Big daddy!

[Big Daddy]

There is no doubt that a DIY sub with good components or other commercially available 15" subwoofers are great, but none of them are going to kill the AA HD-SUB15. I have a DIY 15" Titanic sub with a Carver Amplifier that generates about 1500+ watts (RMS). I also have two passive 12" cylindrical high-end HSU subwoofers that cost me $1500 in 1998. A few months ago, I replaced their drivers with new 200+ drivers. I also have an AA HD-SUB12 in the same room. None of the subwoofers kill the AA sub. In fact, the AA sub is the loudest subwoofer in my room and I have the amp level set around 40%. The gain in my receiver for the subs is -2.0. The Hsu subs are a bit more musical and the 15" DIY Titanic is a bit deeper. I measured the performance of the AA sub with an SPL meter and test tones and it goes down to 20Hz.

Car subwoofers tend to be very loud and they are great with upper bass frequencies. Home theater subs are not as loud and are better with lower bass frequencies and tend to be more musical.

Human hearing is more sensitive to upper bass frequencies. We don't hear the lower bass frequencies as well. We usually feel them. You need to give your sub and your brain some time to adjust. It is not unusual for people who have come from car audio to be a bit underwhelmed at the beginning. However, almost all of them get used to their HT subs and don't like their car subs as much.