Blue Octave Bdw8 in Wall 8 Passive Subwoofer Review

The GoldenEar Technology SuperSub X is the second, smaller model in the recently introduced line of loftier performance, compact subwoofers brought to us by GoldenEar Engineering co-founder Sandy Gross and his evolution squad.

It takes the aforementioned horizontally-opposed, dual-active/dual-passive driver arrangement of the larger SuperSub XXL model and reduces it to more Picayune dimensions. I had reviewed the SuperSub XXL terminal year and plant information technology to be a modestly sized but potent performer of a subwoofer. The SuperSub X aims to bring similar levels of "Nail" to places where space is at more of a premium. Can you say Napoleon Complex?

Highlights

GoldenEar Engineering science SuperSub X Subwoofer

• Strong, clean, and detailed bass reproduction for both movies and music.
• Stiff in-room response down to almost xx Hz.
• One sub can energize a pocket-sized to medium sized room.
• Compact size allows for easy integration of multiple subs.
• Patented use of dual opposed drivers on the horizontal centrality and dual opposed passive radiators on the vertical centrality.
• May require a petty extra care in placement for optimum results.

Introduction

How does one improve on a good thing? Past making information technology bigger? Possibly – although non necessarily in this item case. On the heels of the successful launch and reception of their SuperSub XXL subwoofer, GoldenEar has apparently begun putting a few of them through some sort of shrink ray dorsum at headquarters to go the almost identical looking, just smaller, SuperSub X. It uses the same "Dual-Plane Inertially Counterbalanced" blueprint as the larger XXL model simply with smaller drivers and passive radiators in a more than diminutive clone of an enclosure. At showtime blush this may await like an answered prayer for apartment dwellers or anyone whose home theater space is at a premium. Does information technology surrender much to its bigger brother in the "oomph" department? Well now, permit's take a closer look shall we?

GOLDENEAR SUBWOOFER REVIEW SPECIFICATIONS

Design:

Dual-driver subwoofer with dual passive radiators

Drivers:

2 8" long-throw high-output bass drivers (horizontally opposed)
Two ten ½" x 9 ½" quadratic planar infrasonic radiators (vertically opposed)

Frequency response (manufacturer):

12 Hz-250 Hz

Amplifier:

1400 Watt ForceField Digital/DSP Amplifier

Low Pass Filter:

12dB per octave continuously variable from 40Hz-150 Hz. for Stereo Inputs

Inputs:

Direct Coupled, unfiltered LFE -input / Depression Level Left and Right channel inputs

Dimensions:

12 ¾" (32.4 cm) H (west/feet) x 14″ (35.half dozen cm) Westward 10 13 1/4″ (33.vii cm) D

SECRETS Tags:

GoldenEar, Subwoofer, Passive radiators, Meaty subwoofer, Subwoofer Reviews 2016

Design

"Honey! I shrunk the GoldenEar SuperSub XXL!" That's the starting time thing that came to heed when I unpacked the new SuperSub X. While smaller in size to its bigger brother, the new sub looks for all the world, aesthetically identical. That too includes the same robust build quality and piano-black-finished medite MDF enclosure.

From a technical standpoint, the SuperSub X sports two 8" long throw bass drivers which are mounted in a horizontally opposed configuration and then that they fire out the left and right sides of the enclosure. In addition to these active drivers, GoldenEar couples 2 larger oblong passive radiators, likewise in a horizontally opposed setup, firing out of the summit and the bottom of the box. This commuter and drone arrangement is said to have a couple of major benefits. The start being that any inertial forces from the functioning of a unmarried driver, which would normally be transferred to the box every bit wasted energy, become cancelled out by the other driver as they are both moving in phase. This has an additional benefit of contributing to the inertness of the enclosure. The second is that because at that place is sound radiating from four unlike axis, the SuperSub XXL should have a meliorate fourth dimension coupling with the room and, subsequently, have a smoother overall response. While active driver/passive radiator subwoofer designs are nothing new in audio, GoldenEar's implementation of this concept seems notable enough to take warranted being recently granted a US patent (US 9,462,391 B2) on their SuperSub designs. The subwoofer's electronics package consists of a 1400 watt grade D amplifier controlled by a 56 fleck processer section with a 192 kHz sampling rate.

