Sorry for the short blurb. Last night I thought it was funny....
Although- it does sum up my feelings on this sub. It is replacing a ridiculously over-performing the Speaker Company ASW-8, a ported 8-incher that as far as I can tell was a rebadged Energy ESW-8. That little guy had no right to perform as well as it did for $97, no shipping no tax back in June of '09.
Anyway, I'm not a cheap person per se, but I am obsessed with finding the smallest, most efficient gear that will suit my needs without unnecessary cost or features. I will also wait a few years to buy gear at a discount when the new stuff gets released (like the Marantz SR7002 I bought new for $500, no shipping, no tax a couple months ago). This has served me well as far as engaging in multiple hobbies and interests.
I've been wanting to try Emotiva for a while, but I haven't had anything that I needed or wanted from them. At the same time, my weakest link in my system has been my sub. The ASW-8 was always just a quick fix, since my Ohm MWT's are only good to about 47 Hz. I just needed something to round-out the octave for a while.
I thought the AH review of the Ultra-12 was pretty impressive. My personal favorite so far, based on spec and reviews has been the Rythmik F-12, but my conditions now and for the foreseeable future simply do not require a sub capable of 18Hz output. I live on base, and you can hear my cat sneeze outside. It’s a 3-story monstrosity of a house- and I can still hear the cat 2 stories below me. Overkill just isn’t a good thing, especially since we move every 2 years or so.
What sealed the deal for me was reading criticism of the sealed design with a steep roll-off somewhere below 30 Hz. Perfect! The Ultra-10 is relatively inexpensive without being cheap, it’s small, and it’s a chance to give Emotiva a shot. Additionally, it seems largely disregarded, disrespected and dismissed by a lot of people on the forums I frequent- so even better!
Set-up was quick and efficient. Crossover on the SR7002 set @ 60 Hz, Audyssey engaged, sub to the left of my left speaker. Sub volume @ 10:00, filter on bypass, phase at zero.
First blu-ray disc was selected scenes from
Hellboy, and whomp! I’m jolted out of my couch. Folks, this is an open floor plan house. The living room is basically 30’ by 20’ with an open kitchen and open entry way and 10’ ceiling. Conservatively, this is about a 1000 sq ft floor. And this sub WHOMPED, without distortion, fluttering, blubbering or anything else I would expect.
Next disc was music: 2 channel LPCM mix of Porcupine Tree’s Deadwing. I could not tell the sub was on, until I turned it off. Smooth, articulate and present without drawing attention to itself. That’s all I can ask from a sub.
So yeah- HOLY CRAP! It is amazing to me how well this sub has integrated into my system without even having a chance to tweak it. Can I get a better sub? Anyone reading this knows I can, and so do I. But for the price, size, efficiency and performance, I’m not feeling in any big hurry to step up any time soon.
At any rate, this is my longest post ever. I need to take the Ultra 10 out for another test-drive, and I think a spin of Gordian Knots’
Emergent is in order…
