ChrisHeflen

"Secrets" reviews the Outlaw LFM-1

Interesting read.

BenCosta

NiceReview. It’s exactly the way I felt about it too. The LFM-1 is so musical. It’s smooth, it’s tight and it looks good. It’s just an incredible value.

Peace

Ben

CurtisSC

I read it last night....very nice.

While closely related to Hsu's STF-3...it looks like the LFM-1 got all the "looks" in the family.

curtis
Manhattan Beach, California

Garrett Lundy

The reviewer spends more time talking about the "dimpled disks" than any other aspect of the subwoofer, even bringing the topic up in two seperate locations of the text.

But not as many words are used on any given media review....hmmmmm

Rudi B

John Johnson should have measured it. They also missed that on the VTF-3R. And the measurements of Velodyne's SPL series are a bit useless. Too bad.

Kevin C Brown

Good review, as far as it went. Not enough comments on quality for music vs movies, low end impact, etc. Measurements would have been really nice. Sounds like Outlaw promotes it as pretty much flat to 25 Hz.

If it's not worth waiting until the last minute to do, then it's not worth doing.

KevinVision 7.1 ...

Michael R Price

It's an interesting read but I, too, was curious to see some numbers. Does anyone know what causes Secrets to perform those great measurements, like they have on some other products? Does the manufacturer request that, or is it up to the reviewer?

Ned

I thought it was a poor review. There are several "subwoofer myths" written as facts.

"I prefer a port-less (sealed) subwoofer configuration, as it is usually ensures a more flat response with more realistic tone"

Meh. I've heard this tired old rant too many times.

"a configuration with two subwoofers placed at varying locations will produce a smoother more evenly distributed bass response across your home theater, i.e., with less dips and peaks"

In many rooms it's hard enough to get smooth response with 1 sub. Using 2, and in different locations throws a big and dirty monkeywrench into the works. Using 2 subs just feels like a good thing to do, very few have the patience or skill to make it actually work better. Plus you lose a few db by not co-locating the subs.

"down-firing ports eliminate the throaty "whoosh" that you can some times get from side-firing ports"

Huh? Port noise is only related to diameter/total port area. Whoosing/chuffing happens when a sub is underported for a given task.

I'm a little surprised that this review was posted as such. Secrets is generally near the forefront of subwoofer understanding and the above assumptions have been well refuted. The Outlaw sub wasn't tested alongside the SVS+HSU comparison so saying it's superior to both of them is unjustified. The total lack of objective testing is disappointing although understandable. You can't expect every reviewer to do ground plane testing but that's the only method that gives useful data when done in different locations. At best, this review is Home Theater Magazine quality, i.e low.

VinhT

I don't know... I got a pretty bad feeling overall from the review.

When the LFM-1 was first announced, I declared that I was skeptical of the highly-touted down-firing ports. I don't actually have a problem with the orientation of the ports - I just don't like how Outlaw advertises them as the cure for port noise. I felt that the reviewer may have been influenced by the product literature.

Taken from the Outlaw website:
First of all, and hopefully some experts can back me up on this, port noise or "chuffing" is simply a side effect of inadequate porting or outright poor design. If the port area is not sufficient to prevent port noise at high playback levels, then there will be port noise regardless of the orientation of the ports. Having the ports fire downward at the floor may attenuate some of the noise - I will give them that. However, certainly not to the extent that they claim.

And then the review:
If you've ever put your hand in front of a port on a sub, you'll notice that as you move your hand closer and partially block the opening, you will get a fluttering sound. Now take a look at the first picture on the review page and notice how low the sub sits in relation to the ground. I can't imagine someone putting a side-ported subwoofer that close to a wall. If anything, it seems as though the down-firing ports in this case would be more conducive to creating port noise. And yet the reviewer proclaims that the LFM-1 just might singlehandedly change his mind about ported subwoofers.

Any thoughts on this?

Lastly, any speaker review without objective data should be taken very lightly, as there is simply no reference for correlating the reviewer's adjectives with the actual performance of the product.

-Vinh

VinhT

Shucks, didn't get a chance to see Ned's post before I responded. He summed it up quite well and I concur with his thoughts on the review.