You`r rating of oldschool SQ subwoofers

[Igor Kupinsky]

Hi all. When I was looking for a subwoofer for myself, I spent a lot of time searching on Google, and was surprised to find that the old school sounds very cool from reviews - its best examples are not inferior to the best examples of our time. Only in normal condition they are very rare.
I consider all models that are not currently produced to be old school and can only be found on the secondary market.
Some reviews come from people with many years of experience - sellers and installers who have installed dozens and hundreds of systems for many years. Which is very valuable - after all, this is a generalized experience that the average person does not have, not counting trips to car audio competitions.
I will present some models here - of course, not as ranking places, but simply as the best of the best in various personal ratings. In sense out any size - frm 6 to 33.

a/d/s 310px
Boston LF Pro
JBL GTI (800 1000 1200 1500 1800)
Polk Audio MM1200 first gen
Velodyne servo DF-12sc DF-10sc DF-15sc (yes servo)
Eton 12-680 heх b (also exist 10 and 8 - german school)
Pioneer (ODR) ts-w01rs ts-w1rs ts-w1rs II (japan school)
Focal 38WX (also 13 and 11 version - france school)
Peerless XLS (better then XXLS - also rebrand as Exact and Xetec G)
JL Audio W6 (first gen)
Image Dynamics IDMAX old
Image Dynamic IDW - 15 and 18
Rockford Fosgate punch and power series
Phoenix Gold Elite 12 (only this sizes)
Phoenix Gold Cyclone (many owners wanted to change to the W7 JL and some were unhappy with the noise - but overall unique rotary design is amazing)
Soundstream SS-R Reference (8 10 and 12 - also limited version blue)
ESB Ottomila 8000 (10 12 - italian school - mayben made some for Zapco?)
Cervin-Vega Stroke (some salesmens assured that they had a unique dense sound )
Digital Design 9112 9115 z91 series

I missed several wonderful subwoofers - they were either missed mentioned in the list in direct comparison - or they were single prototypes - for example, Vortex - Parthenon -, despite the impressive design, they were not mentioned anywhere in terms of sound quality - Acoupower example. The most important thing, of course, is that I just didn’t find everyone.

I hope that many will want to speak here on the merits and leave information in the form of their personal ratings on the sound quality of the subwoofers that they have ever heard, in numbers places from the first and so on.

Best regards.

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[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Those Bostons 13" oval subs were some of the best I heard. I had a friend that was very well into SQ, and he ran a pair off a gladen amp and they sounded amazing with a gladen 4 ch on a set of Hertz Mille components on a Pioneer 80PRS. I cant recall exactly or remember the 4" mids with another set of hertz tweets both in Dash pods. Very Clean. one those systems you just wanted to sit and listen too all day long/not fatigued by any means. Great subs

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Adire Brahmas were incredible subs. One of the first subs that could really compete with the JL w7s. Super flat BL curve gave the subs a really dry sound. One issue with that flat BL curve is it revealed clipping that was recorded into tracks. Literally made certain CD a no-go on my car audio system.