Rythmik F15HP B-stock for $1040

[KEW]

Rythmik almost never has B-stock, but they do today, so I figured I'd post it in case someone wanted to save a few bucks with some cosmetic damage.
I would call them and ask how big the dent is. It might be something that you have to look for in the black finish.

Rythmik Audio • Subwoofer plate amplifiers

Description: One F15HP black oak with dent on upper left rear corner
B-stock F15HP black oak grain finish with H600PEQ3 amplifier and black cone driver
15% off $1040

 

[slipperybidness]

Rythmik almost never has B-stock, but they do today, so I figured I'd post it in case someone wanted to save a few bucks with some cosmetic damage.
I would call them and ask how big the dent is. It might be something that you have to look for in the black finish.

Rythmik Audio • Subwoofer plate amplifiers

Very tempting. How do you think this compares to the SVS PB12-NSD?

Is it worth the extra $250-300 over the SVS?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Very tempting. How do you think this compares to the SVS PB12-NSD?

Is it worth the extra $250-300 over the SVS?

it's doesn't compare to SVS PB12-NSD, it's on same level as SB13-Ultra (or better)
only Dual-SB12-NSD come close

 

[KEW]

Very tempting. How do you think this compares to the SVS PB12-NSD?

Is it worth the extra $250-300 over the SVS?

Easily, IMHO. It offers incredible performance from a 20" box.

Frequency Response (Anechoic) 14 Hz - 90 Hz (-2dB @ 14 Hz)
Woofer 15" high excursion with custom sensing coil
Woofer Material Black anodized aluminium with rubber surround, Cast aluminium basket, Copper flux modulation shorting rings
Amplifier 600w RMS class H servo controlled
Dimensions W x H x D 19" x 19" x 20" - (21-1/2" D with grille)
Shipping Weight 108 lbs each
Crossover Slope Selectable 12 or 24 dB / octave
Crossover Range (Low Pass) Continuously variable 25 - 100 Hz
Rumble Filter (High Pass) 20 Hz 18 dB / octave
Phase Response 90 degrees phase shift at 20 Hz
Phase Adjustment 0 - 180 degrees continuously variable
Bass Damping Factor Settings High (Q=0.5), med (Q=0.7), and low (Q=1.1)
Finish Black Oak, Piano Black (SE)
Warranty 5 years on woofer / 2 years on electronics
30-day satisfaction guarantee

Shipping is not included (flat $108 rate, unless you can pick it up - Texas).

 

[slipperybidness]

So. Rythmik is based in Austin?

I think you made my day.

 

[jcl]

The website lists a new office on Burnet Rd, between 183 and Braker ln across from the Pickle research campus.

It would be nice to save on shipping. I wonder if they have a listening room there?

 

[slipperybidness]

Thanks KEW! Just Met Brian with Rythmic!

Thanks KEW, for posting the B stock notice and for mentioning that they are in TX!

I had been eyeballing subwoofers for several months and thought I was just about settled on the PB-12NSD. I had interest in the F15HP (and the HSU ULS15) but just couldn't come up with a good reason to spend that much on a sub.

Well, I just spent my lunch break over at Rythmic and met the man with the plan Brian. Brian is the owner, designer, and engineer. Turns out he is an acoustic and electrical engineer out of USC and seems to be doing what he loves to do. I saw the basket for the 15 driver sans cone, and it is a beast! He also showed me one of the plate amps, big ol panasonic caps and a HUGE torroidial supply (he told me the brand but I seem to have forgotten it). Wow these guys are a small operation, but that's part of the low overhead and keeping the price down to the end consumer.

He spoke briefly about his main competition (SVS and HSU, surprise surprise), and in particular mentioned the SVS SB12-NSD. He said that is where SVS has the advantage on him right now, from a product lineup and price perspective. He did indicate that he has something in the works that would be more of a direct competitor for that model, but no mention of when it would be released.

Well, it may be an ID company for all you other AH'ers, but it is local for me. Literally 15 minutes from my job. Avoid shipping and knowing that I have the manufacturer local if I ever need any work done on it was a big contributor to my decision.

