The best Subwoofer

Check out Paradigm Servo 15. I have had one for 8 months and am quite happy with it. It blends with my Reference Active 40s, center and surrounds by the same company.

I won't say the Paradigm Servo 15 I use is the best thing out there but I will second Beam's post and add that it is damn good for the dough. Maybe the best sounding serious sub for the money. I don't take any of the "little wonder" subs very seriously. Once you get past the gee-whiz factor they just don't sound as good. Better yet two can be purchased for the price of things like the Muse 18B or Aerial Sub and in my experience two good subs sound better than one great sub when placed carefully.

You can't really expect much from the high-pass section of any sub crossover so if you are really critical about transparency you should run your main speakers full range. You lose any overall increase in system dynamics but you don't mess up everything else just for a few extra dbs of headroom. Using the adjustable low-pass on the crossover, bring the sub(s) in where the mains fade out. Variable phase is a very usefull feature also allowing you to better match the sub to the mains. I've been using Servo 15s with a pair of Paradigm's X30 crossover boxes with Merlin VSMs in a very high end system to great effect for a number of years.

Hey Doug, you beat me to the punch. I would suggest that the SW800's are probably just about as good as other forward firing, multi-driver subs for most speaker applications -- can't say for sure since I haven't heard them outside of the CLS application. I think this general design (used by VMPS, Genesis, Infinity and others) makes for faster, more articulate sound than single-driver, downward firing subs. Also, as Doug pointed out, passive subs allow for far more flexibility in amp and crossover selection and quality. Front firing subs benefit from positioning along side of, rather than behind, speakers (critical with dipoles and bipoles). What really makes these subs excell with CLS's is the crossover and Compusound software that was designed specifically for the speaker, and the fact that they are line sources. So, yeah, these are the best subs on the planet for CLS's. Although software modifications were once available for other speakers, this really is a dedicated sub system for the CLS. Given their scarcity and sometimes unreasonable asking prices, I would recommend other similar designs in non-CLS applications. I also strongly recommend getting behind the wheel of an Alfa and staying on the throttle for different but equally satisfying music ;-)

If you don't mind providing your own amp and crossover, Dunlavy has some not inexpensive Tower Subs that use the same drivers (and cabinets)as the SC-IVa, SC-V and SC-VI with four (4) 10 inch, 12inch or 15 inch drivers per cabinet (depending on model)

Widescreen Review just reviewed the TWR V's (which I also own). They are huge, effecient and incredibly tight and clean and fast and go well into the teens....and given the square inch of driver area, will move some very serious air.

A not for everyone product (size and price being the obstacle), but if you want a GREAT, and accurate sub, go for it.

It's not a regular catalog item, but Sound Lab does build electrostatic subwoofers that are probably the most accurate subs ever made.

This because of their figure-8 dipole radiation pattern, if nothing else - you see, for the same sound pressure level, a monopole sub puts out 5 db more into exciting the room's resonant modes. And it's the room's resonant modes that keep the bass notes from decaying properly, even with an ultra-fast driver. So the room's sonic signature inevitably muddies the bass. All other subs are inherently compromised in this area by their omnidirectional radiation pattern.

And when it comes to fast drivers, how many subwoofers out there use a driver that can also accurately trace a 25 kHz signal? Not many, I'll bet. You know how a good electrostat can let you hear every fiber in the brush as it caresses the cymbal? The Sound Lab subs can bring this kind of articulation down into the ultradeep bass.

Ultimately, it's all about tradeoffs, and the big Sound Lab subs aren't going to play as loud or as deep, dollar-for-dollar, as a state-of-the-art box sub. They are not the ultimate dinosaur-footfall sub. But they do music second to none, because of their room-friendly radiation pattern, their inherent absolute freedom from boxy colorations, and their ultrafast drivers.

Well if this sounds like the ravings of a proud owner, I can only say, I wish! My showroom doesn't have room for these beasts. Maybe some day...