Table Tuba Review

[maxmercy]

I really didn't know what to expect, considering the large amounts of praise this cab has gotten on this forum....but I can now say that praise is well deserved.

I built mine out of 1/2" MDF, and I plan to veneer it and dress it up for use as an end table (pics to follow when I get the thing finished).

I fired it up after completing construction this weekend, and I was really surprised. For some background though, I have never really listened to a really expensive or well-thought of home theatre or hifi system, so please understand that this review is with this in mind.

I have owned several low to mid price powered subs, in the 10-12 inch range, all acoustic suspension boxes with plate amps attached. For every one, when I would set speaker levels, it always seemed that I would have to leave the low frequencies at a lower spl than the rest, because the sub would all start to sound 'stressed', or seem like they were having trouble reproducing as accurately as they did at lower volume levels. Not so with this thing. I had what seemed to be too much low end, unless the volume on the plate amp powering it was turned down to around 1/4 volume. The sound is also effortless, even at higher volumes. No 'stressed out' sound. Just louder. This was without wall or corner placement, just in the middle of the room.

I did notice one thing, though. When I finally moved it to a corner as per the plans, I thought it sounded a little muddier. Has anyone else had this happen? Or does it just seem that way because the spl levels are greater when it is in a corner?

Either way, I can say I was truly amazed, even after reading some of the reviews on this forum that seemed to good to be true... I found myself playing lots of different movie scenes and tracks to see what I had been missing before, and found that some CDs and DVDs seem to be put together for listening setups that do not reproduce low end well, and others seemed to have almost too much low end material...


JSS

[JReynolds]

The muddier sound you are hearing could be from room interactions or your eq settings. Make sure your tone controls are flat before you start experimenting.

The muddier sound could also be extra midbass creeping into the output of the sub. Tubas produce TONS of midbass naturally unless you filter it out, try lowering your crossover level.

[maxmercy]

I really don't have a separate eq, but my receiver bass/treble are all at 0. I'll lower the x-over on the plate amp to 50, it was at 60.

Thanks!

JSS

[maxmercy]

The problems are definitely the room. lots of peaks and valleys depending on listener position (quick measuring at 5Hz intervals). Like I said, I have never really had plenty of low end, so this is all new territory for me. Just to make sure it was the room, I ran some tones through the TT placed outside.

With the TT on the back porch facing out into the backyard, much more even. So now I am going to build some bass traps to try to even out the response inside.

I am still amazed at what this little 8 can do. I have had friends ask where all the other drivers are hidden in the box....

JSS

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I treat my sub like a sportscar. I set it for how it sounds best where I sit. As for the rest of the room, that's like the backseat of a coupe. It may not be comfortable, but I don't sit in the backseat.