I got to see the damage to this unit first-hand, and it is indeed very minor. I doubt I will be able to see it from my seated position with the lights on, much less with them off. For the minor defect, I will never know the difference (except my wallet will know the difference ), and you never know when I might ding it up myself, moving something that big and heavy. And, never underestimate the power of $cash I was able to negotiate something that I just could not pass up. The only bad part, I am in my car today and there is no way it was going in there. I have to go meet him tomorrow with my truck to bring this baby home.

 

[Adam]

Congratulations!

 

[slipperybidness]

One more thing to add. Those patented Rythmic servo amps....Brian conceived and designed those concepts himself. Quite impressive.

 

[jcl]

Congratulations on the sub! I notice there's two in the clearance section now, one in black oak, the other piano black. Which was it that you went with?

We're remodeling and my wife has said already that one of my current subs has to go. Which means of course I'll have to get a single much more powerful one.

 

[slipperybidness]

Congratulations on the sub! I notice there's two in the clearance section now, one in black oak, the other piano black. Which was it that you went with?

We're remodeling and my wife has said already that one of my current subs has to go. Which means of course I'll have to get a single much more powerful one.

Aha, 2 B stocks, rare for those guys. I picked up the black oak, only one listed on the sight until maybe a couple hrs ago.

Funny thing, I have been keeping my eye open for a B stock PB12-NSD and haven't seen one come up for about a week or so. When I get back from Rythmik today, I check SVS and one has posted. A day earlier and I would have missed out on the Rythmik.

One of the deciding factors is that they are local, so no shipping BS on a 100+lbs sub if I ever need repair.

To answer a previous question of yours, no they don't have a place to listen at the shop. It is just a shop and storage space in an industrial park in not-the-nicest part of town.

As for my girlfriend, I told her she could take some of the money I saved to get her hair did That's one way to keep the peace when I bring home a new toy.

 

[KEW]

Thanks KEW, for posting the B stock notice and for mentioning that they are in TX!

Excellent! I may be wrong, but I think if you watch that sub do it's thing you can actually see the extra control of the driver compared to a typical sub. Tell us about it - and correct me if I'm wrong on that count. I was watching a YouTube vid and it may be the effect of the frame rate, but it seemed like the rythmik would freeze quicker after a sound was finished.

He spoke briefly about his main competition (SVS and HSU, surprise surprise), and in particular mentioned the SVS SB12-NSD. He said that is where SVS has the advantage on him right now, from a product lineup and price perspective.

Can you be more specific? Is he saying the SB12-NSD competes with his subs, or that he doesn't have a product in that price bracket and his FV12 ported subs aren't as good for music?

I have to go meet him tomorrow with my truck to bring this baby home.

Would you mind printing out and handing my order info to him - PM to be sent.
I've been missing him on the phone for two days now!

 

[Steve81]

Congrats! Gotta love b-stock, refurbs, etc. I know in my house with a one year old present, anything I get new isn't going to stay that way long, so I might as well save a buck or two for now.

 

[Steve81]

Excellent! I may be wrong, but I think if you watch that sub do it's thing you can actually see the extra control of the driver compared to a typical sub.

If I might offer an opinion, it probably depends on what the "typical" sub is and which Rythmik you're putting up against it, though this introduces other variables into the equation. I mean, you'd expect an F15HP to have better driver control than a $100 Polk from Best Buy. Judging by the impulse response and waterfall plot though, a non-servo sub can definitely hold its own.

Chase HT V18.1
Data-Bass

versus the Rythmik FV15HP
Data-Bass

Of course, I've had some conversations with Brian, and what he pointed to to help differentiate his product was how it deals with thermal compression, which you can see in the power compression sweep when Ricci runs the follow up 90dB sweep. Both of the above subs perform very well in this regard, but to really see what he's talking about, you could look at something like this:

Data-Bass

 

[KEW]

I wonder if the Rythmik tightens up as much going to a sealed design as the SVS ultra does when its ports are plugged? The waterfall charts for teh SVS PB13 Ultra don't look like they could be from the same sub!