On the back of the subwoofer, nosotros find the main inputs and controls. There is no ON/OFF switch as the subwoofer is auto signal sensing so only a blue status light indicates a state of activity. To the right of that is a toggle switch to select either LEFT/RIGHT or LFE input. Beside this are two rotary dials, i for setting the Low Pass Crossover frequency and the other for setting the overall level. Right beneath these dials are a pair of LEFT/RIGHT RCA input jacks. The LEFT jack also doubles as the LFE input and is switchable via the same toggle switch.

Setup

For most my testing, a unmarried subwoofer was used in my home theater and set up along the side wall, nearest to the front right speaker which is not a traditional or textbook location. In my room, I found that this sub didn't seem to like the normal spot that I usually locate subwoofers (front end wall behind the front right or left speaker). After a flake of experimentation, I found that the SuperSub 10 seemed to prefer a side wall placement. This is the same state of affairs that I experienced when testing the XXL last year. That location seemed to result in the all-time coupling with the room and the smoothest raw overall response before any speaker calibration was applied. Of course, every home theater is different so optimal placement volition vary room to room. It is therefore e'er wise to take the time to try different locations when placing a sub. The well written owner's manual also gives some good suggestions of where to commencement. GoldenEar was nice enough to send two identical subwoofers equally I usually run twin subs in my home theater to help fifty-fifty out the bass response amid all the seats. So, after all the preliminary testing and measuring was done I incorporated the 2nd subwoofer into the organisation. The size of these subwoofers nigh beg for them to be used in multiples.

Associated equipment used: Anthem MRX 1120 receiver, OPPO BDP-103 Blu-ray thespian, Salk Songtower main speakers, Zaph Audio ZD3C center channel speaker, Rocket RS300 quasi-dipole surround speakers, Pioneer 50" KURO plasma display.

In Use

So, having gone through a similar setup experience already with the SuperSub XXL, I establish that the X benefitted from the same placement methodology and, for the well-nigh part, information technology gave me very similar results to the XXL. When y'all are dealing with subwoofers, the overwhelming temptation is to gauge it primarily on how depression a frequency it will reach and the level of output it volition generate. But there are always other considerations to take into account besides. Like whatever other speaker type out in that location, a subwoofer should audio practiced and have a sure level of accuracy with any content y'all play through information technology, music existence specially critical. Marketing claims aside, in do GoldenEar subwoofers have never been sub-20 Hz bottom feeders, at least not in my rooms. What they all have been though is exceptionally keen sounding, and highly authentic with the kind of textile, and at the real-world levels that I heed. And they seem achieve this (throughout their products, mind you lot) past using well established blueprint principles and theory, but practical in a more unconventional manner. It's one of the things that, every bit a reviewer, makes GoldenEar's products interesting and, frankly, a lot of fun to mess effectually with. In the SuperSub X what we essentially have is a make clean sounding and accurate bass producer that volition couple really well with a room and deliver very smooth response down to about twenty Hz, at above average levels. Sounds proficient but not exactly earth-shattering, until you meet that this all comes out of something the size of your boilerplate microwave oven. Combine that with a fine article of furniture level of stop with a decidedly Art-Deco bent to its design and now you've got something with a whole different level of appeal than your average big box with a driver and an amp.

So, with setup done and room correction run (Anthem's ARC in this example) serious listening could now properly begin. My initial listening impressions were that a single SuperSub X did an excellent job filling my medium sized home theater with advisable levels of bass and a very even level of coverage, coming very close to what the XXL did. Similar other GoldenEar subwoofer offerings, the SuperSub 10 excels at item retrieval in the lower registers. When especially listening to music, y'all really start to observe the different pitches down in the low end more. No, you volition not feel that 16 Hz organ pedal from your demo disk, but everything else from the depression end of said organ will sound very fine! Plucks of a standup bass, a piano hammer hitting a low A, and kick drums all seemed to deliver a clearer sonic story versus the typical "thump, thwack, or thud" from some other subs I've heard. And while it does distinguish itself at the presentation of the subtleties, this sub volition hitting solidly when you inquire information technology to.

