Upgrade from Klipsch Cornwall 4 to Lascala AL5

[Flevoman]

I took the plunge and switched from the Cornwall 4 to the LaScala AL5. I was alternating between two amplifiers with the CW4, the Decware Zen Triode and the Willsenton R300. Both sounded very pleasant in my setup, but I preferred the Decware. I was actually quite satisfied with how my setup sounded, but there's always the desire for something better, hence the LS AL5.

They've only just been placed in the living room, but I'm finding these speakers difficult to position properly. While my CW speakers could create a beautiful soundstage with vocals and instruments detached from the speakers, it seems like the sound from the LS speakers is really coming out of the speakers. The voice is in the middle , but immediately after that, it's clearly the left and right speakers playing.
If anyone has tips on how to improve this, I'd love to hear them.

Another thing I've noticed is that the CW sounds fresher and more open. The LS has a somewhat colored sound. Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it, but for now, I find it bothersome. If I had a treble knob, I would use it, so to speak.

Although it may not come across that way, I'm still happy with the purchase. I can hear that these speakers have more quality to offer. The speed is truly impressive. The low end is fuller and warmer with the CW, but my goodness, the low end on the LS has such punch and detail.

I'll still be fine-tuning for a while, but if I achieve the sound I'm expecting, it will definitely be an improvement.

I welcome any tips

 

[Robh3606]

Are the dispersion patterns the same?? I have a couple of horn systems and the toe-in is critical with distance and changes depending on the horizontal pattern width. If they are in the same position you may want to switch things up a bit to see what you get.

Rob

 

[Flevoman]

Thanks for the tip.
No, the speakers are set up exactly the same.
But what I'm wondering is what kind of difference I should expect in the sound if I move the speakers further away from the wall.
From what I've read, these speakers can be placed close to the wall. It should even enhance the bass response.
However, I've also come across suggestions to keep the speakers a distance away from the wall.
What would this add to the sound, and how far should the speakers be positioned from the wall?

 

[jfrech]

If I remember, the CW is more a conventional design where as the LS is horn loading the bass driver also. I suspect they will need very different placement in your room. If the LS is sounding "too hot" it needs more bass reinforcement which usually means moving closer to the wall. I'd move it some, listen and try again. My speakers I was down to 1mm movements in my room before I said STOP that's the spot!

 

[Robh3606]

Thanks for the tip.
No, the speakers are set up exactly the same.
But what I'm wondering is what kind of difference I should expect in the sound if I move the speakers further away from the wall.
From what I've read, these speakers can be placed close to the wall. It should even enhance the bass response.
However, I've also come across suggestions to keep the speakers a distance away from the wall.
What would this add to the sound, and how far should the speakers be positioned from the wall?

Hello Flevoman

There could be a couple of things. You went from a reflex speaker to all horn loaded and the bass response of Cornwall goes a bit lower. As far a placement don't worry about getting too close to the walls or the speakers. Just try it and see what you get. Close to the walls will help the balance. Toe In, distance between, and listening distance can make a world of difference. Experiment with listening distance and toe in if you can't easily change the distance between the speakers. Horns don't necessarily require a large listening distance so try coming in a little closer. Depends on horn sizes and distances and crossover points.

You don't have extreme directivity speakers so they should integrate well with experimentation.

Try Toe in that may look a bit extreme. Example is up to 45 degrees. Aim them right at your head at the listening position and slowly change back to less extreme. Or go the other way just try.

I have a large 4 way active system that works well at a listening distance closer than you would think. So just experiment you have nothing to loose by trying things "outside the box"

Rob

 

[Germanboxers]

How many hours do you have on the LaScala AL5's? Some of what you describe is similar to what I typically hear with a new speaker that has less than 100 hours of run in on the drivers and/or crossover. Not saying that this is the cause as others have postulated valid possibilities to pursue, but lack of run on the speakers can have a similar effect.

 

[jfrech]

How many hours do you have on the LaScala AL5's? Some of what you describe is similar to what I typically hear with a new speaker that has less than 100 hours of run in on the drivers and/or crossover. Not saying that this is the cause as others have postulated valid possibilities to pursue, but lack of run on the speakers can have a similar effect.

I have to agree with this comment also-it's a very good point in addition to the other points above. Your LS have very large bass drivers and it takes a bit of time to work em in.