Thanks for the link!

 

[Steve81]

I wonder if the Rythmik tightens up as much going to a sealed design as the SVS ultra does when its ports are plugged? The waterfall charts for teh SVS PB13 Ultra don't look like they could be from the same sub!

I can only hope Ricci does get his hands on the F15HP. I think the database (databass??) he's building is a godsend... Also waiting on the SB13 since from the chatter I've heard it's supposed to be strong in this regard.

With respect to the PB13, as I've mentioned on the sealed vs ported thread, I've been testing out the audible differences between sealed and ported in my system with my PB13, and I've not had an "aha moment" just yet (I don't really expect one for a couple of reasons: a. the 15Hz tune's waterfall is pretty clean down to about 20Hz. b. I'm not sure the bass line to "Under Pressure" is necessarily the ideal material to test with ). Still, I think it's a nifty option; if someone wants a ported beast of a sub, you've got it. With the turn of a dial and a couple of port plugs, you've got a verifiably high performance sealed sub as well. Not a half bad deal.

Thanks for the link!

As always, glad to be of some use!

 

[sholling]

Very tempting. How do you think this compares to the SVS PB12-NSD?

Is it worth the extra $250-300 over the SVS?

I haven't heard it but an F15HP is a sealed subwoofer so it's going to act like a sealed sub meaning that it's going to have a natural 35-40hz roll-off that will depend on equalization and raw power to flog into a flat frequency response. I don't know but suspect that it's going to have about the same output level as the PB12-NSD but that's just an educated guess based on my Hsu ULS-15.

 

[slipperybidness]

Can you be more specific? Is he saying the SB12-NSD competes with his subs, or that he doesn't have a product in that price bracket and his FV12 ported subs aren't as good for music?

I think it was more of him saying that he's not doing what they are doing for the price on that entry level sub. They're able to undercut him on the price and he's working on something to try to compete directly with the SB12-NSD, just trying to expand his market to stay competitive.

 

[slipperybidness]

I went to pick up my new sub this afternoon. Good thing I'm (relatively) young and a big guy, I had to wrestle the beast inside and into position solo. The "defect" that made this thing B stock is just about a joke. He called it a dent, but it looks more like about a 1/2 ripple in the vinyl wrap at the upper back corner. Just enough to make him feel bad about passing it off as A stock, but you can barely see it when you're right on top of it, much less at the seating position

I hooked it up, started out with Brian's recommended settings and checked out a few tracks and movie scenes. After maybe 15 minutes, I did some minor adjusting. I do believe that he recommends the safest settings to start with (rumble filters on, limiter on, no PEQ). I understand why you would probably want to start there, but I think some of these settings do most likely handicap this sub to keep it safe.

So, I went through some of my normal test scenes. Alice in Wonderland, Adventures of Tin Tin, Titan AE. I will say that Titan AE was freaking amazing. No doubt that this thing can do some heavy lifting.

Initial impressions: Bass is tight and accurate. The cone excursion in general was not nearly what I was expecting, but I've never had a 15" before. It actually meshed pretty good with my Triton 2s pretty well straight out of the box. It's certainly impressive, but I'm sure I've got several hours of tweaking with it to get the most out of it.

 

[KEW]

I haven't heard it but an F15HP is a sealed subwoofer so it's going to act like a sealed sub meaning that it's going to have a natural 35-40hz roll-off that will depend on equalization and raw power to flog into a flat frequency response. I don't know but suspect that it's going to have about the same output level as the PB12-NSD but that's just an educated guess based on my Hsu ULS-15.

This is a different animal - I think you have to figure the effect of the servo!
Below is the chart for the 12" sealed with a 350W PMS Amp.
Rythmik specs it as -2dB at 14Hz! Based on the Ilkka's 95dB curve it looks like it is 4-5dB down at 14Hz. Either way, this is not a typical sealed subwoofer!
I don't know how much better 15" with their high power option - 600Watts RMS with 4x63V/18000uF (Panasonic) caps - would be at greater SPL before compression.