SHOOTOUT! Epik Empire vs HSU VTF-15H vs CHT CS18.1 vs Rythmik FV15 vs eD A7s-450 - Page 35

I also wanted to say thank you to shift, Hksvr4, Chris, sputter1, benclement11, and menace and everyone else in this thread for the kind words and support. Ethan and I really do appreciate it and it makes it that much easier to take the constructive criticism and make us want to do another.



Well it'll be awhile. I have to do the basement first and that's probably gonna be a year or two till completed. Hopefully sooner but I doubt it. However we do have a mini-review coming up soon.


I don't know if you called HSU yet like spyboy suggested, but a lot depends on your room and also how loud you like it. Is your room large? In a concrete basement? Maybe you're sitting in a null where the "punch in the chest" would normally thump you. The HSU shook my house pretty good and hit pretty decent numbers, right around 110db average. I do remember some people mentioning it plays pretty flat across it's entire frequency range. That seemed to be the case in our shootout. The spl's didn't vary that greatly. So maybe depending on your listening tastes it might not do it as well as some other subs. I think most people would agree that the kick or punch in the chest feeling comes from mid bass frequencies though, so if you're down in those areas that might be why you feel they're missing. Do you have a frequency response at your main LP? Just some thoughts that might help explain your lack of that punch.


That's impressive numbers on that scene. It's one of the harder ones for subs to reproduce since it goes pretty low. Actually Ethan's BIL had that sub. I would've liked to heard it in my house. It probably would've done well in the shootout. I remember listening to it in Ethan's BIL's house and he was hitting around those numbers IIRC. It moves a good bit of air. ED subs are pretty good bang for your buck subs.

I already did some of the testing myself and hopefully Ethan can help me with the rest this weekend so you might find out very soon.

Btw I always wanted to hear a Dragon. Considering what the Empire sounds like I'm sure that thing is a beast. Chad puts out terrific subs. I can't imagine what the Conquest can do. I'm sure the Empire VS the Dragon would've been a fun comparison too but for what you needed probably overkill. Then again overkill is NEVER a bad thing. I think we call it headroom here on AVS.


That's still pretty good from a single sub. Besides if you need a little more oomph you could always just add another. They're priced pretty low.

Wow! A 10x12 room?! You must have some pretty good room gain. Have you ever done a FR for your main LP? It must be insane in there with a Dragon and a Legend. Your right one Legend would be enough but nothing wrong with headroom.

I'm sure Chad will come out with something. He already has the low and midrange price points covered. Only thing left is a high end. I think most people are hoping for a quad 18.


That is really odd he had the mains set to full range?? That was probably the main culprit. I don't know about setting the LFE up to 120hz though. Most of the punch from bass is from 40-80hz and some people find the sounds above 80hz not only easy to localize, but also makes the sub sound as if it's distorting. We're just not used to hearing those frequencies from the sub. Though as long as your happy and you have what you were missing, who cares.

I know the LPF is for the LFE channel I was just mentioning that as it pertains to his problem, missing the punch/mid bass frequencies, raising the LPF to 120 woud not help and some find it objectionable. Like I said though as long as he's happy it doesn't really matter.


That's Ethan and I's next challenge before another shootout. I am not looking forward to it since most people, even those with experience, say it's a PITA to learn. After that they say it's easy but still I know it's got to be frustrating.

I am a little surprised you didn't reach higher spl's on KFP. Especially in a room your size. I would think you would get closer to 110db on some scenes and close to that on the ska-doosh scene. I will say though out of all the test material that was one of the hardest to reproduce.

Ahhh nothing says bass porn more than some Bass I Love You, Cloverfield, and WoTW videos. You know I don't know the xMax of the Dragon's driver but it seems like it had a little more to give on the BILY track. Then again my phone might be misleading.

That sounds better too. 108db? Sounds about right for KFP. That scene gets my eD drive moving crazy!