One final idea, check and make sure you didn't accidentally reverse phase on the speaker wire....to both speakers and from the amp.

 

[Flevoman]

How strange, so many replys and no notifications.
Anyway, thx for the advise guys.
For now I keep them as they are.
I think it's smarter to first get used to this speakers so i can hear better small changes.
I have notices it's quiet hard for now to hear small differences.
The speakers are demo speakers by the way from my audio dealer. I think they have played for 250 hours (this is what they have told me at least)
So I think this can't be the reason.

 

[godofwealth]

I bought a La Scala AL5 last year and absolutely love it. It was my first horn loudspeaker in 30+ years, having owned pretty much every type of speaker technology there is (planar, electrostat, moving coil dynamic, powered etc.). I have mine set up in a large great room with around 6000 cubic feet (the great room itself opens out to a kitchen and dining room, so there is a lot of free space for sound to travel). My La Scalas are set wide apart — I’d estimate about 14 feet or so — and fairly close to the back wall. I listen about 12 feet back. The sound is absolutely gorgeous. No brightness, warmth galore, and dynamics are of course stunning. It takes a lot to impress me. I have at home 3 pairs of Quad electrostatics (57s, 2805, 2905), a pair of Harbeth Monitor 40.1s, and a few others I won‘t mention (like a 30 year old pair of Martin Logan CLS in a closet!).

One very crucial thing to remember is that the La Scalas are hugely efficient, around 105 dB. This is more than 20 dB efficient than my Quads or Harbeth. So, if I drove my Quads with a 100 watt amplifier, I’d produce the same loudness as I would get driving my La Scalas with a 1 watt amplifier. This means one can invest in a high quality SET amp, and the best NOS tubes that money can buy. That’s exactly what I do. I also use a very high quality tube preamp (ARC Ref 6SE) and a very high quality tubed DAC (Lampizator Pacific).

I should also mention that my great room is very heavily damped with large overstuffed sofas, carpeting and plenty of sound absorbing materials from various throw pillows and cushions. The trick is to balance how much sound absorption you use and how much reflectivity you get from the glass windows. I have a large coffee table in the middle that I have piled a large number of my academic books in an irregular manner to break up sound reflections. Every little bit helps.

Above all, avoid bright sounding amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, bright moving coil cartridges etc. You want ideally “soft” sounding components. I also listen to high quality choral music, well recorded classic jazz from the 1950s/60s, and chamber music and symphonic music. All in all, the La Scalas is close to the best purchasing decision I made in 35 years and being on the right side of 60, I am glad I bought them and entered the wonderful world of horns and SETs. Now, I look with amusement at large dynamic speakers that require boat anchor solid state or tube amplification. Not for me! I have been down that road before.

This is a good review of the La Scala AL5, complete with measurements. The review was highly positive. They also reviewed more recently the Klipschorns, which they did not like. What is absolutely important to understand is that the La Scalas give you low distortion bass (the review below notes harmonic distortion is around 0.1% at 90 dB — I’d like to see a dynamic loudspeaker from Wilson, Magico, JBL or anyone else match that! The best moving coil dynamic speakers, e.g. the JBL M2 that cost 30 grand, have around 1000x higher harmonic distortion in the bass). So, I’d forget about the Cornwall, which uses a conventional bass unit, not horn loaded. I use a pair of Rel G1 Gibraltar Mk2s for extreme lows (set to 30 Hz, the Gibraltar goes down to 15 Hz), when I feel like vibrating my room with pipe organ music. I find the La Scala perfectly enjoyable without subs. In my experience, even the best subs add a thickening of the sound and while all of us like low bass, it‘s a distortion. The concert hall has no low bass like you hear in a small room. One cannot get a concert hall the size of Carnegie Hall to vibrate like a cheap car stereo. You‘d instantly go deaf if the sound pressures were that high! But, we all like to get our kicks for hearing low bass, so I turn on my giant REL subs every once in a while.

Klipsch La Scala AL5 Loudspeaker

Producing monumental SPLs from next-to-no-power, this refreshed American behemoth is no brick in the PA wall. Prepare to be stunned by the La Scala's scintillating sound... Efficiency, sensitivity and coverage pattern – all attributes that are hard to beat,' says Klipsch's Principal Engineer Roy...

www.hifinews.com

 

[germinal]

to the TS : how has your experience with the Lascala's been till now ?

