Best multi-purpose subwoofer

Hi Tim, 

sorry for the super late response. I was on vacation with family. Want to make sure I don’t ignore a fellow audiophile, specially when you have been so helpful. 

Well good new is - I purchased a JL Audio fathom f112 sub just last night. It is in immaculate condition and I paid $1200 for it. It just got back from JL Phoenix service center with a complete service too. 

Its a beast to unpack - but could not wait to do so. Hooked up without much calibration to my benchmark DAC/preamp and my oh my. All I can say is I was missing so much in my 2 channel listening? I had not idea. I am hearing low octave details that were not there before and I think the Von Schweikerts have opened up more 60 Hz and up. I want to take this next week to really take the time to dial in the sub for both 2 channel and HT. 

As for using OPPO as an HT processor compared to Marantz - I had played around a lot with that idea and did a lot of serious comparisons. For HT I think using Ausessy calibration setup really gives an upper hand to Marantz. Movies really have that slam and dynamism and open theater sound using the Marantz with Audessy compared to OPPO. I am keeping my OPPO though for network use, reading my flac files from HD and de-embedding the HDMI from Apple TV for my digital Apple Music. Very happy with that set up driven through the benchmark DAC/preamp. 

Hello guhlamr,

    Congratulations, the JL Audio fathom f112 sub is an excellent choice.  It's heavy at 115 lbs, solid, has a powerful class D amp, comes with a mic and room correction and the 12" driver should be very good for music and ht.  Plus at $1,200, you got a great deal. Good job.

    For setup, I'd still suggest placing it at your listening seat, playing the demo mode on the JL and walking around your room perimeter to find the best spot to locate it.  The bass will probably sound exaggerated in the corners when you do this walk around.  Once this is done, you can run the auto room correction to fine tune the bass response at your listening position even further.
     The last step is finding the right crossover frequency that works well for music and ht.  My suggestion is to set this frequency as low as possible while still sounding good to you.  Remember, the sub is there to provide good bass impact when the content calls for it,  the goal is not to constantly hear it.  This is what is meant by 'seamless integration' with your main speakers.


Enjoy,
 Tim
 
     

Can't go wrong with JL v2 series. Using mine in both HT and 2 Ch application. Not looking for anything else.  My space is 15X22X8 and the F112 is more than enough.

guhlamr and gillatgh,

While your room (22x22x8) is larger than gillatgh’s room (15x22x8) and you’re both using only a single high quality sub, you’ll both find that you can optimize bass response at a single position (your chosen listening position) in your rooms provided the sub is properly positioned within the room in relation to your listening position. I detailed the procedure for properly locating a single sub in my last post.


The compromise of using only 1 sub in a room is that bass response will be poor at numerous other locations in the room. This will be obvious by just walking around the room after optimizing the bass at your listening seat. You’ll notice that at various spots in the room the bass will sound exaggerated, attenuated and even nonexistent. These spots of poor bass are the result of ’Bass Modes’ existing at these spots in the room.
Bass modes occur because bass sound waves launched from a sub are very long (a 30Hz sound wave is 37.66 ft long, a 20Hz wave is 56.5 ft long) and these long waves continue to reflect or bounce off room boundaries (walls, ceiling and floor) until they run out of energy.
The points where these reflected bass sound waves meet or collide are called bass modes. When 2 sound waves reinforce each other, the bass will be perceived as exaggerated. When 2 sound waves meet at various angles, the bass is perceived as attenuated and when 2 sound waves meet or collide head on, the bass is perceived as totally absent since the 2 waves cancelled each other out resulting in what is termed a ’Standing Wave’.
As I’ve stated before, the only currently known method of attaining very good bass response throughout an entire room is to deploy what is called a ’Distributed Bass Array System’. The DBA system is a scientifically proven method (developed by 2 doctors of acoustical engineering, Earl Geddes and Floyd O’Toole) that consists of 4 subs strategically positioned in a room that is exceptionally effective in significantly reducing the number of bass modes in any given room.
An additional benefit of the JL f112 sub is that it’s fairly simple to add additional JL subs if you ever wanted to. The existing sub is termed the ’Master’ and an additional JL sub is called a ’Slave’. Only a single cable is required for connecting the slave to the master. Multiple slave subs can be connected connecting them with a single cable in a daisy chain method and the master recognizes all attached subs as a single bass system.
So, you both currently have very good bass response at your listening position and have the option to incrementally improve that bass response by adding properly positioned subs. If you decide to deploy a DBA, you’ll attain state of the art bass response throughout your entire room and likely be able to charge admission for music or ht.


Enjoy,
Tim
.

@ghulamr --

I believe you made a sensible choice with the JL Audio F112. Never heard/felt it, but from what I’ve read it’s a very powerful and accurate sub that extends below 20Hz, so something along the lines of REL-territory musicality with the added bonus of brute force and infrasonic capabilities, the latter of which adds another dimension/experience layer to Blu-ray/UHD films. I used a single SVS SB16-Ultra for a year and a half, a sub I believe compares in performance to the F112 rather closely, and placed between my main speakers it integrated very well for both music and Home Theater duties. I had it low-passed at 61-62Hz/24dB with the mains running full range.

As of late though I’ve converted to a pair of (tapped horn) subs, and experimenting with dual placement has come up with some interesting findings. One option (in variations) has been to have one sub between the main speakers and the other behind the listening position against the rear wall (optionally in a corner), configured in mono with a cross-over to the mains somewhere between 80-100Hz - a rather successful setting with good pressurization and fairly flat/smooth response.

Placing them instead along the side walls fed with a stereo signal (digital sources maintain stereo all the way down in the lowest bass, insofar they’re mixed in stereo, whereas LP’s are monaural below 100Hz regardless) in a symmetrical configuration to the mains has the bass from the subs "latch on" to the mains in a distinctly more natural and very seamless fashion compared to the front/rear option and single front/center placed SVS, not least making for an even more coherent presentation. I think the primary factor to be aware of here is placing dual subs symmetrically in relation to the main speakers (making phase/delay adjustment much easier, along with gain), and even having a true stereo signal for better ambient reproduction. The latter aspect here may be debated due to bass being less directional below some 80Hz, and while my subs are crossed between 80-100Hz/48dB (not yet settled) to be more directionally "visible," I find the bass-being-omnidirectional claim too categorial in not factoring in the importance of ambient information aided via a stereo signal, below 80Hz as well.

So, do consider a second F112 in your setup, for several reasons; you’ll have ~6dB more headroom as well and double the air radiation area. In the meantime enjoy your new acquisition and integrating it with your mains and acoustics.