When I somewhen added the second SuperSub X into the mix, positioning it directly across from the first 1 on the other wall, things just got fifty-fifty better! With more than headroom at my disposal, everything simply became more than impactful. The bass also became more than even from seat to seat in my home theater, with a good deal less variation when I moved effectually. My wife was impressed at the levels of bass coming out of this comparatively teeny box. She appreciates practiced sound, but always likes it when nosotros tin come across more of our room and less of the equipment. Even with ii SuperSub X installed, she was actively considering how to decorate all the newly freed space in my HT. I think people with limited space considerations or who are looking for a more unobtrusive installation are going to observe a hell of a lot to similar about this product. A few of the standout music and film samples during my time with the SuperSub X were:

The White Stripes "Disgusting Thump"

Icky Thump by The White Stripes on Warner Brothers CD. The last studio album from The White Stripes is a blistering return to their garage stone and blues roots. While the CD has a bit of a rap for being mastered at an excessive book, the resultant distortion fits in well with the overall sound of the album.

1000000 White on drums is outstanding and every distorted kick drum hit comes through on the footling SuperSub X with a good deal of ability and potency. The title track, "Icky Thump," and the song "Conquest" only have a great driving rhythm to them and the SuperSub Ten showed that information technology had all the guts information technology needed to properly rock out with these tunes. Information technology'southward loud, dingy, punch-in-gut music that sounds really good through this sub.

Holly Cole "It Happened I Night 6.28"

It Happened I Dark half-dozen.28 past Holly Cole, Metro Blue CD. This is a disk that I come up back to oftentimes because it is such a great alive recording with fantastic bass, piano and percussion to augment Holly Cole's magnificent vocals. The opening track, "Go Out of Town" starts with some low register piano notes that come through properly weighted via the SuperSub X.

The song then transitions to a mini bass solo with such a deep and tight assault on the strings that translates just virtually perfectly through the 10. "Cry If You Want To" also has a great dueling stand-up bass and pulsate part, nigh half style through the vocal, that features the SuperSub X interpreting all the deep characteristics of those two instruments cleanly, potently and accurately. The detail reproduction is pretty much as good equally I remember it existence from the XXL model.

Captain America Civil State of war

Captain America Civil War, Curiosity Studios. The third installment in the "Cap" franchise sees a long building turmoil come to a head betwixt Helm America and Iron Man, as well a good deal of setup taking place for the next Avengers movie. The SuperSub 10 lived up to its billing by keeping up with all the superheroes in this movie and all the super-effects from the super-powers that required some super-amounts of bass playback. Ane of the best scenes was when the Avengers are squaring off against each other at the airport and Emmet-Human being has turned himself into a literal behemothic as a diversion for Helm America and Bucky to escape.

Ant-Homo's enormous foot falls, various explosions, touch crashes, super power sounds and, just general, bass-churning commotion in this scene was like playtime for the little GoldenEar. While possibly simply a shade less potent than its bigger blood brother would've been, the SuperSub X, nonetheless, gave a near enjoyable performance here. For such a modestly sized little box, I only had to exist impressed with how big information technology sounded and how well it meshed with all my other HT speakers at the crossover point.

In the Eye of The Sea

In the Heart of The Sea, Warner Brothers. This movie tells the tale of how Herman Melville constitute the inspiration for writing his great American classic, Moby Dick. The story centers around the characters on lath the whaling ship Essex and its sick-fated encounter with a "demon" of a white whale. Soon later on the movie begins, the ship's captain sends the Essex directly into the path of a huge storm equally the crew tries to make upwardly lost time to get to the whaling grounds.

