Ultra-10 review (short)

[michaeljhuman]

I will keep this short. Got the Ultra-10 at the sale price. Used to be there were not many subs under $400 worth looking at. Few I knew of, anyway.

Specs seemed promising.

The Ultra-10 is an excellent size for apartments. It's got the 10" driver, and takes up little more room than needed to support that driver.

One would think it's bass response was not going to be very good. Here's some numbers for you. (average SPL on my 20hz-20khz sweep was somewhere in the range from 70 to 75 dB)

120hz 71 dB
60hz 78 dB
30hz 76 dB

20 OOR (Out of range of meter)
21 OOR
22 63
23 63
24 65
25 69
26 71
27 72
28 73
29 74

I would call that usable bass response down to 22hz! I would call -3 dB down at 26hz. For the price I paid, this is surprising performance.

I had measured my previous sub, a dual 8" sub with 100 watt amp, and the Emotiva trounced it when it came to bass extension.

Hard to say what sort of peak SPL this will put out, but I seem to recall Emotiva claiming low 100. I think that works just fine for my needs.

I have played some bass heavy stuff, and it sounds good. For example, Crystal Method's Trip like I do. Not sure it sounds better than what I had, but that's fine. I did not like the controls on the old sub, the level control was way too twitchy. The controls were cheap to.

Besides size, and bass extension, this sub has nice controls on it, including a crossover defeat.

I would call this best deal in AV I ever purchased, as long as it works for two years

[michaeljhuman]

Hello.

Having had more time to play my system with the Ultra 10 in the setup, I am still impressed. I was playing some songs tonight, and the bass seemed perfect (subjective, but at least I admit it

For example, I am playing Shake Ya Tailfeather (Bad Boys). Sure I am 45, but I still like some songs of this sort. The bass sounds perfect as mentioned before.

I played some Sublime. Doin' Time (the summertime song.) This song has a lot of bass notes in it. And a low kick drum. While I am sure it sounds even better on subs with more bass extension, it sounds "correct." Correct is more important to me than maybe having more bass.

Just to name some other fun demos, most of which sounded very good

Thompson Twins - Play with me ( Off Cool world soundtrack) - there's a kick drum with a sharp attack in the mix
Southside - Moby - A fair amount of bass. There's a "hollow" sound I hear in this mix, I have suspected it's partly my speakers, but it could be my accoustics, or the mix
Distoteque - U2 - Sounded boomy. I think this is due to a muffled kick drum in the mix and not my system
Erasure - Chains of Love - Kick drums and bass sounded solid. The mix is a bit noisy which I recall hearing before
INXS - The Devil Inside - Kick drums sound really good. I think I hear bass in the mix...somewhere. Hard to hear over the kick drums on this song
Word Up - Melanie G (Off Austin Powers S.W.S.M soundtrack) - This sounds nearly perfect. I blame the mix for the non perfection of the track, but it's mixed better than many many songs

[NorthStar]

Thank you very much Michael for sharing your experience with that excellent-for-the-money Ultra Sub 10.
...You just confirmed what others are saying.



Cheers,
Bob

[michaeljhuman]

I am playing some more music. It's fun how buying new gear makes you want to listen to more music. I am playing "Pump up the Volume" M/A/R/S at about 85 dB SPL (average).

The kick drum and bass line sound amazing. This Ultra-10 continues to amaze. I am SURE there are better subs, perhaps for not much more money. But for an apartment setup, I see no need for a better sub. I am sure that the sub 12 probably has even more impact. But it's the integration that impressed here. When the low bass sits perfectly in the mix like mine does, I can't personally ask for more ( I am not as critical about movies which is why I mainly evaluate this for music.)

I still say I got THE best deal in audio. You just know there are some craptastic subs out there for more money that don't sound as good for music.

[NorthStar]

Aug 10, 2010 21:54:21 GMT -5 michaeljhuman said:

I am playing some more music. It's fun how buying new gear makes you want to listen to more music. I am playing "Pump up the Volume" M/A/R/S at about 85 dB SPL (average).

The kick drum and bass line sound amazing. This Ultra-10 continues to amaze. I am SURE there are better subs, perhaps for not much more money. But for an apartment setup, I see no need for a better sub. I am sure that the sub 12 probably has even more impact. But it's the integration that impressed here. When the low bass sits perfectly in the mix like mine does, I can't personally ask for more ( I am not as critical about movies which is why I mainly evaluate this for music.)

I still say I got THE best deal in audio. You just know there are some craptastic subs out there for more money that don't sound as good for music.

Is that the same with Yamaha receivers?

[michaeljhuman]

Receivers are interesting. They are mass produced devices often reusing the same basic design across pricing groups, and over a period of years.

If HDMI 1.5 comes out, just pop in new HDMI chips change a bit of programming, and maybe add some "must have" features.

No reason to redesign most of the receiver.

Sometimes they add a few minor features then up the price 100's of dollars.

I like to look for sweet spots in the lineup. Where they put a bigger power transformer in the receiver, and the feature set is up to date. I call that a winner.

[michaeljhuman]

You may ask then why I own the second most expensive Yamaha receiver (before the new A line comes out.) Because I have a sickness. I wanted the top of the line video processing in case it would help with some SD channels on cable. It didn't. But I still have the expensive Z7. The bright side is I tell others my findings, hopefully saving them money.