole sounds excellent, especially in her very reflective room (title floors). The MTM configuration of the towers help to minimize this and all the big furniture she purchased also helps considerably. The EMP system blends seamlessly into her room decor. She actually liked how they looked and didn't freak out at having large speakers in her main family room which also opens to her kitchen and dining room. The Red Burl finish really sealed the deal for her, especially since it blended into her entertainment center.

This is a real room with no acoustic treatments and the end results will satisfy any neophyte and most Audioholics.

What burns me is the blank look on her face when I showed her this graph. She is a medical doctor and reads EKG's all day long, come on Can't you appreciate these wiggles too?!

 

[GranteedEV]

It appears that although these subs aren't flat to 20Hz, they have a shallow enough rolloff to benefit from room gain.

I like this. In fact, although I'm running a sealed sub F3 = ~30hz, and the room is pretty large, because there's no sharp rolloff filters involved, i'm basically flat in-room down to ~15hz. That makes a big difference because I thought these EMP subs were tuned around 35hz and then fell off the face of the earth. Just goes to show you that while F3 is important, anechoic F10 is equally important for bass.

 

[timoteo]

Nice Gene, ive been looking forward to your thoughts & seeing some graphs on this new EMP sub. It sounds like its a nice contender in its class so far from your initial thoughts. Cant wait to see how she measures!!!

Thanks again Gene!

 

[FirstReflection]

Cool! It would certainly be easy to knock down that little hump in the 50-60Hz area with just a single band of EQ. Very impressive for the sort of room that you're describing! I'm sure most of us would look at a room like that and think "uh oh"

I'll certainly be looking forward to the full review. Probably not hitting 110dB output at 20Hz in a quasi-anechoic setting from 2 meters But knowing RBH, I wouldn't be surprised at all if their quoted specs are actually a bit on the conservative side

 

[gene]

Cool! It would certainly be easy to knock down that little hump in the 50-60Hz area with just a single band of EQ. Very impressive for the sort of room that you're describing! I'm sure most of us would look at a room like that and think "uh oh"

I'll certainly be looking forward to the full review. Probably not hitting 110dB output at 20Hz in a quasi-anechoic setting from 2 meters But knowing RBH, I wouldn't be surprised at all if their quoted specs are actually a bit on the conservative side

Yea unfortunately the RX-A1010 manual PEQ doesn't apply to the subwoofer channel so I couldn't do much for that hump. A bump in the 50-60Hz range is actually quite pleasing to listen to so its not necessarily a bad thing. Still, I would have trimmed it 2-3dB if possible.

 

[timoteo]

Oh the A1010 doesnt have a sub PEQ huh? I thought the top 3 "A" line had that. My VTF-15h had a peak in the 30-40hz range that i had to EQ down with my A2000. I wish the 1000 series had that feature for ya. But like you said, it can make for a pleasing experience even if its not flat. Eh...screw flat!!!

 

[shadyJ]

I think EMPtek might be taking a cheap way out in building a sub upgrade to their single 10". The only advantage that I can think of in just throwing in another driver is less distortion per db. As was pointed out to me before, it does half the impedance and so increases the power, but can the amp handle that? Won't that increase the heat? I am certain their are some big drawbacks to that, but I am not electronics expert so someone please enlighten me.

 

[gene]

I think EMPtek might be taking a cheap way out in building a sub upgrade to their single 10". The only advantage that I can think of in just throwing in another driver is less distortion per db. As was pointed out to me before, it does half the impedance and so increases the power, but can the amp handle that? Won't that increase the heat? I am certain their are some big drawbacks to that, but I am not electronics expert so someone please enlighten me.

The amp is designed to drive low impedance loads so its fine. Adding an extra 10" halves the distortion and significantly increases output and extension over the single 10" model. I've heard both subs now and the 1010 is a nice upgrade to the single 10" model.

 

[agarwalro]

Gene, this is from your multiple sub article. I was wondering, if someone has good full range speakers like the RBH T30s or Salk Soundscapes, being run full range, should the subs be placed in the front corner or the rear wall? (The reasoning being that the speaker woofers mage up 2 of the 4 subwoofers in the config.)

 

[gene]

Gene, this is from your multiple sub article. I was wondering, if someone has good full range speakers like the RBH T30s or Salk Soundscapes, being run full range, should the subs be placed in the front corner or the rear wall? (The reasoning being that the speaker woofers mage up 2 of the 4 subwoofers in the config.)

If you are running the main front speakers biamped where the sub portions are connected to the sub out of the processor, then I would try placing the additional two subs on the back wall locations similar to the mains (1/4W).

