The alternate reality of commercial subwoofers

[robertr]

I was looking at this web page:

www.soundstage.com/surrounded/surrounded200409.htm

and couldn't get over how differently things are viewed when thinking only in terms of commercial subwoofers. For example, the review says:

Let’s start with the cabinet -- it’s big. The WATCH Dog 2 weighs 283 pounds, is 27 1/2"H x 18"W x 27 1/2"D

That's considered "big"?? Maybe when viewed in the context of the typical mass market minisub, but really...


Then in this review:

www.soundstage.com/revequip/wilson_watchdog.htm

I see it has a single 12" driver. Oh boy! Lots of displacement capability there!

In this review:

www.ultimateavmag.com/features/604way/index2.html

I see it's down 10 dB at 18 Hz. And you get ALL this for a paltry sum just under 11,000 bucks! It leaves me shaking my head.

[ThomasW]

When referencing anything from Wilson Audio it must be viewed with a different set of filters, much like when a person is buying a Rolls Royce or a similar 'statement' product.

[chrisbee]

I keep wondering why anybody that rich would want a large and expensive box in their decorator-style living room.

If they had really good taste in audio they could just back a lightly distressed 40 foot shipping container up against the façade of their luxury home and have a nice IB.

[robertr]

I have to say, this other Wilson subwoofer has to have the most pretentious name for a speaker I've ever heard. "Thor's Hammer"?? Sheesh.

www.hometheaterreview.com/equipment-reviews/audio-reviews/subwoofer-reviews/wilson_audio_thors_hammer_subwoofer_reviewed002043.php

[chrisbee]

Jun 7, 2009 18:20:39 GMT -7 robertr said:

I have to say, this other Wilson subwoofer has to have the most pretentious name for a speaker I've ever heard. "Thor's Hammer"?? Sheesh.

www.hometheaterreview.com/equipment-reviews/audio-reviews/subwoofer-reviews/wilson_audio_thors_hammer_subwoofer_reviewed002043.php

So on the "Wilson Scale" a modest 4 x 15" IB is only a common or garden WMD?

That makes an 8 x 18" IB a Tsar Bomba of 50 MT.

Anything bigger is getting much too close to Deep Impact and becomes a major planetary event when it is fired up on WOTW or Pulse at reference level.

Working backwards down the "Wilson Scale" that makes Thor's Hammer look like a massively overpriced, small, damp, designer-labelled squib. Dogh! ;D

[jimcant]

I reckon "Jim's Hammer" will do me for quite some time in the WMD , or shed flattening, stakes

There is only so much LFE one actually needs, but that could change, and I do have some ideas, but as I am not sitting on any oil wells that I know about, it most likely will not include TRW's

Cheers,
Jim.

[chrisbee]

Jun 8, 2009 1:45:46 GMT -7 jimcant said:

I reckon "Jim's Hammer" will do me for quite some time in the WMD , or shed flattening, stakes

There is only so much LFE one actually needs, but that could change, and I do have some ideas, but as I am not sitting on any oil wells that I know about, it most likely will not include TRW's

Cheers,
Jim.

Oil is so "yesterday", Jim.

Haven't you heard it's all about windpower these days? ;D

As a business you might even get a government grant for an array of those TRW "wndmills"!