Reason I ask is out of genuine interest, but also because I have CW IV and am thinking about upgrading to Lascala's or something else...

@godofwealth : how do your Lascala's compare to the Harbeths ??

have a nice day!

 

[godofwealth]

Interesting question, as I have the La Scalas and the Harbeth Monitor 40.1s in the same room! One is driven by all tube electronics — ARC 6sE + a SET amp that varies. — and the other is driven by all solid-state electronics (Mola Mola Makula + Kaluga).

The best way to describe the sound of the Harbeth: imagine disconnecting the tweeter/horn of your Klipsch or any other dynamic moving coil loudspeaker! On first listen, you’re immediately thinking: what about the high’s? There is no treble… actually there is, if you measure the Harbeth, you find they are pretty flat up close. The highs are all there, it’s just the treble and midrange resonances that we are so used to are gone. Banished. What’s left is a sound that is almost “dead-sounding”, and that throws off a lot of people. We are so used to listening to loudspeakers that are so colored sounding with a sizzle on top that when you hear the Harbeth, you think something is off. It’s like eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant. I remember a few years ago eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant In southern Italy in Calabria in the quaint little town called Cosenza. I had a tuna dish that felt like it was almost raw, and yet, it was the tastiest tuna dish I had ever had. In food, we are so used to over processed overcooked spicy food that when you eat something that has almost no extra sauces but only pure ingredients, it’s like, whoa! But, you never forget that taste.

But, but, banishing midrange and treble colorations are one thing, getting the rest of the frequency spectrum to sing together is something entirely different. The fly in the ointment of the Harbeth Monitor 40.X sound is the bass, which to my ears sounds very cvercooked. They are expressly designed to sound good when played at a relatively soft volume. The designer Alan Shaw is a big believer in the Flecher Munson curves of human hearing, which shows our hearing acuity drops off exponentially fast in the bass and treble. Our hearing is maximally acute in the 1 KHz range. It is exponentially worse in the region. <100 Hz and above 10 KHz. I suspect most members in the WBF forum — demographics and biology being what it is — can’t hear a damn thing above 12 KHz or so. Are you male? Are you over 60? I suspect that covers a lot of us. Well, I have news for you. You can’t hear a damn thing in the treble. Sorry, that’s life. Males over a certain age have no high freuency hearing left. Woman are far better at hearing high frequencies. Remember that the next time you start thinking about DSD 512 up sampling etc. You might keep the dogs and your bats in the neighborhood happy. It doesn’t help you much cause you can’t hear what’s on a CD anyway!

The other problem with the Harbeth is that they don’t have much in the way of sound staging or reproducing the width and height that audiophiles love. While they do some types of orchestral music well, they cannot begin to match the dynamic range of the La Scalas. Where the La Scalas excel is exactly where the Harbeth’s fall short. They reproduce the sheer dynamic range of a 600 member choral group with stunning dynamics, almost but not quite as well as hearing choral groups live. They have an almost unmatched ability to go loud or soft with no change in their sound. The low distortion in the bass means, next to the Harbeth, they might sound lean. Actually, they have very little deep bass. Now, on to another of my controversial points for many of you. Want to hear deep bass? Go to a concert hall or a church! There is no realistic deep bass in a house of average dimension. Sorry mates, physics being what it is, you cannot reproduce a 20 Hz or even a 30 Hz wave as realistically as you can in a concert hall. Unless you live in a palace, you cannot get deep bass to sound right. What you get is a fake sound like a loud car stereo. Stick to the range above 50 Hz. That you can get right in a listening room. The La Scalas get bass above 50 Hz right, and they go on pretty high, but no extreme treble above 15 kHz. I cannot hear above 15 KHz anyway, so who cares?

In short, if you want an absolutely pure midrange, but flabby bass, and very little sound staging, get the Harbeth. If you want stunning dynamics, accurate bass, exceptional stage width, low distortion, and a very pure sound regardless of volume, get the La Scalas. Keep in mind that for the La Scalas to sound nice, you must, repeat must, drive them with the best SET amp money can buy.. Do not, repeat, do not drive them with a horrible sounding solid state amplifier. You will get grainy treble. The incredibly pure treble horn driver in the La Scala will let you know all the reasons why most solid state amplifiers suck! Treat them nice, get a lovely 45 SET, and you will get a gorgeous sounding speaker.

