RBH Sound 21" Monster 4kwatt Sub First to Meet our Maximus Bassaholic Rating!

[Movie2099]

Gene, I will take 2-RBH 21" subs. Please and Thank you.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Also, how am I gonna get you off BMW to Lexus and Shane from Rolex to Grand Seiko? Lol. First world problems!

Is there a correlation between the RBH and cars/watches?

I like RBH towers of power, Lexus LX, and Citizen Eco-Drive watches.

 

[Bobby Bass]

Is there a correlation between the RBH and cars/watches?

I like RBH towers of power, Lexus LX, and Citizen Eco-Drive watches.

Lol the ultimate upgrade. Get the speakers, car and watch of your dreams for one high, high price.

 

[Nondemo01]

I had a Lexus IS350F before I got my M240i. While I love the comfort of the Lexus, the BMW just drives so much sportier. I also just got an X5 for the family SUV and I prefer how it rides compared to the Lexus RX350. I don't see another Lexus in my near future.

My problem is my "mid life crisis" wants a $75K 4x4 truck. The "you're almost 50" guy wants luxury and convenience... What to do... Side note, did you get to hear the Perlisten new line of subs? I need a living room friendly sub to mate with the S7ts. (Augment, not replace what I will get with the S7t.) Are you still using the JL in-wall subs? I was thinking that but like the flexibility of the standalone. And.... I need a new snare drum.....

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Lol the ultimate upgrade. Get the speakers, car and watch of your dreams for one high, high price.

Well, I think the goal is to have exactly what we want - be 100% happy with our decisions without any kind of guilt/regrets later.

Perhaps subconsciously we love the things we love to balance our pleasure-vs guilt scale.

Do I like BMW, Mercedes, Range Rover, etc.? Yes I do, but they are historically unreliable. Consumer Reports, JD Powers, etc. say that BMW, Mercedes, Range Rover have among the worst reliability history. So I fear the possibility of regrets if my vehicles are as unreliable as they say. For example, I loved my Jeep Commander Limited 4x4, but after 80K miles it started falling apart (engine died on road). Total regret. I want a Range Rover, BMW, or Mercedes, but fear it will die on the road.

When it comes to home theater, I fear that if I spend too much money on electronics (AVP/AMP/Projectors) they will also die prematurely or become obsolete. For example, one of my friends bought an $18K JVC projector and it died after only 1 month. He got it replaced by JVC with some animosity and then sold it ASAP.

I love that the 21” RBH sub is powered externally. Personally I would never buy another sub with built-in amp in fear that the built-in amp will “die on the road”. All 12 subs in my house are externally powered.

One of my friends bought dual Perlisten subs and both built-in sub amps died after only 2 months and had to be replaced. At least they didn’t die AFTER the warranty expired. This again reinforced my personal fear for the 20th time.

It’s a balancing act for sure for people who aren’t filthy rich.

 

[Movie2099]

Well, I think the goal is to have exactly what we want - be 100% happy with our decisions without any kind of guilt/regrets later.

Perhaps subconsciously we love the things we love to balance our pleasure-vs guilt scale.

Do I like BMW, Mercedes, Range Rover, etc.? Yes I do, but they are historically unreliable. Consumer Reports, JD Powers, etc. say that BMW, Mercedes, Range Rover have among the worst reliability history. So I fear the possibility of regrets if my vehicles are as unreliable as they say. For example, I loved my Jeep Commander Limited 4x4, but after 80K miles it started falling apart (engine died on road). Total regret. I want a Range Rover, BMW, or Mercedes, but fear it will die on the road.

When it comes to home theater, I fear that if I spend too much money on electronics (AVP/AMP/Projectors) they will also die prematurely or become obsolete. For example, one of my friends bought an $18K JVC projector and it died after only 1 month. He got it replaced by JVC with some animosity and then sold it ASAP.

I love that the 21” RBH sub is powered externally. Personally I would never buy another sub with built-in amp in fear that the built-in amp will “die on the road”. All 12 subs in my house are externally powered.

One of my friends bought dual Perlisten subs and both built-in sub amps died after only 2 months and had to be replaced. At least they didn’t die AFTER the warranty expired. This again reinforced my personal fear for the 20th time.

It’s a balancing act for sure for people who aren’t filthy rich.

A person would have to look into the numbers regarding expensive products failing. With regards to the JVC projector. The % of those projectors failing like that are very small. Same with expensive AVP's, Amps, etc..... that shouldn't scare people off. Literally every product no matter the cost is going to fail at some point. People spend more for features, higher quality parts, maybe a better longer warranty. Multiple factors go in, but I personally wouldn't have "will it break right away" at the top of my list. There will always be duds from a production batch. Obviously it would suck if you were on the receiving end of those duds. But it wouldn't scare me off from the company or product.