The SuperSub X does yeoman's work in helping to engross y'all with all the power of the ocean. The waves crashing into the ship during the squall felt thoroughly weighty and deep, and any time the point of view became submerged, the GoldenEar helped make you lot feel the weight of the body of water upon yous. Later on in the film, when the white whale shows his displeasure with the sailors by physically ramming the Essex repeatedly, the SuperSub X was, one time again, punching above its weight making each one of those impacts experience forceful and solid. In fact, any time the camera placed united states virtually the demon white whale, the LFE effects made you lot feel like you were indeed next to something truly massive. Again, this is pretty impressive stuff coming from one subwoofer about the size of a habitation breadstuff automobile.

On The Bench

The criterion tests were conducted through the subwoofer'south RCA LFE input. The source device was a LYNX Two professional PC sound card using test signals created past SpectraPLUS audio measurement software. Measurements were sampled with a calibrated Earthworks M30 microphone. Subwoofer frequency response measurements are close mic'd at 1 foot from the center of the driver. All THD+N tests are conducted with the mic at 2 meters. Except where noted, the subwoofer was measured indoors in the eye of a big basement room with a minimum of five meters to any wall. All measurements were taken with the mic and software calibrated at 90dB

This is a frequency response measurement taken of the SuperSub X using a 10Hz – 250Hz sweep. It is meant to simulate an anechoic response (every bit much as is reasonably possible here) without the benefit of notable room gain. Since this sub has four radiating surfaces, measurements were taken at ane pes from the center of each surface and averaged together to create this graph. The sub has a pretty nice response downwards to about 26 Hz before information technology starts to quickly roll off. No doubt some protection measures are in identify here to protect the driver and amplifier from damage below the passive radiators tuning point. The unassisted results are squeamish and consistent without any anomalies between the amp and drivers.

This next graph shows THD+N measurement at 50Hz to exist 0.695315%. A very proficient figure.

Next is the THD+Northward measurement at 40Hz which is 0.760667%. Also, an first-class effigy.

At 30Hz the THD+North effigy is 0.861524%. Very good.

At 25Hz we see a bit of a jump in distortion to 4.685398% THD+North. However, not also bad and below audibility.

At 20Hz the THD+Northward level rises again to 9.935256%. x% THD+N is considered the level where distortion starts becoming audible in the bass frequencies.

This a plot of ARC's measurement of the SuperSub X in my HT. Note the purple "uncorrected response with bass management" line which shows the upshot of room proceeds on output and extension in the lower frequencies versus the "anechoic" frequency response graph earlier. This gives ARC plenty of room to work with in helping to set a flatter extended target. It's also a truer representation of how this sub volition perform in-room.

Conclusions

THE SUPERSUB 10 is a Sleek True cat of a Subwoofer That Roars Similar a Panthera leo.

Likes

• First-class sound quality.
• Information technology's small.
• Solid construction.
• Attractive end.

Would Like To Meet

• A 0/180-caste phase switch or variable phase control for those who don't use room correction.
• A balanced (XLR) input.
• Other finishes beyond piano black.

The GoldenEar SuperSub X is an excellent little subwoofer, full stop. It gives ane a large measure of the performance available from the bigger sibling XXL model, just in an even more petite parcel. GoldenEar has used some novel thinking and engineering design work to obtain the performance parameters of a traditionally larger sub from something small enough to make deep bass attainable for people who might be otherwise space-challenged. It's built robustly, looks fetching and, where it counts, sounds extremely good. On music, in particular, GoldenEar subs have been exceptional performers and the SuperSub X is no dissimilar. One of these subs will convincingly energize a medium sized room. If you get two, and take the pains to place them properly, y'all will be rewarded with more headroom and more fifty-fifty bass distribution. I'm a firm believer in the benefits of multiple subs so I like to encourage this line of thinking. The SuperSub Xs are and so small however, why stop at but two? Get for four. I'g sure GoldenEar won't heed!

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Source: https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/speaker/subwoofers/goldenear-technology-supersub-x-subwoofer-review/

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