Life is full of compromises. No speaker will sound like a live orchestra or a live piano or a live saxophone, even if you spent a billion dollars, you are not going to get a loudspeaker to sound like live music, That’s just a basic reality imposed on us from physics and electronics getting in the way. But, we cannot hear Duke Ellington play live nor Ellla Fitzgerald nor hear the Beatles live. So, we live with compromises. The Harbeth and the La Scalas impose different compromises.

Best solution: have multiple loudspeakers and enjoy each one. I use 3 pairs of Quads as well, and I love all my Quads, because for sheer coherence of sound, nothing touches a Quad .But, you cannot play them loud! Life is full of compromises!

Hope this helps.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Interesting question, as I have the La Scalas and the Harbeth Monitor 40.1s in the same room! One is driven by all tube electronics — ARC 6sE + a SET amp that varies. — and the other is driven by all solid-state electronics (Mola Mola Makula + Kaluga).

The best way to describe the sound of the Harbeth: imagine disconnecting the tweeter/horn of your Klipsch or any other dynamic moving coil loudspeaker! On first listen, you’re immediately thinking: what about the high’s? There is no treble… actually there is, if you measure the Harbeth, you find they are pretty flat up close. The highs are all there, it’s just the treble and midrange resonances that we are so used to are gone. Banished. What’s left is a sound that is almost “dead-sounding”, and that throws off a lot of people. We are so used to listening to loudspeakers that are so colored sounding with a sizzle on top that when you hear the Harbeth, you think something is off. It’s like eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant. I remember a few years ago eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant In southern Italy in Calabria in the quaint little town called Cosenza. I had a tuna dish that felt like it was almost raw, and yet, it was the tastiest tuna dish I had ever had. In food, we are so used to over processed overcooked spicy food that when you eat something that has almost no extra sauces but only pure ingredients, it’s like, whoa! But, you never forget that taste.

But, but, banishing midrange and treble colorations are one thing, getting the rest of the frequency spectrum to sing together is something entirely different. The fly in the ointment of the Harbeth Monitor 40.X sound is the bass, which to my ears sounds very cvercooked. They are expressly designed to sound good when played at a relatively soft volume. The designer Alan Shaw is a big believer in the Flecher Munson curves of human hearing, which shows our hearing acuity drops off exponentially fast in the bass and treble. Our hearing is maximally acute in the 1 KHz range. It is exponentially worse in the region. <100 Hz and above 10 KHz. I suspect most members in the WBF forum — demographics and biology being what it is — can’t hear a damn thing above 12 KHz or so. Are you male? Are you over 60? I suspect that covers a lot of us. Well, I have news for you. You can’t hear a damn thing in the treble. Sorry, that’s life. Males over a certain age have no high freuency hearing left. Woman are far better at hearing high frequencies. Remember that the next time you start thinking about DSD 512 up sampling etc. You might keep the dogs and your bats in the neighborhood happy. It doesn’t help you much cause you can’t hear what’s on a CD anyway!

The other problem with the Harbeth is that they don’t have much in the way of sound staging or reproducing the width and height that audiophiles love. While they do some types of orchestral music well, they cannot begin to match the dynamic range of the La Scalas. Where the La Scalas excel is exactly where the Harbeth’s fall short. They reproduce the sheer dynamic range of a 600 member choral group with stunning dynamics, almost but not quite as well as hearing choral groups live. They have an almost unmatched ability to go loud or soft with no change in their sound. The low distortion in the bass means, next to the Harbeth, they might sound lean. Actually, they have very little deep bass. Now, on to another of my controversial points for many of you. Want to hear deep bass? Go to a concert hall or a church! There is no realistic deep bass in a house of average dimension. Sorry mates, physics being what it is, you cannot reproduce a 20 Hz or even a 30 Hz wave as realistically as you can in a concert hall. Unless you live in a palace, you cannot get deep bass to sound right. What you get is a fake sound like a loud car stereo. Stick to the range above 50 Hz. That you can get right in a listening room. The La Scalas get bass above 50 Hz right, and they go on pretty high, but no extreme treble above 15 kHz. I cannot hear above 15 KHz anyway, so who cares?

