[djeickme]

I wonder if any one has any experience or opinions (as we all know the two are not the same thing) with changes in subwoofers over the relatively bried history of the beast. It seems to me that much of the "progress" in subwoofers has been related to the never ending quest to make them smaller and more room friendly as opposed to making them better performers. The top of the line subwoofers in the early days of home theatre (let's say the mid to late eighties) were huge beasts like the ULD 18 and the Snell SUB 1800. Now the top model from a brand like Velodyne is probably a third smaller than its ancestor. Does it reach much lower? play much louder? My only experience is comparing an old ULD 12 to a current production Paradigm Servo 15. Now this comparison should be taken with a grain of salt as they weren't in the same room but the same program material and same partnering equipment were used but I think it is still informative. The new production Servo 15 is a bit smaller than the older 12 inch. On movies the Servo 15 may be a bit louder and lower but you can really only tell on the most extreme material. It seems to me that the "discount" brands like HSU and SVS have simply stuck to the formula that was used 15 or 20 years ago. That formula seems to me to be build a great big box and stuff it with a reasonably large driver (let's say 12-14 inches with a one or two inch peak to peak excursion) and a reasonably powerful amp (let's say three or four hundred watts). They seems to be able to get performance that is spitting distance from the "statement" products like the JLAudio F113 or a Velodyne DD18 for 33% to 50% of the cost. I bet if we compared some of the old products like the ULD 18 or some of the THX models from M&K or even some of the old passive models like the SUB 1800 to the modern statement products and there discount competitors, I bet we would find the differences very small. I guess it all boils down to how much space you want to devote to your hobby.