Well, after months & months (and more months) of research, I finally bought and received my first real home theater subwoofer. I did buy a HSU STF-1 for my office a few years ago, but that's strictly for low level music/podcast listening to compliment the low end of my B2030P's in there.
After I got my Denon 4311 back from repairs, I ran my system in 5.0 format for about seven months before finally biting the bullet and getting a sub to compliment the system. I didn't mind not having a sub when I was listening to music, but for movies, it just wasn't cutting it.
So, without further ado, here it is:
Huge box, had to help the UPS guy bring it up the stairs (I live on the 3rd floor). We ended up going end over end, but the box and sub seemed no worse for wear.
Ta-da! Black Maple Seaton Submersive HP
2400 watts of DSP powered goodness!
Here's a couple pics of my Submersive next to my STF-1
And here it is in my overall system before and after:
Some initial impressions/thoughts:
- Whoever invented furniture sliders = genius. Made moving it into place 100,000 times easier (conservative estimate).
- Well thought out packaging. Stryofoam was 2" thick all around and it was boxed upside down, so all you had to do to get it out was to tip it over and pull the box off. It would take a lot of abuse to damage it while packaged up.
- The magnetic grills hold into place quite well.
- The black maple finish looks very smooth and you don't notice the grain until you really put your face down there.
- It shipped out the afternoon of Friday 3/16 and got here on Thursday 3/22.
- I couldn't feel any vibrations when I put my hand on top of it. To be fair, I listen at very modest level, so I'll have to see what happens when I get a LFE heavy blu-ray in there.
Lastly, I should probably go into why I choose to get a Submersive. Initially, when I was first starting to learn about home theater gear, I thought something like dual SVS PB12-NSD's or HSU VTF2 MK3's would be enough, but as I read and researched, I came around on looking more towards sealed subs, not only for the extension benefits of that type of enclosure, but also for the smaller size relative to other types. This would also be a good opportunity to point out that
ALL of you are a terrible influence on my bank account.
It might not be apparent from the pictures, but the wall that my speakers are on is only 126" long before that it hits that angle for that worthless faux fireplace. Not only that, but I have parts of that wall compromised with my equipment rack sticking out, and the left side can partially block the walkway between the living room and kitchen areas if something like a sub sticks out too far. And to make matters even worse, my room is
extremely limited in placement options (the only other halfway realistic one is in the back of the room under my dining room table, and I'm not making that compromise). So, I needed something fairly narrow and compact that would fit on that front wall.
Because of this, wide subs - which a lot of ported ones are - weren't going to work, unless I put my Sierra-1's on top as if they were speaker stands, which I wasn't too keen on as time went on. I did consider doing that for a while with dual HSU VTF-15H's or dual Epik Empires, but after seeing the reviews for those two subs, I was less than impressed with that idea. Thought briefly about SVS cylinder subs as well, but didn't care for the water heater look.
So, the next subs I looked at were duals of the SVS SB13-Plus, Rythmik E15's, or Rythmik F12SE. However, I started crunching the numbers and found that the first two would be roughly as expensive as getting a Submersive. As for the F12SE's, I thought would probably work great in terms of needed output and size, I was concerned that if they weren't enough, I'd just be spending more to upgrade later on. So, when I saw the 7th Anniversary sale at Seaton Sound with $100 flat shipping and no charge for Black Maple finish, I seized on the opportunity. True, I was giving up flatter frequency response in not getting duals, but I only have the couch for a listening spot, so that wasn't a priority for me. Plus, I have a wildcard that could be used at some point for a 2nd sub...
Also, I've read too many threads about people upgrading little by little and spending a lot more at the end and I did not want that to happen. Besides, commercially, it's not like there's a lot of options that would be a significant upgrade, like there would be with say, dual Rythmik F12's. From what I've read, the SVS PB13-Ultra seems like a roughly lateral move, and the only options that might be better are the JTR Captivator, Captivator S, Captivator S2, and Funk Audio 18.0, and all those are the same or more expensive than the $2295 I paid for my Submersive HP (my budget was about $2400 for subs), so I didn't think those options would work.
Now I'm working on calibrating and setting it up with XT32. I had the gain knob set at -12dB initially and it was shaking everything and was causing my 4311 to make me get my sub levels down (was showing up at 86dB on the SW level matching). Had to turn it down to -24dB to get it to be reasonable for my room and to keep my apartment neighbors happy.
Yes, you read that correctly. If I had a minimal amount of common sense (I swear, I do about most things), I would have gotten something more apartment friendly, but I am well aware to keep the levels down to be respectful of others that live around me. Of course, if I ever buy a home, it's on like Donkey Kong, but that's for another day.
At any rate, thanks for reading. Oh, and I know my 32" TV is laughably small, so let's leave that unmentioned. That (or possibly upgrading my center to a Sierra Horizon) is next on my list of gear to buy.
