Posted by Brian Walsh on October 28, 2003 at 12:50:11:
In Reply to: U-1 Bass response posted by seadogs1 on October 28, 2003 at 12:04:25:
Hi Chuck, I'll try to address the U-1 bass response part.
My room is about 13 by 20. The U-1s are well into the room not far from the side walls. I have the bass turned down to -3, a setting frequently used by many Sound Lab owners. The bass is nice and full, tuneful and harmonically rich, and well controlled. Dipole bass has the virtue of greatly reducing room modes while reproducing the reverberant sound field of the acoustic recording venue such as an auditorium. It sounds natural.
Sound Lab conservatively rates the U-1s as extending down to the mid 20s, which may be realistic in large rooms. Room reinforcement of lower frequencies increases some with reduced room size, so it is possible to achieve response that is flat or nearly flat to 20 Hz. In large rooms one can augment the U-1s with UB-1s if the last few Hz are important. The UB-1 extends response well into the teens.
If top to bottom coherency is important to you, no moving coil type subwoofer will create the same experience as full range Sound Labs will. It is better to go with a larger Sound Lab model (M-1, A-1, or U-1) than to go with a smaller model and try to make up the difference with subwoofers, as the radiation and response characteristics will never be the same, even if you are able to achieve decent phase coherency at the prime listening position. In smaller rooms like mine, moving coil subs would be out of the question acoustically if not aesthetically as well.
Feel free to contact me offline if you'd like to discuss your room and objectives. And if you're in the midwest and perhaps within distance of Chicago and would like to hear a pair of U-1s, you're most welcome to come by. The proof is in the listening.
Brian