In short, if you want an absolutely pure midrange, but flabby bass, and very little sound staging, get the Harbeth. If you want stunning dynamics, accurate bass, exceptional stage width, low distortion, and a very pure sound regardless of volume, get the La Scalas. Keep in mind that for the La Scalas to sound nice, you must, repeat must, drive them with the best SET amp money can buy.. Do not, repeat, do not drive them with a horrible sounding solid state amplifier. You will get grainy treble. The incredibly pure treble horn driver in the La Scala will let you know all the reasons why most solid state amplifiers suck! Treat them nice, get a lovely 45 SET, and you will get a gorgeous sounding speaker.

Life is full of compromises. No speaker will sound like a live orchestra or a live piano or a live saxophone, even if you spent a billion dollars, you are not going to get a loudspeaker to sound like live music, That’s just a basic reality imposed on us from physics and electronics getting in the way. But, we cannot hear Duke Ellington play live nor Ellla Fitzgerald nor hear the Beatles live. So, we live with compromises. The Harbeth and the La Scalas impose different compromises.

Best solution: have multiple loudspeakers and enjoy each one. I use 3 pairs of Quads as well, and I love all my Quads, because for sheer coherence of sound, nothing touches a Quad .But, you cannot play them loud! Life is full of compromises!

Hope this helps.

Cut off the quad under100hz and add a ripol sub ...then get you party..promise

Sorry for offtopic

 

[germinal]

Interesting question, as I have the La Scalas and the Harbeth Monitor 40.1s in the same room! One is driven by all tube electronics — ARC 6sE + a SET amp that varies. — and the other is driven by all solid-state electronics (Mola Mola Makula + Kaluga).

The best way to describe the sound of the Harbeth: imagine disconnecting the tweeter/horn of your Klipsch or any other dynamic moving coil loudspeaker! On first listen, you’re immediately thinking: what about the high’s? There is no treble… actually there is, if you measure the Harbeth, you find they are pretty flat up close. The highs are all there, it’s just the treble and midrange resonances that we are so used to are gone. Banished. What’s left is a sound that is almost “dead-sounding”, and that throws off a lot of people. We are so used to listening to loudspeakers that are so colored sounding with a sizzle on top that when you hear the Harbeth, you think something is off. It’s like eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant. I remember a few years ago eating at a fabulous Michelin starred restaurant In southern Italy in Calabria in the quaint little town called Cosenza. I had a tuna dish that felt like it was almost raw, and yet, it was the tastiest tuna dish I had ever had. In food, we are so used to over processed overcooked spicy food that when you eat something that has almost no extra sauces but only pure ingredients, it’s like, whoa! But, you never forget that taste.

But, but, banishing midrange and treble colorations are one thing, getting the rest of the frequency spectrum to sing together is something entirely different. The fly in the ointment of the Harbeth Monitor 40.X sound is the bass, which to my ears sounds very cvercooked. They are expressly designed to sound good when played at a relatively soft volume. The designer Alan Shaw is a big believer in the Flecher Munson curves of human hearing, which shows our hearing acuity drops off exponentially fast in the bass and treble. Our hearing is maximally acute in the 1 KHz range. It is exponentially worse in the region. <100 Hz and above 10 KHz. I suspect most members in the WBF forum — demographics and biology being what it is — can’t hear a damn thing above 12 KHz or so. Are you male? Are you over 60? I suspect that covers a lot of us. Well, I have news for you. You can’t hear a damn thing in the treble. Sorry, that’s life. Males over a certain age have no high freuency hearing left. Woman are far better at hearing high frequencies. Remember that the next time you start thinking about DSD 512 up sampling etc. You might keep the dogs and your bats in the neighborhood happy. It doesn’t help you much cause you can’t hear what’s on a CD anyway!