I agree, I think if you're going to purchase high end subs, they should be externally powered.


If we're talking bad investments, Cars should be listed in the top 3. hahaha. As soon you drive off the lot your cars value drops over $5k-10K depending on what you paid for it. Sometimes a Range Rover looks nice, but damn are they extremely over priced. Not worth the price of admission new or used.

 

[Mihai]

How does this compare with Perlisten D215 THD wise? It's obvious that SPL it's way better on RBH but how is the distorsion?

 

[shadyJ]

How does this compare with Perlisten D215 THD wise? It's obvious that SPL it's way better on RBH but how is the distorsion?

Subs in this class don't typically start to run into significant distortion until the last few dB. The CEA-2010 data that you see demonstrates that. It is how loud the sub can get under some distortion threshold. Both these subs will probably hover in the low single-digit THD until they get pushed hard. In other words, both these subs will be very clean and low in distortion.

 

[Shane Rich]

For those of you who require/want more than the single 21" sub Will be shipping the subwoofer to the customer next week. I have include a measurement just to give an idea of performance. Ridiculous? Perhaps...to some, to others it isn't. Ridiculous seems to be a relative term. We are currently working with a potential customer who requested a custom quad 21" subwoofer. So, it really all depends on a customers' expectations for performance, cost, aesthetics, etc. The last I heard, the speaker company just down the road from us here in Utah was back ordered for 6 months on many of their most expensive speakers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me that seems ridiculous! FYI, our best selling subwoofer of all time was likely our compact little MS8.1 subwoofer, which was discontinued a number of years ago, but had a retail price of around $500. It is the RBH subwoofer I personally own and still enjoy to this day. To each their own.

 

[Danzilla31]

For those of you who require/want more than the single 21" sub Will be shipping the subwoofer to the customer next week. I have include a measurement just to give an idea of performance. Ridiculous? Perhaps...to some, to others it isn't. Ridiculous seems to be a relative term. We are currently working with a potential customer who requested a custom quad 21" subwoofer. So, it really all depends on a customers' expectations for performance, cost, aesthetics, etc. The last I heard, the speaker company just down the road from us here in Utah was back ordered for 6 months on many of their most expensive speakers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me that seems ridiculous! FYI, our best selling subwoofer of all time was likely our compact little MS8.1 subwoofer, which was discontinued a number of years ago, but had a retail price of around $500. It is the RBH subwoofer I personally own and still enjoy to this day. To each their own.View attachment 64696View attachment 64697

That graph you just showed is so hot Shane

Ummmmm err ...... I meant to say....

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

For those of you who require/want more than the single 21" sub Will be shipping the subwoofer to the customer next week. I have include a measurement just to give an idea of performance. Ridiculous? Perhaps...to some, to others it isn't. Ridiculous seems to be a relative term. We are currently working with a potential customer who requested a custom quad 21" subwoofer. So, it really all depends on a customers' expectations for performance, cost, aesthetics, etc. The last I heard, the speaker company just down the road from us here in Utah was back ordered for 6 months on many of their most expensive speakers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me that seems ridiculous! FYI, our best selling subwoofer of all time was likely our compact little MS8.1 subwoofer, which was discontinued a number of years ago, but had a retail price of around $500. It is the RBH subwoofer I personally own and still enjoy to this day. To each their own.View attachment 64696View attachment 64697

Well said. Everything is relative! I don’t think an 800hp street car is ridiculous…

 

[ryanosaur]

For those of you who require/want more than the single 21" sub Will be shipping the subwoofer to the customer next week. I have include a measurement just to give an idea of performance. Ridiculous? Perhaps...to some, to others it isn't. Ridiculous seems to be a relative term. We are currently working with a potential customer who requested a custom quad 21" subwoofer. So, it really all depends on a customers' expectations for performance, cost, aesthetics, etc. The last I heard, the speaker company just down the road from us here in Utah was back ordered for 6 months on many of their most expensive speakers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me that seems ridiculous! FYI, our best selling subwoofer of all time was likely our compact little MS8.1 subwoofer, which was discontinued a number of years ago, but had a retail price of around $500. It is the RBH subwoofer I personally own and still enjoy to this day. To each their own.View attachment 64696View attachment 64697

Curious to know the room size that was measured in please.

 

[aoaaron]

I'm designing my room now. This RBH is cool... but if budget is no option, wouldn't I be better off putting 2x D215S together either stacked or right next to eachother for a +6db output gain?

I know this solution is literally DOUBLE the price, but I'm based in the UK. Importing the RBH over compared to negotiating a package deal for dual D215S makes th emost sense.

