"The local Cineplex was truly outclassed by the SUB 1 in my basement and left me with no reason to go back to the theater" - Secrets of Home Theater

"One can never be too rich, too good looking, or have too much bass. The first two axioms are ones that unfortunately I cannot test out myself, but the third is one that I am willing to give a shot" - Chris Heinonen of Secrets of Home Theater.

And a shot he most certainly took when the delivery truck backed in and dropped off a pair of Paradigm Reference Signature SUB 1s!


Since then, Chris' review of the "elegant but brawny beast of a sub" has been published and below are some excerpts...

Performance
"In the room above my home theater people sitting on the couch would feel everything vibrate from the SUB 1s below, but in the room the bass was tight and solid, without the thumping you would get from a subwoofer that is loud, but lacks control."

"Being used to less capable subs that had to create a lot of distortion to produce really powerful bass, I was expecting to hear that same distortion and error while listening to the SUB 1. Instead I was hearing the bass integrate perfectly in with the rest of the speakers, remaining tight and full, but not bloated or slow...The SUB 1 was subtler, adapting to the environment and staying hidden in the corners while making its presence felt but not distracting you from everything else."

"The SUB 1 provided some very good weight to the notes, but without pulling your ear towards them or presenting any voicing issues that would let you realize you were hearing the same note from two speakers. Once the drum kicks in the SUB 1s had no trouble keeping up with the music, which is an area I've seen other sub and speaker combinations fall behind in the past."

"(at the move theater)... What was missing was a few seconds of low, room shaking bass that the SUB 1 was able to reproduce from that fanfare that I had never heard before, and didn't hear in the theater. The local Cineplex was truly outclassed by the SUB 1 in my basement and left me with no reason to go back to the theater anytime soon."

Conclusion: On the Test Bench
"Overall the SUB 1s had some really powerful output, and the PBK showed how effective it can be on both the bench and in real life."

Final Thoughts
"So what was I missing without a reference level subwoofer? One thing was bass that integrated with my speakers and filled in those lower octaves, but without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. I was also missing out on notes that I can feel in my body and not even the movie theater could reproduce."

"In the end I was really missing another dimension to music and movies that I had survived without, but no longer want to give up. I would have loved to see how they combined with the Paradigm (Signature) S2 speakers I reviewed last year, which provide better detail and soundstaging than my current speakers but don't hit the lower octaves quite as well."

Click here! to read the full SUB 1 review by Chris Heinonen.

Click here! for more information on Paradigm's Signature SUB 1.