Two subwoofers??

You should take a look at the Bag End Infra-sub 18 inch subwoofer. Extremely musical and tight. Used usually sell for around $850 and new at $1600.

There is no other sub that I am aware of at this price break that can even begin to approach the musical definition that this 18 inch sub reproduces which is all the way down to 8Hz.

There is no such thing as an 8 inch subwoofer especially at this price range. No matter what they say. An 8 inch sub which bottoms out at 30Hz is not a sub. It is a woofer.
-IMO

Stehno, out of curiosity, do you know where the 18" driver in the Bag End "bottoms out" at ? For the record, it's something like 70+ Hz. They electronically manipulate the signal from there. While their specific approach is slightly different, this can be done with nearly any design. How effective it is depends on how well the designer does their homework. Sean
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Sean, perhaps I'm not understanding your question and subsequent statement. Could you please elaborate?

As for personal experience, A few years ago, I demo'ed the Bag End Infra-sub in my home for several weeks. At that time, anyway, I was quite impressed with it's musicality and taught definition. I really could not hear a thing until it reproduced the appropriate notes. It was extremely tight. There have been a few reviews on the Infra-sub and they say much the same. Supposedly, it is used quite a bit in professional recording studios.

The main reasons I chose not to go with the Bag End was because it lacked a few features and configurabilities I was looking for at that time and because I was not overly impressed with it's construction quality.

But it worked quite well. And if memory serves, I would put it at or near the top of the list of subs to audition in the $2k or less price range.

-John

I was referring to your comment about an 8" that bottoms out at 30 Hz being a woofer rather than a subwoofer. As i mentioned, the 18" driver in the Bag End actually resonates at 70+ Hz. As you might guess, this makes it worse in "stand alone" performance than many "good" 8" woofers.

The designer chose to use a driver that resonated outside of the audio band that it would actually be used in. This is common practice for most drivers, but is quite rare for a sub. By crossing over below the point of resonance and EQ'ing the response accordingly, he is able to achieve more linear output ( due to the pre-determined sloping output level ) without any in-band resonances or amplifier loading / driver control problems. The major drawback to this is that it takes a LOT more power to do this effectively. Given the ease that one can pick up a high wattage amp nowadays, that factor is almost a moot point though. Sean
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Sean, design concepts aside, what did you think after listening to the Bag End Infra-sub?

As for my comment about an 8 inch woofer bottoming out around 30Hz? I stand by it. In my experience and reading, it appears that there are very few if any 8 inch drivers or even 10 inch drivers that can adequately reproduce frequencies below 30Hz around the price break of perhaps $1500 or less. Jeepers, it appears that there are too many 18 inch subs that can't go much below 30Hz.

As I've stated elsewhere, the size of driver seems to become less important in subwoofers at more expensive price breaks.

I'm certainly not going to pretend to understand how a subwoofer 'should' or 'shouldn't' be designed because I don't know and don't care. But as with manufacturing most anything, manufacturing a subwoofer to do what it really ought to do is probably more of an art than a science. And the execution and the whole is hopefully greater than the sum of it's parts.

By all means, correct me if I am wrong.

With that said, I will say again, that yes, the Bag End has a few flaws, (which component doesn't?) but in my room two years ago with my configuration, it certainly sounded impressive, just as some reviewers had said it would.

But again, Sean, I'd be really interested to know how you think how the Bag End sounds.