Acoustic Visions Everest Review (1 Viewer)

[Eric Hargrove]

I had the opportunity to demo an Everest at Kyle's house recently and figured many on the forum would be interested in the results. Kyle was a very gracious host and set up the Everest on very short notice so that my friend and I could demo it. I have resisted to posting to this point as I would really like to keep this from turning into an SVS vs Acoustic Visions thread as is likely to occur. First, a little background on my setup. I have an SVS Ultra driven by a QSC RMX2450 in a very large room(6000ft3). My friend has a 20/39CS+ driven by a Samson S1000 in 4500ft3. As a point of reference, my Ultra easily exceeds 100db at 20Hz in my very large room.

Now on to the Everest. Kyle has done a wonderful job with this sub. The finish is a very high quality veneer and the binding posts, 2 of them (one per Tumult) are very nice WBT connectors. This sub is a beast! I knew the dimensions of the sub before hand but was still surprised at the size of it. The cabinet is 1 1/2" thick, approximately 48" tall and 24" wide by 24" deep. Don't let my description fool you, the footprint of this sub is manageable. Just make sure you have a friend or two to help position it as it weighs 400 pounds!

Kyle is currently using 2 1000W RMS Adire plate amps (one per Tumult to power his Everest. His theater is roughly 2000 to 2500ft3 although it is open to the rest of the house. We ran SPL tests with a few different DVDs. I'm sure many may be dissappointed with the fact that I cannot give maximum SPL numbers for our tests. Not because we didn't take any, but because our ears gave out long before the Everest did. On the Monsters sock scene, we hit 117-118db on the Rat Shack (uncorrected)! On numerous battle scenes in Gladiator, we hit 114-116. On U571, I cannot remember what we recorded but I do know it was enough to momentarily blur my vision. This sub went so low, so loud it was scary. I think Kyle's F3 claim of 18Hz is conservative. In room response is obviously lower. If I remember correctly, he had the sub roughly 2-3db hot.Dare I say it is overkill in a small room.

We listened to some music as well with Kyle using Adire kit 281 as mains. With the gain turned down a bit, the sub blended seamlessly.

As a side note, I am traveling down to my hometown, San Diego and have arranged with Adam Reiter to demo his B4+/Rocket setup. I currently am running a Polk Lsi setup so it should be interesting.

Thanks once again Kyle for your hospitality, it was alot of fun!

 

[Lewis Besze]

Eric,
thanks for the write up.
I'm impartial to neither company,but it's good to hear you went there with an "open mind".But I'm not sure if you took your sub there for "comparison" or you just went there as a curious SVS owner?
Let me know what's your impression of the Rockets once you hear it. I'm also happy Polk LSI[9] owner.Which model you have?
When are you in So Cal?
If you have time you can also stop by my place.
take care.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

damn...now I can't wait to move out of the apartment to give my "denali" a rip!

can't wait to hear your impression of the B4+ now that you have experience with the everest.

One thing I notice with all XBL2 motors is the lack of distortion at low frequencies (ie,

 

[Edward J M]

Nice mini-review Eric! Great of Kyle to host you.

Does the Ultra have this type of low distortion? I have not heard one, so I'd like to know.

Anthony, the TC-Sounds TV12 underhung driver displays remarkably low THD per independent testing by Doc Johnson (link provided below). As an aside, Doc Johnson is working on THD testing for a B4-Plus review and he had to revise his testing procedures because the B4+ displayed such low distortion at high volumes it simply blew all his old THD benchmarks right out of the water.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...02-part-2.html

The TV-12 is arguably one of the best and most heavily engineered 12" drivers available for home applications. Tom V recently mentioned over in AVS that the TV-12 has a new 10-layer flat wound VC that (to the best of his knowledge) no one else is using because the technology is so expensive. He says thermal power handling is "absurd" and he has pushed several kilowatts through it for 8-10 seconds and it didn't even flinch.

I have heard an Ultra and it is indeed very impressive and clean. In a 1700ft3 HT room, we were hitting 117 dB with no signs of strain (C-weighted fast) at reference level on the Atlantis Leviathan scene. If you are ever in upstate NY, give me a holler and I'll try to arrange for a demo.

Regards,

Ed

 

[Eric Hargrove]

Hi Lewis,

I went to Kyle's because I am considering upgrading my Ultra and as you said, I wanted to go there with an open mind as Kyle lives only about 30 miles away and builds a fantastic sub. Don't get me wrong, my Ultra is good enough to make 99.9% of all sub produced go run and hide, I guess I'm just one of those .1% people and my room is 6000ft3 which is challenging even for an Ultra. Tom and Ron have been nothing short of superb to deal with and I will factor that into my decision.

Anthony, my parents live in La Mesa. Where are you located?
The Ultra does exhibit this kind of low distortion. I think that's why occasionally you'll here a new SVS owner complain. They are so clean, most people are not use to it. Many commercial subs have distortion as much as 10x higher.

 

[Eric Hargrove]

Hey Lewis, I got my replies mixed up. I guess you are in So Cal as well. Where are you located?

