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Funk Audio 18.0 Review
Description:
Funk Audio Model 18.0, TSAD 18 driver, 2400 Watt DSP amp, Brindle Bamboo finish
Setup:
My HT (aka “the family room”) is 15’ x 20’, but has a vaulted ceiling & one end is open to the rest of the house. I decided that the best way to improve the low end in this tough room was just to throw more subs at the problem. The 18.0 joins a Velodyne HGS-15 and a Funk Audio 15.0 x2. The mains & surrounds are Paradigm S8’s and the center is a Paradigm C5. They’re driven by a Denon AVR-5308 receiver that’s been upgraded with Audyssey’s MultEQ XT32. The mains are set to small in the receiver and the crossovers are set to 80 Hz.
Measurements:
The following chart is a close mic measurement taken 6” from the center of the TSAD 18” driver with no EQ engaged. (The drop above 80 Hz is due to the crossover.):
Readings from the listening position with Audyssey enabled are similar to the chart above but with a slightly flatter response curve. The DSP amp in this sub gives one the ability to tweak the response as desired. I’ll probably try a slight lift to the low end at some point, but haven’t had the time to play with it yet.
Listening:
After placement, Audyssey setup, and my post-Audyssey tweaks, I played some good LFE-heavy music tracks. I started with Joe Satriani’s
Starry Night on SACD Surround. The kick drum and bass guitar had impressive power and just sounded wonderful. The best I’ve ever heard. Tracks from several other albums also put a smile on my face. I then fired up my projector and played some tracks from a few Blu-ray concert videos:
Pretenders - Loose in L.A.,
David Gilmour - Live at the Royal Albert Hall, and
AC/DC - Live at Donnington. The low end in every case was palpable. My couch resonated with the kick drums & bass guitars. Bass had a clarity that was noticeably better than what I’m used to hearing.
I shifted to movies, starting with
War of the Worlds. The earthquake as the alien craft emerges from the ground and then incinerates everything in it's path was
very impressive. The Funk shined with the heavy LFE in Star Trek (2009) whenever the warp drive was engaged, on shuttle craft landings, and the numerous explosions. (Apparently you
can hear explosions in the vacuum of space..)
The 18.0 puts out significantly higher SPL levels than my other Funk sub at a given gain setting in the receiver. The 18.0 probably benefits from boundary gain in it’s firplace location. I suspect the higher efficiency of the TSAD 18 driver versus the dual LMSR-15’s should get most of the credit for the higher SPL’s however. In any case, I’m able to get powerful low end in my tough room running the 18.0 solo and leaving both of the other subs powered off. The excursion of the TSAD driver seems small even when it’s cranking out high SPL’s, so I seriously doubt I will ever over-drive this beast.
Integration issue:
OmniMic shows the response curve of the 18.0 at my listening position as being respectably flat, but there are significant dropouts at 17, 37, and 70 Hz when I power up all three subs. The dropouts weren’t there when the two other subs played without the 18.0. I haven’t resolved this yet. I’ll need to spend a little time working the issue next weekend. If I can’t get all three to play well together one of the other subs may need to find a new home. The 18.0 isn’t going anywhere...
Conclusion:
When I think of the 9 weeks it took from order placement until the 18.0 arrived on my door step, I’m reminded of the saying “Good things come to those who wait”. The 18.0 is a very good thing indeed. The bamboo finish is impeccable. The carbon-fiber driver looks & sounds like a million bucks. The curves give it a little extra eye appeal. It’s tough to know in advance whether ordering a custom sub is going to be worth the time and expense. If I had the opportunity to do it over again however, I wouldn’t change a thing...