OK, so This weekend I went to a friends house toting one of the two VX-11's that I bought to compare it to his BIC F-12, another sub which I was really interested in buying....but passed up in order to get two VX-11's for a few dollars more than a single BIC F12.
The scenes we watched and compared were
- "The Polar Express" Scene 2 , when the train arrives outside the boys house
- "The Dark Knight Rises" when Bane blows the stadium and surrounding areas
- "U-571" Opening depth charge scene
- "Blue Man Group, DVD-Audio Disc" Club Nowhere.
When hearing the F12 on these scenes, it was quite impressive and fun to watch and feel the couch rumble a bit or hear the bass hitting pretty hard we went through them all and I was pretty impress and pretty anxious to see how the VX-11 compared.
I hooked up the VX-11 in the exact same spot and went through the same scenes again and much to my surprise....I got pretty much the same experience out of the little 10" VX-11, in some scenes, the bass seemed a little bit tighter than the F12, but it might have just been me. After discussing with my friend, we both came to the conclusion that both subs were very comparable in what we heard and saw for the movies and my buddy was pretty impress in what the VX-11 had to offer.
Next, I packed up his F12 and took it to my place to do a F12 to Dual VX-11 comparison.
Hooking the F12 sub up to my receiver (which had previously been tweaked and setup for the VX-11's) the very first thing I notice was that I was barely getting any output from the F12. This is where I began to realize We should have messed with settings a little more at my buddy's house....as when I plugged the VX-11 in, it was a mere swap out and no adjustments were made to the receiver or otherwise, it was a simple swap and listen. I began to wonder now if our comparison was now flawed because we were feeding the VX-11 and the levels needed to power the F12...in the end though, it did not seem like we were overpowering the VX-11 in any way at my buddies house.
In order to get the output desired once the F12 was tested at my house, I had to bump the Subwoofer level up on my receiver from the -2 to +3-5 area to get the output out of the F12, my guess is that is simply because the F12 is a much more power hungry and has a much more powerful amp, so it makes sense it would need more juice. Please correct me if I am wrong in this assumption.
To preface the rest of this, we were unable to due and proper sub calibration with the F12 at my place other that the "That sounds about right method" so I have no way of knowing for sure if I was pushing too much, too little or just right amount of juice and speaker level to the F12. I wish I could have done a better comparison by setting the DB level and all...I tried briefly to get it as close as I could with a DB meter but it was a bit difficult with the wives talking on and off in the background, but it seemed that from the reading I could get during the quiet moments that the settings we had picked were pretty close to getting what it should read on the DB meter.
Anyways, we went through all the scenes mentioned before with the addition of The Opening Sequence to Master and Commander. and The two VX-11's definitely seemed more full and even and had more oomph to them, but the F12 seem to have just that little extra bit of rumble to it that I am guessing is from the lower depths that the F12 can reach compared to the VX-11. It was very hard to say one was totally better than the other...The only significant difference I can remember when comparing them where during the first canon scene in master and commander, I felt my shoe vibrate a bit with the F12 hooked up and that little bit "fun" seemed to be missing from my VX-11's, but I do not know if this was from having the F12 set to a higher level that the VX-11's (this was before I checked the DB settings and we started out higher than we should have and could have been a very real possibility) Or from the F12 being able to deliver a little bit lower than the vx-11's
The overall conclusion we came to was that for about the same price, we both had pretty great budget systems that were both very pleasing, fun and exciting to listen to. The only thing I regretted after the test was maybe not being able to test or get to 12" subs for my house instead of two 10"....and not for feeling that the VX-11's were lacking in any way, but for wondering, "man if the two VX-11's sound this great, what might two decent 12" subs sound like. The only other option to the dual VX-11's I would consider would be two Dayton Sub-1200's for a few dollars more than the VX-11 setup and that is only because they have pretty darn good reviews and are similar in price.
For the most part my buddy thought it was almost a wash between the F12 and the two VX-11's giving the VX-11's a little more just because of the advantages dual subs gave. Now I need to play around with the VX-11's and see if I can get my shoe to vibrate again, even if it would be and not normal listening levels...haha
It was clear the F12 had more(or demanded more) power than the single VX-11 right from the start with having to tweak my receiver just to power it. But both subs had WAY more than enough power needed for either of our rooms. The settings for volume on both of our subs were not even past the 1/4 turn mark and they were putting out way more than we would ever need for reasonable listening.
My personal opinion with my half-@ssed comparison (I wish I had more time to take proper measurements and all, maybe again another time) is that I am very happy with my VX-11 purchase and they can really boost the bottom end. Even just a single VX-11 makes me wonder how I get so much power from such a little box...even my buddy was impressed at the size and the output...The F12 isn't gigantic (it was actually smaller than I was imagining it), but the VX-11 still looks kinda puny next to it. (dang, should have take some pictures). But for it's puny size it kept up very well to the point that most of the time we couldn't even tell a difference when comparing one to the other. With the only memorable difference of the shoe vibrating in master and commander (but not know for what reason, too high volume on F12 at the time, or because it reaches lower) I did personally feel that the bass on the VX-11's seemed a little bit tighter to me than on the F12. I have only had the VX-11's for a few days, so they have not really been broken in yet either, they have a while before that happens, whereas the F12 was also fully broken in when tested. whether it makes a difference or not, I don't know, but I figure I would put it out there.
I did a quick frequency sweep not long after the first setup and got reasonable output out of the VX-11's down until about 28HZ and then it dropped off fairly quick, I have not tested again with the new arrangement though (Original placement was with one sub on either side of the entertainment center).
As mentioned earlier, I tweaked things a bit more with the VX-11's and their new placement (below) and really enjoyed the low bass parts in the begging half of Ratatouille, it was fun to listen to and feel the bass.
I really like the Dual VX-11 setup and I have settled on this configuration finally for sound and "funness", funness being the "I can feel that too" effect. I get the floor rumbling and some feel it effect with both up front, but get more with one sub sitting in the back next to the couch making it a lot more fun.
Room: Anyone please give me feedback about my room setup and suggestions, any help would be appreciated if you think something would be better than what I have setup
BTW, anyone interested, I found this site where I made the room diagram, pretty slick and easy: (
http://www.planyourroom.com/)
Specs for each:VX-11:
Amplifier: 100 watts RMS Class D 150 watts peak
Woofer: 10' (24.5 cm) forward firing(7.65' piston diameter)
Magnet Structure: 2 Ibs. (0 .9 Kg)
Frequency Response: 33-140 Hz (+/- 3 dB)
Voice Coil: 1.6' copper-wound
Cone: Coated fiber
Low Pass Crossover 50 Hz - 200 Hz
Cabinet Design: Bass-reflex with built-in power amplifier
Inputs: RCA Line Level, LFE and
Phase: 0 or 180
Weight (approx.): 35bs. (16 Kg)
Dimensions 15' x 12' x 17' (HLW/D) (38 x 30 x 43 cm)
Warranty (parts/labor)(North America): Three years (electronics) Five years (drivers)
Bic F12:
Design: Front-firing 12-inch, 475-watt peak powered subwoofer
Frequency Response: 25Hz - 200Hz
Sensitivity: 90dB
Drivers: 12-inch injection molded woofer with heavy duty surround
Magnetic Shielding: Yes
Gold-Plated Terminals:Yes
Recommended Power: Built-in Amplifier Power: 475 watts Dynamic Peak, 150 watts RMS continuous
Impedance: 8 ohms
Dimensions: 21 x 19 x 22 inches (HxWxD)
Weight: 42.70 pounds each
Warranty: 5 years parts and labor
Edited by rnconync - 1/14/13 at 12:13pm