 

[Michael R Price]

I thought the idea of the Tumult was to have BL-induced distortion so low that it was better than any current (even underhung) driver. At the levels as low as we are talking about, how much does this matter?

http://www.adireaudio.com/Files/XBL2TechPaper.pdf

 

[Edward J M]

Eric, aside from its obvious SPL capability, what are your subjective impressions of the sound quality of the Everest for both HT and music? Do the HT sound effects seem accurate and do musical instruments (kick drum, bass guitar, etc.) sound realistic and life-like? Thanks!

Regards,

Ed

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Edward,
Glad to hear about the distortion levels I used to have some "standard drivers" and after moving to these newer breeds, I am never going back *LOL*

I am located in Irvine (as far as my audio stuff) and Lewis is in Riverside.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

This is classic "On U571, I cannot remember what we recorded but I do know it was enough to momentarily blur my vision."

 

[Brian Bunge]

The Tumult can be pushed to (and past) it's limitations without audible distortion. At least not until you hear the voice coil(s) clanking around.

Now, don't ask me how I know this. I just do!

 

[TommyL]

Sounds like it too is a winner...If I can, I'd like to take LOTR at reference, and see what I get...I wish I had a super accurate meter...I think once you hit that 125-130 area, things get a bit outta whack....I seriously don't think its a matter of ear strain(you can use earplugs) it is a matter of damage to the surroundings...I hit these levels clean in a 4500 CF room with 2 openings 10-12 feet away...I have strained my ears hitting 124ish on lotr at 15 UNDER my reference....I am getting over the high SPL mode now, and doing some good old listening...even music just flows...can't wait to hear the thoughts on the B4+ when you visit Adams house...I think either would be great to have Trying to team up my B4+ with a mc-8 and sherbourn 7/2100 amp....this week for sure(waiting for the demo to come back then I'm sure I'll be watching everything all over again lol

 

[Lewis Besze]

Hey Lewis, I got my replies mixed up. I guess you are in So Cal as well. Where are you located?

Riverside,a couple of hours drive from San Diego[NE].

 

[Eric Hargrove]

Hey Lewis,

We went thru Riverside last night. We're in San Diego now. When I was in the Air Force, I was stationed at Norton so I know exactly where you are.

Edward, the Everest seemed to do very well with everything we threw at it. Very accurate sub, no hint of distortion. For music, I think you would be well served to keep the gain down a bit. The thing that really struck me about this sub is it did hit on stuff that a lesser sub would not even attempt to reproduce. It is a real bottom feeder obviously hitting the sub 20Hz stuff very strongly. Corrected readings for the stuff we demoed would be in the 122-126db range. The Everest was clearly capable of much more I'd guess another 6-10db based on the excursion we were seeing. As you said before, It was clearly coasting in this size room. Maybe with earplugs we could have reached higher output but I didn't want to be responsible for damage to Kyle's house. Maybe Kyle will chime in with his thoughts?

 

[Kyle Richardson]

Hey guys, just got back from a mini vacation over the weekend and just saw this post.
Eric and his friend were great guests and we spent about 3 hours demoing and talking subs. Quite fun!

Anyway, I have a PLX3402 on its way but it had not arrived when Eric was able to come up for a demo so I had to improvise with a couple 1000w plate amps. Not that 2Kw is exactly shortchanging the sub, but it is capable of more wattage which would equate to more SPL. As Eric pointed out, we never took max SPL readings on the sub but on the demo scenes we measured it still had excursion to spare and was not being pushed to its max. Again, as he points out it probably had about another 5-10db to spare (depending on the frequencies of course).
In room the sub is flat to about 15Hz when the subsonic filters in the amplifers take over and drop it 12dB from 15Hz to 12Hz. Without the subsonic filters in place it drops less than half that, of course individual rooms will vary.

It will be interesting to hear his impressions of Adams B4 which I'm sure will be positive as well. I'm sure it will be a difficult comparison to say the least with completely different listening rooms and such but should still be fun.

 

[Adam_Reiter]

Well, Eric came over on July 2nd to demo my SVS and Rockets. Unfortunately, I wasnt yet calibrated as I had just finished setting up when Eric came over with his "Pops" and son. We also changed the port tuning of the sub a couple of times as it was tuned to 7hz when he first arrived.

Turns out the next day when I actually calibrated the speakers the next day, the center channel was almost 4db's too hot, some other speakers were 2db's too hot!(Smaller area now) I knew reference was too darn loud.

Anyway, it wasnt the best of cirumstances, but I think Eric was impressed. Hopefully he will give a review soon.

 

[Kyle Richardson]

Cool, looking forward to hearing his comments. I know he doesnt want to start a "war" and nobody wants one but it will be interesting to get his thoughts. My guess is that they are both good products and he will be impressed by both. The fact that they are in completely different environments will make it impossible to give an A/B review which will probably be a good thing in the long run

 

[Adam_Reiter]

Yeah, god knows we don't need another sub war!

They are both big, huge subs. They put out lots and lots of bass. Get it? hehe.

Plus, the new area that my gear is inm is much smaller with a funky left corner and a partially framed opening to the seating area. Its not a nice big rectangle like my house in Oregon was. :frowning: Definately room acoustics are comming into play. But, at least when I finally calibrated everything, it sounded MUCH MUCH better. I will post pics of my new setup to my web page soon.

 

[TeamPSI]