Spooky Good BANDPASS Subwoofers for Home Audio! Energy E SUB 2 Passive Stereo Subwoofers for Music!

Описание: Do you dare to watch the WATT SPEAKERS Halloween Special 2023? This video is just for fun, and I certainly hope you enjoy watching.

I picked up a vintage pair of Energy E SUB 2 BANDPASS Subwoofers a while back, and have been itching to hook them up and give them a listen.

Specifications:
·         System Type: 6th Order bandpass stereo subwoofer
·         Frequency Response: 25Hz - 250Hz
·         Impedance: 8 Ohm
·         Inputs: Gold plated binding posts
·         Dimensions: 31h x 21w x 41d
·         Finish: Black
·         Weight: 7.5 kgs / 16.5 Lbs

So here's what I know about BANDPASS Subwoofers: They're a unique design for a subwoofer which offers pros and cons. Personally, I was interested in seeing how BANDPASS subs sound for stereo music.

What's the difference between BANDPASS subs and sealed subs, ported subs, horn loaded subs and so on? From the little bit of research I did, the BANDPASS subwoofer design utilizes a subwoofer inside of a box. There's a difference in "orders". That is to say the roll off rate of its low pass. BANDPASS subs don't have a crossover, nor do you need an electronic crossover.

The BANDPASS enclosure creates a natural crossover, with some pretty fancy mathematics, and a port, or two bass reflex ports like on these Energy subwoofers from the 1980's. This pair looks brand new. Now back in the old days, before cell phones and Internet, powered subwoofers and receivers with line level subwoofer out pre-outs for LFE wasn't a thing yet.

While I'm not certain, I'm pretty sure that Lucas Films had a hand in that, with Star Wars when they worked with sound engineers to come up with someone other than crappy stereo systems in movie theaters. We've all heard of THX, but that's how that all came about, with a huge emphasis on... you guessed it, BASS. That's a history lesson that you can research, it's really quite interesting to understand the birth of surround sound and that earth shaking bass from low frequency extension.

Okay, so flashback to the golden era of Loudspeakers. Energy Loudspeakers was a leading high end speaker brand from Canada, owned but API, (Audio Products International). They also made Sound Dynamics speakers. Both brands were phenomenal bang for the buck rocking speakers. Klipsch eventually acquired Energy in the early 2000's. Klipsch eventually dropped the brand, although I'm still not sure why. The last of the Energy's were the RC Series, excellent speakers which I own and have for my home theater surround sound system today.

The Subwoofer I run with my home theater is a beast, the Energy S 12.3 that'll play under 20 Hz and has a wickedly powerful plate amplifier built in... Yeah, the Energy E SUB 2 isn't that.

But, the reason I wanted to try BANDPASS Subwoofers is, well... come to think of it, I saw those Energy's for sale, and was like "woah those are cool! ". Well I researched BANDPASS Subwoofers and learned they're actually excellent for music, they're more efficient, and from what I read, could pound out some serious bass.

In the modern world full of powered subwoofers, that ain't this either. Nope, these are passive stereo subwoofers. See back in the day when I was walking to school uphill both ways uphill, receivers just had two channels. Yup... That's gotta be a wow moment for the young'ins that may peruse this video, but it's true. Just left and right channels boys and girls.

When a stereoholic would want a little more low end grunt, they'd need a passive subwoofer. Now, dual coil subwoofers weren't very common either, so you'd need two subwoofers, one for the left channel and the other for the right channel. We'd hook'em up to the B speaker jacks, and then use our A and B channels simultaneously.

Okay, enough with the old man rambling, talking about ancient history though, and back to these badass Energy BANDPASS Subwoofers. Man, I gotta tell you, I like them a lot. I obviously don't need them with most of those big speakers I build, but for the medium sized speakers, they're a perfect match.

See, BANDPASS subs only operate within a narrow range, which is tuned by the order of the box, in other words the higher the order, the sharper the roll off, so between that and port tuning, it's possible to get a more natural sounding subwoofer that compliments stereo music, it doesn't overpower it like in a modern home theater system. These subs also reach up higher than home theater subs, so you've got a lot more musical information playing through them.

This 6th order BANDPASS sub goes from 25 Hz, (and that's literally dives off a cliff after that, thanks you another Phenomenon that occurs with BANDPASS subs), and the top end begins rolling off at 250 Hz, but is certainly audible even higher than that. Suffice to say that unlike the MUHM, MUHM, rumble of modern subs, these are actually playing music with voices and all the rest that's down there, as you'll be able to hear if you stay to the end.