Also I appreciate the D215S size wize and depth wise isnt the easiest to stomach. just wanted ot makre sure I'm going along the right lines.

 

[aoaaron]

For those of you who require/want more than the single 21" sub Will be shipping the subwoofer to the customer next week. I have include a measurement just to give an idea of performance. Ridiculous? Perhaps...to some, to others it isn't. Ridiculous seems to be a relative term. We are currently working with a potential customer who requested a custom quad 21" subwoofer. So, it really all depends on a customers' expectations for performance, cost, aesthetics, etc. The last I heard, the speaker company just down the road from us here in Utah was back ordered for 6 months on many of their most expensive speakers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me that seems ridiculous! FYI, our best selling subwoofer of all time was likely our compact little MS8.1 subwoofer, which was discontinued a number of years ago, but had a retail price of around $500. It is the RBH subwoofer I personally own and still enjoy to this day. To each their own.View attachment 64696View attachment 64697

Whats the RRP on this? Shipping to UK?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I'm designing my room now. This RBH is cool... but if budget is no option, wouldn't I be better off putting 2x D215S together either stacked or right next to eachother for a +6db output gain?

I know this solution is literally DOUBLE the price, but I'm based in the UK. Importing the RBH over compared to negotiating a package deal for dual D215S makes th emost sense.

Also I appreciate the D215S size wize and depth wise isnt the easiest to stomach. just wanted ot makre sure I'm going along the right lines.

It would probably be similar performance. Shane is tuning these 21's for strong infrasonic performance. The Perlisten doesn't measure like that, but has similar displacement and power. Shane has measured the burst output of the 21, but we haven't been able to independantly do that. There are large differences in the burst test results of different people measuring due to problems with the CEA-2010/2034 test procedure, so without having @shadyJ measure this the same way he measured the D215S, I can't say if one would give better performance.

RBH ships internationally all the time, so I think you might find the process less painful than you might think. Maybe reach out to RBH for a price and tell them I sent you!

 

[Rzelinka]

I'm intrigued by this sub. I've been on the fence about whether to go with ported or sealed in a 2100 cubic foot room. I am leaning towards sealed subs as I'm on raised floor and will get quite a bit of room gain. I am considering two smaller subs in the front corners of my room and a larger sub in the back of my room.

I could see the possibility of a pair of D212s Perlisten subs in the front and this sub in the back. Alternatively. I could also see a path where I placed a pair of JTR RS1's in the front corners and an RS2 in the back.

To introduce yet another option, I could also consider a pair of Rythmik sealed 15's or 18's in the front corners, and this sub in the back of the room or even the G25. What I found interesting is from an output perspective, the Rythmik subs were no less than on par with JTR and Perlisten from an output perspective and in some cases, bested both brands. That was a surprise to me.

 

[gene]

I'm intrigued by this sub. I've been on the fence about whether to go with ported or sealed in a 2100 cubic foot room. I am leaning towards sealed subs as I'm on raised floor and will get quite a bit of room gain. I am considering two smaller subs in the front corners of my room and a larger sub in the back of my room.

I could see the possibility of a pair of D212s Perlisten subs in the front and this sub in the back. Alternatively. I could also see a path where I placed a pair of JTR RS1's in the front corners and an RS2 in the back.

To introduce yet another option, I could also consider a pair of Rythmik sealed 15's or 18's in the front corners, and this sub in the back of the room or even the G25. What I found interesting is from an output perspective, the Rythmik subs were no less than on par with JTR and Perlisten from an output perspective and in some cases, bested both brands. That was a surprise to me.

RBH, Perlisten and JTR, you hit some of the 3 best options for high output, low distortion, low group delay subs with true infrasonic capabilities. You can't just go solely by CEA 2010 output. Sealed subs are at a disadvantage in those tests to ported but in real rooms, sealed subs of this caliber have a real advantage for deep bass because of room gain.

 

[aoaaron]

RBH, Perlisten and JTR, you hit some of the 3 best options for high output, low distortion, low group delay subs with true infrasonic capabilities. You can't just go solely by CEA 2010 output. Sealed subs are at a disadvantage in those tests to ported but in real rooms, sealed subs of this caliber have a real advantage for deep bass because of room gain.

Thanks Gene. Which is your favourite from the 3? RBH 21 vs Dual stacked D215S vs Dual stracked RS1?

 

[gene]

Updated the article to a review with my listening impressions:

RBH Sound 21-SF/R 4kWatt 21" Subwoofer Review!

RBH Sound’s 21-SF/R 371 lb monster subwoofer uses a 21” carbon fiber driver powered by a 4 kW amplifier. This sub broke our Bassaholics ratings barrier & provided an unrivaled musical & movie experience.

www.audioholics.com

 

[gene]