If you quoted that Ricci bloke correctly he is to be added to the long line of twerps.
There is no such thing as fast bass. There is nothing fast about it. High and low frequencies travel at the same speed. Whether bass is resonant or not is another matter, that all comes down to Q as I have said again and again. Low Q sounds less resonant than high Q. The crack of the drum comes from the other speakers largely the mains. That is where transient response becomes important. However that implies a high frequency response, which no sub has. Any sound that has a crack to it has to have significant high frequency content.
From Josh Ricci's bass myths section on his site data-bass.com:
Myth: Bass Speed
Subwoofers are Fast / Slow
It is a common misconception that sound quality is related to the woofers speed or quickness, but in fact the woofer's speed is related to the frequency it is producing and the SPL. There are two ways to change a woofer's speed. 1. Change the frequency of the signal it is reproducing or 2. increase the output / excursion. It may sound counter-intuitive, but it is true. There are many other factors that go into making a subwoofer sound fast, or slow, or boomy, tight, airy, or whatever subjective terminology is applied, but that divulges into system design and room acoustics primarily, rather the driver itself. Bass wavelengths by definition are slow to develop. Try listening to a subwoofer operating by itself sometime.
Another important concept along this line of thinking is that a subwoofer with deeper extension will tend to sound slower than a unit with less extension. This should not be surprising. The deepest frequencies are the longest and slowest to develop. If you are not used to very deep frequencies being reproduced it may sound less accurate or slow, but in reality the sub with deeper extension is reproducing content that the less extended unit is simply not producing well or at all. The fastest sounding bass is when there is no bass.
The concepts of overshoot, difficulties overcoming inertia, or ringing after the note ends also fall into this category. These terms indicate smearing in time of the signal. Fortunately it is relatively simple to look at a few things to determine if there is a problem. The driver or system "Q" or damping is one way. There is also group delay, energy decay, etc. Most studies show that the people are insensitive to even moderate amounts of energy delay in the bass range. Generally what causes these types of subjective terms to be used are differences in frequency response, rapid changes in response vs frequency and issues due to room or vehicle acoustics. In most cases the effect that the room has on the subwoofer response and energy decay rates dwarf those inherent to the design, unless the sub exhibits some truly bad issues. What's most important about this myth is that speed is an inappropriate concept of sound quality.
Smaller woofers sound faster than larger woofers
One of the biggest myths about woofers is that smaller units like 8's and 10's sound "tighter" and "faster" than 15's or 18's. Even bigger drivers such as 21's and 24's are supposedly worse than 15's or 18's. This can be true in some specific cases, but as a blanket statement of all drivers this is factually incorrect.
This subjective impression is often caused by factors other than the simple size of the driver. What tends to happen is that the smaller drivers have a lower Qts because manufacturers tend to share one motor design across many different sizes of drivers in the series. They may have the same motor on the 10" driver that they have on the 15 or 18". Unless the motor can compensate for the extra mass it has to push, then the Qts will not be the same as the smaller drivers. Ultimately the larger driver may not be suited for the same kinds of alignments as the smaller driver and ends up requiring a much larger air volume for the same system "Q" and response shape. Typically the larger driver will end up in a higher "Q" undersized system with a less linear response shape that may cause it to sound more uneven or "one note". It may also end up being tuned much deeper in frequency and the increased low frequency output may also cause it to sound "slower" or "heavier". Smaller subs and those using smaller driver sizes are often not asked to go as low and will not have the same low frequency extension in their design. When comparing subs the one with more low frequency extension and output will sound quite different. Having said that, high Qts drivers are not inherently inferior sounding when compared to more efficient, highly damped drivers, but they require larger boxes and less internal pressure to prevent response peaking and increased group delay.
Large sub drivers can be made to have the same motor to cone ratio as smaller drivers. The larger woofers also have more room for bigger suspension components and voice coils which can allow higher power handling, more excursion capability and larger mechanical clearances that simply cannot fit on an 8 or 10" driver frame. It is more expensive to make larger driver sizes in this way, but not impossible. There are a number of good examples on the market. It's just a matter of picking the right driver for the job.
