SVS PB16 Ultra vs JL Fathom 113 vs ???


Looking for a high output high sound quality sub.  Read as must be capable of adding tons of clean low end for bass heavy music.  

Looking to keep it under 3k new or used.

yukispier

Showing 4 responses by phusis

I'd go with the Power Sound Audio TV2112, and make it two of them. As a pair that's exceeding your budget of $3k, but otherwise I'd choose a pair of the smaller EV1812 model, and if that's still too expensive a pair of TV1512. If you insist on a single sub (I'd go with two smaller vs. one big) the TV2112 is the one to go for. 

https://www.powersoundaudio.com/products/TV2112

https://www.powersoundaudio.com/products/ev1812

https://www.powersoundaudio.com/products/TV1512

Power Sound Audio subs use extremely rugged, high quality and efficient pro drivers in combination with IcePower amps, both more desirable and reliable than SVS, JL Audio or similar offerings. 

@gregfaunce --

"The SVS PB16 Ultra and Fathom F113 (both of which I owned) don’t deliver much slam at all. If you are wanting to feel some slam on bass heavy music you will have to most likely up your budget. Remember one mans insanity is another mans moderation. I have owned over 14 different subs in the last 4 years. The only ones that deliver the sort of thing that you are describing is when I had 2 JTR RS2 Captivators. Those literally damaged a ton of stuff in my house. If you need help with output questions I have a huge databass of all third party tested sub measurements. I can help you there. A pro audio sub may do what you want, they don’t go much below 30hz but they punch very hard in the music "realm" of bass. Those can hit 135db for probably in your price range. That would give you chest thump."

Good input. Forgot to mention JTR is my previous post - definitely a good option. It’s a shame the LFU version of the Orbit Shifter front loaded horn is no longer in their repertoire, it seems, and the pro version with its just below 40Hz tune misses the LF-beat with movies in particular.

Mr. Ricci’s line of DIY subs over at databass (if that’s what you’re referring to), all of them basically high order band pass iterations, are true monsters - just great subs delivering high output, clean and effortless bass. True "audiophile" bass if ever there was any. Some of them have variable tune, and even the lower tune options (i.e.: 15-20Hz) shouldn’t see port noise issues in home environments at all but war volume.

The problem with lower tuned, low efficiency subs - or just low eff. subs in general - very often is lack of midbass presence or "slam" in this region. It’s not simply an issue of frequency response, nor that infrasonics "divert" the energy or focus away from the midbass.

"The Funk Audio 18 is not really a high output subwoofer. It is a small enclosure 18" sealed sub. It’s performance numbers are online and it is really nothing special. It is a good looking sub, but top performer it is not (at least in output)."

Agreed. Looks and exclusivity, both of which the Funk’s ooze (though I’m sure they’re very good subs), are "audiophile" traits, remember. In my book Funk Audio subs are too expensive in relation to output, but many don’t value high output capability here as anything other than that, when in reality prodigious headroom through efficiency and very large displacement area are key factors in providing for an effortless, smooth and clean bass with slam as well.

@fiesta75 --

"Just a question; Isn’t SPL (output) related to air movement? With a minimum of 3 inches of cone travel and very large surface area, they move a lot of air. Am I missing something?🙃"

That kind of cone travel isn’t desirable if distortion is to be kept low, which is the whole point in having more displacement area (and high eff.). If that’s what you have, in addition to high efficiency (which translates into very large boxes), and you’re firing off with 3" of excursion in a home environment, you’re after some serious-level single digit infrasonics to make them worthwhile. Displacement can also be amped up via the classical front loaded horns acting as a force multiplier, and so the horn itself is doing the heavy lifting - quite smart. Woofers in appropriate tapped horn pairings have excursion minima at the tune (which is not the case with the FLH where excursion minima sits above the tune, since the driver hidden inside is placed in a sealed chamber), and this makes it even more obvious how the enclosure relieves the driver; its cone movement may be barely visible, but the bass is nonetheless viscerally felt throughout and immersing the whole listening space quite forcefully (imagine the output with the driver moving a cm or two..). That translates into very low distortion and a very effortless reproduction, and the bass presentation here is also differentiated in how the cone travel couples to the air via the horn. At the very opposite end of the scale, efficiency-wise, is the sealed enclosure with a direct radiating driver.