 

[keagy]

I made a similar purchase to your sister-in-law during the holiday EMP sale except the special package included only one 1010i subwoofer. I have a similar open room layout except hardwood floors rather than titles and a Denon 3311 rather than the Yamaha. I have the single subwoofer in the back corner. I agree the system sounds fantastic with lots of bass. I set the cross overs on the E55Ti's and E56Ci at 80Hz. Do you think I should lower the cross overs to 40Hz to assist in bass response especially since I have just one subwoofer?

Also, I have the front speakers much closer to the wall than the recommended 15 inch spacing. Do you think this may be a reason to keep the cross overs set up at 80Hz on the front speakers? Does the spacing from the wall really only matters if you have a lot coming from the front speakers below 80Hz?

 

[gene]

I made a similar purchase to your sister-in-law during the holiday EMP sale except the special package included only one 1010i subwoofer. I have a similar open room layout except hardwood floors rather than titles and a Denon 3311 rather than the Yamaha. I have the single subwoofer in the back corner. I agree the system sounds fantastic with lots of bass. I set the cross overs on the E55Ti's and E56Ci at 80Hz. Do you think I should lower the cross overs to 40Hz to assist in bass response especially since I have just one subwoofer?

Also, I have the front speakers much closer to the wall than the recommended 15 inch spacing. Do you think this may be a reason to keep the cross overs set up at 80Hz on the front speakers? Does the spacing from the wall really only matters if you have a lot coming from the front speakers below 80Hz?

I highly recommend setting the E55ti main channels to large and keep the crossover on your receiver to 80Hz with all other speakers set small. The E55's do well running fullrange with a nice natural rolloff below 60Hz.

I suspect you will get better bass response overall with the mains large and running on conjunction with the sub.

PS: My sister-in-laws speakers are located much closer than 15 inches from the back wall and they still work fine as you can see in my measurement.

 

[GranteedEV]

I highly recommend setting the E55ti main channels to large and keep the crossover on your receiver to 80Hz with all other speakers set small. The E55's do well running fullrange with a nice natural rolloff below 60Hz.

I suspect you will get better bass response overall with the mains large and running on conjunction with the sub.

This has been my experience too, although i've got my sub running all the way up to 120hz without a hint of localization. It took a lot of measuring, settings changing, and moving to come to these final settings.

 

[keagy]

I highly recommend setting the E55ti main channels to large and keep the crossover on your receiver to 80Hz with all other speakers set small. The E55's do well running fullrange with a nice natural rolloff below 60Hz.

I suspect you will get better bass response overall with the mains large and running on conjunction with the sub.

PS: My sister-in-laws speakers are located much closer than 15 inches from the back wall and they still work fine as you can see in my measurement.

Great, I now know what you meant by running the E55ti's full range. Any benefit to also setting the E56ci center as "large" since it has has two woofers?

 

[raynist]

Any update on these subs?

Thanks
Ray

 

[gene]

Any update on these subs?

Thanks
Ray

My review sample accidentally had a 4 ohm driver in it meant for the single 10" model so my measurements were off below 40Hz. EMP just sent me a new driver to retest but now my damn laptop died and my new laptop runs Windows 7 which doesn't work with my serial adapter for my test gear. ARGG! I should have this worked out in a week to retest.

Also, per my request of constantly bugging them, they've extended the port tuning on all new product shipping which gives about a +2dB output advantage below 35Hz. This won't be in my review unit but I will show the graphical comparison.

Also they have dropped the price to $499 which certainly increases its value rating.

 

[gene]

Great, I now know what you meant by running the E55ti's full range. Any benefit to also setting the E56ci center as "large" since it has has two woofers?

Not really. I'd run it as small regardless. The mains should be run large b/c they have such a nice gentle roll off to mate with the subs.

 

[raynist]

My review sample accidentally had a 4 ohm driver in it meant for the single 10" model so my measurements were off below 40Hz. EMP just sent me a new driver to retest but now my damn laptop died and my new laptop runs Windows 7 which doesn't work with my serial adapter for my test gear. ARGG! I should have this worked out in a week to retest.

Also, per my request of constantly bugging them, they've extended the port tuning on all new product shipping which gives about a +2dB output advantage below 35Hz. This won't be in my review unit but I will show the graphical comparison.

Also they have dropped the price to $499 which certainly increases its value rating.

Thanks for the update. How did you know it had the wrong driver?

 

[gene]

Thanks for the update. How did you know it had the wrong driver?

When I sent the measurements to EMP, they noted the results were a bit off below 40Hz. I then took the drivers out to take internal pics for the review and saw one of them was labeled 4 ohms.

 

[Crackerballer]

Gene, do you feel this is the best subwoofer in the "sub $500" range (see what I did there)?

There are a few variants of HSUs to be had at that price as well as a few others.