The other problem with the Harbeth is that they don’t have much in the way of sound staging or reproducing the width and height that audiophiles love. While they do some types of orchestral music well, they cannot begin to match the dynamic range of the La Scalas. Where the La Scalas excel is exactly where the Harbeth’s fall short. They reproduce the sheer dynamic range of a 600 member choral group with stunning dynamics, almost but not quite as well as hearing choral groups live. They have an almost unmatched ability to go loud or soft with no change in their sound. The low distortion in the bass means, next to the Harbeth, they might sound lean. Actually, they have very little deep bass. Now, on to another of my controversial points for many of you. Want to hear deep bass? Go to a concert hall or a church! There is no realistic deep bass in a house of average dimension. Sorry mates, physics being what it is, you cannot reproduce a 20 Hz or even a 30 Hz wave as realistically as you can in a concert hall. Unless you live in a palace, you cannot get deep bass to sound right. What you get is a fake sound like a loud car stereo. Stick to the range above 50 Hz. That you can get right in a listening room. The La Scalas get bass above 50 Hz right, and they go on pretty high, but no extreme treble above 15 kHz. I cannot hear above 15 KHz anyway, so who cares?

In short, if you want an absolutely pure midrange, but flabby bass, and very little sound staging, get the Harbeth. If you want stunning dynamics, accurate bass, exceptional stage width, low distortion, and a very pure sound regardless of volume, get the La Scalas. Keep in mind that for the La Scalas to sound nice, you must, repeat must, drive them with the best SET amp money can buy.. Do not, repeat, do not drive them with a horrible sounding solid state amplifier. You will get grainy treble. The incredibly pure treble horn driver in the La Scala will let you know all the reasons why most solid state amplifiers suck! Treat them nice, get a lovely 45 SET, and you will get a gorgeous sounding speaker.

Life is full of compromises. No speaker will sound like a live orchestra or a live piano or a live saxophone, even if you spent a billion dollars, you are not going to get a loudspeaker to sound like live music, That’s just a basic reality imposed on us from physics and electronics getting in the way. But, we cannot hear Duke Ellington play live nor Ellla Fitzgerald nor hear the Beatles live. So, we live with compromises. The Harbeth and the La Scalas impose different compromises.

Best solution: have multiple loudspeakers and enjoy each one. I use 3 pairs of Quads as well, and I love all my Quads, because for sheer coherence of sound, nothing touches a Quad .But, you cannot play them loud! Life is full of compromises!

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the write up. I can't hear anything above 15khz, but still I don't wanna listen to focal or Wilson Audio because of their tweeters. They actually hurt my ears.

I'll try to audition the Lascala. I think they might work with my current SS amp though, Dartzeel 8550 MKII.

So if I understand correctly you don't miss the Cornwalls low end ?

 

[godofwealth]

Like I said, the typical low end on a non-horn-loaded woofer is basically distortion. It’s not how real bass sounds in a concert hall. A double bass in a concert hall sounds nothing like it does at home. You cannot reproduce 20 Hz in a listening room. So, forget low bass. Focus on what you can do properly, which is 50 Hz and above, that the La Scalas do impeccably well. I would also ditch the Dartzeel. You do not want solid state amps with the La Scalas. Trust me on this. Get a SET. You’ll be amazed at the sound. They will blow you away. All the La Scalas need is one really good watt. The rest is useless. At 105 dB sensitivity, you don’t need more than a few milliwatts. Low power is what you want. But high quality and without solid state grunge.

 

[godofwealth]

Cut off the quad under100hz and add a ripol sub ...then get you party..promise

Sorry for offtopic

I have spent decades trying different subs with various Quads I have owned. But you lose everything and gain little, IMHO. All you do when you add a sub is add distortion to the sound. I do have a pair of gigantic Rel Gibraltar Mk 2 subs, each weighing a hundred pounds or so that I sometimes hook up with my La Scalas, whenever I want to add some distortion to the sound. I keep them as low as possible, around 30 Hz or so, and low volumes. They add a slight amount of ambience distortion. But I don’t care for the boom boom of subs. They always sound to me like a cheap car stereo.

 

[DasguteOhr]

I have spent decades trying different subs with various Quads I have owned. But you lose everything and gain little, IMHO. All you do when you add a sub is add distortion to the sound. I do have a pair of gigantic Rel Gibraltar Mk 2 subs, each weighing a hundred pounds or so that I sometimes hook up with my La Scalas, whenever I want to add some distortion to the sound. I keep them as low as possible, around 30 Hz or so, and low volumes. They add a slight amount of ambience distortion. But I don’t care for the boom boom of subs. They always sound to me like a cheap car stereo.

All subwoofers that have a housing or a bass reflex are too slow and always sound like a limping leg. Subwoofers that work as a dipole fit this very well. try it out, a recommendation