The road to nirvana

I don't know what gave me the kick earlier, when I suddenly decided to look for a subwoofer, yet again.

I scoured the buy and sell section of PinoyDVD to look for something cheap, basta lang tumunog. Stupid eh?! But I did found a seller, who's selling a Powercube 10 (Wharfedale) for 6K. I said, what the heck bilhin ko na! So I called him, and to my disappointment, sold na.

Suddenly, I got back to my senses and said to myself, what the "*^%^" are you doing? So, I put our internet bandwidth to some serious use and checked out some subs. Armed with a measuring tape, I started visualizing the subs based on their dimensions.

Am I nuts? Maybe

But I wanted a small sub. Everytime I see a subwoofer I shy away from their sizes alone.

I've tried a big Velodyne, two RELs, but never got this "this is it!" feeling, until now.

I saw a small sub which has a perfect dimension, I want something fast too - I admired the REL for this. But still they're too expensive for me, and never got to really like them that much.

I buggered the Audio Architects and asked if I can home audition the AW8. Nico is fast to the draw, I immediately got a "sure" reply. To cut the crap, I took home the unit, draped in bubble wrap. Epoy and Chad made sure it's going to the right vehicle.

I want a straight result, fast. I loaded up Blue Man Group's The Complex Rock Concert DVD and I planned to listen to the first track and make a decision. 1st track done, 2nd track, 3rd, 4th... what the ^&*^

I'm enjoying the thing! I connected my Harman Kardon AVR's "subwoofer out" to the AW8's "subwoofer in", set the AVR to LFE and that's it.

After watching portions of Finding Nemo and SWAT, I'm sold! Then I thought, hmmmn!  I connected the AW8 to my audio setup upstairs, used a Y RCA to feed both the amp and AW8 played Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Session, Steely Dan's Aja, and Willie Nelson's Stardust.

It's the final nail on the coffin - I texted the Architects and said, "I'm ordering one."

Then I realized, how much is this thing??! Ahh, I'll just forget it, I'm sure Nico and Epoy will give me a reasonable price. 

Pros:

- Integration. I believe this is the strongest feature of this sub. You'll hear the lows as if coming from the soundstage. In my HT setup, it was placed just beside the AV rack. In the audio setup, it was in the right corner of the listening position.

- Slam and depth without the headache. I've tried a sub once where I got a headache, not to mention single note boom-boom-boom. The AW8 does depth to my liking- smooth and suave, coupled with slam- speed and snap.

- Fast and musical. I didn't care about the material used or the technology ek ek, but this sub is fast and very musical.

- and did I say it's small? 

Cons:

- Wimpy power cord. To those who think it matters, you might be disappointed.

- Rubber feet. I just think that anything with a coned feet (spike) is macho