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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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I could find almost no information on this brand or model on the internet, so I will add my impressions here.
The company started in 2014 in MS in the US. They are offering no-frills high value hand-built subwoofers. They source the class D amps from the US now. They get the drivers from the US also, I believe. The cabinets are made by a couple of local cabinet makers. The cabinet seems to be much better than the Velodyne. My reference sub was my 15 year old Velodyne F1800XR (internet special made for One Call w/ the "15 inch" A/B amp. (250W cont., 750W peak)), which was probably a bit underpowered.
Set up using "My Disc: The Sheffield/A2TB Test Disc" and a Radio Shack sound level meter was fairly quick and easy.
In my current set up, my active crossover for my Magnepans does not include a sub out and I have a combo HT/stereo system with the stereo being the top priority. So, I drive the sub directly from my Oppo BDP-83 which I use as my processor for Blu Ray movie discs. I have to set my Maggies to small for movies since they go down to <30Hz, but bottom out easily on Movies (not realistic music).
I don't trust my sound level meter too much at frequency extremes and use my ears too. I could not get flat response down to 20 Hz, but I an hear, using the test disc, it drop as it goes down from 25 to 20 Hz and can measure it going a little lower than that.
The best test that I have given it so far is "Transformers: Age of Extinction". I don't normally watch a movie more than once, nor do I buy them, but I have a 7-year old who owns this. Well, this confirmed what I was telling my wife that when my 15-year old sub broke, that we are missing 1/4 of movies (I figure ~1/2 for picture & 1/2 for sound, and the sub is ~1/2 of movie sound (power-wise).
For this movie, the sub was awesome. It had speed to punch you with sound when that was on the soundtrack. It was not fatiguing.
Later, my wife got home and wanted to hear it and we are not getting more movie rentals until tonight. So, I put in Transformers and just played parts. Then we skipped to the last 1/2 hour. It was mesmerizing for both of us. I realized that it really affects hormones or some chemicals circulating in your blood. It affects how you feel. So, while my wife could not understand why I needed to replace my broken sub as soon as possible, now she does and even she is excited about the next action movies with this sub.
It seems that Reaction audio is somewhat like kickstarter. I payed for my order on Nov. 24 and received my sub Dec. 28. They are preparing to ramp up their production capabilities. I had been considering a more expensive and lesser sub when I came across this new company. I am glad that I found them. I do not believe that there is a better value in subs today. $1200 for an 18" w/ 700W class D amp. The rolled edge foam allows for much more travel than my Velo did. I was concerned about the amp not having enough power (for 10-20 Hz) and I am not sure whether I hit the power limits, but I feel that I can get all that I need for a movie. I don't feel like I am missing any sounds, impacts, explosions, etc.
I wondered whether I needed the Gamma 21, but last night during Transformers, I went 2 floors up from the ground-level theater and could feel the walls vibrating. So the Gamma 18 shakes the whole 3-story house. I don't feel like I need to stretch my budget at this time for the 21" sub.
RA this year increased their in-home trial to 45 days and warranty to 5 years. The packaging is not $6000 sub corporate excellence, but it worked. I would rather spend my money on sound rather than packaging. It would not surprise me if the prices go up on the future, since they did already have some small price creep from the initial introductory prices.
At these prices, I hope one day to get a Gamma 15 and have my active crossover modified for a sub so that I can get the 20-25 Hz from my rare CDs that have music there when using my no-compromise 2.0 system.
I hope that I have helped to fill a void in the internet on RA subs.
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Topic - Reaction Audio Gamma 18 subwoofer - after one day - sbrians 09:14:49 12/29/15 (1)
- RE: Reaction Audio Gamma 18 subwoofer - after 3 weeks - sbrians 13:16:14 01/22/16 (0)
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