A7S - 450 Subwoofer VS Epik Claiber? Who wins?

A properly designed ported sub will sound atleast as good as a sealed a sub, while still (generally) going lower and louder while maintaining efficiency.

I'd go with the Caliber, although the 450 is no slouch either.

I for one like ported subs better, my DIY has converted me. Although it is a somewhat large ported sub, the musicality of it is amazing. I use to think sealed would be best, but in my opinion now, ported right will do great things.
http://youtube.com/user/spezzy

the ed with the larger amp would be about $80 more than the caliber shipped.
caliber would be tuned lower, and have a nicer finish. also quite a bit larger footprint than the ed sub. lower tuning would probably be better suited to ht.
what size room are we talking about? epik valor (sealed) is suppose to be magical in smaller room.

I have a7s-450. I think it is really powerful with its 1300 watts and could top lots of ported subs in raw output. I don't have a point of reference though, it's my only sub.
I went for it because it seemed like the best value of all to me. But it was $75 cheaper back when I bought it.

i have dual A7S and do enjoy them. I have compared them against the axiom EP500. the EP500 is / was a great sub, and during most "normal" movie listening, they are both more than adequate. However, the A7S, is deeper and tighter, especially with music. I find the difference is more significant with music than movies. In the majority of cases, movies tend to be just a lot of deep rumble / explosions that are difficult to discriminate in terms of sound QUALITY, rather than simply QUANTITY.

With music, which you said was 75% of your listening, the difference is more dramatic. the sealed A7S is tighter and more detailed than my ported EP500.

as others have posted, either design, if done right, will still give you great sound. However, as a rough GENERALIZATION, the sealed subs tend to be better with music. the ported subs deeper more efficient and better with movies. (not trying to start a flame war)

freeflap, have you tried comparing the max undistorted output of 1 a7s to the ep500?

no. that is not a relevant test of the sub and not of real world value; rather just for bragging rights, IMO. (My gut impression is that the A7s is clearly more powerful than the EP500, and it should be with a 18" vs 12" driver and almost triple the power, but i didn't do any SPL measurements to back that statement up with)

at higher volumes, however +100db, the noise from the port on my EP500 was audible like "breathing" or described here as "chuffing". that is something the sealed / PR units would likely never do.

remember, ALL of these subs here are capable of scaring the children and finally convincing your neighbor his b*se sat/sub system is comical. i prefer to think that we are beyond the "which is louder" argument and get into the more important quality discussions, which of course, are hard to measure and put a number to.

Hmm thats strange, because people like 100kilowatts build those towers with 8x more drivers and 4x more power than a7s-450.
If SPL are not a real world value, why would anyone even go for a sub like a conquest or a7-900. And ep500 - looking at the specs, shouldn't even be near the limit for anyone, imo.

Haha, louder isn't important hmm?

So, you're saying a EP500 would do well in a 10,000 cu ft room, since loudness and SPL levels aren't important..