kach22i said:
Do I see the beginings of a formal review?
Well, I picked up the Depth at the local Tweeter. The salesperson had an open box unit that he had shipped in from across the state. With open box and other discounts, I was out the door for $1515. Then went up the street to pick up the Revel B15, but the repair guy had not brought the sub back yet, and wasn't picking up his cell. The dealer was perturbed by this, as he should have been, since I was sitting there with a hungry 8-yr. old. I went out for dinner, came back, and still the repair guy was a no-show. Thinking to myself that I had a new sub from Martin Logan in the car for $1500, and was waiting for a 3 yr. old Revel that was broken and was going to cost me even more, I cut my losses and went home with the Depth. So alas, no formal comparison between these two subs. Anyway, once home, I used the Velodyne DD-10 (still on "loan" from Tweeter) to set up the Depth. Needed to use a high crossover setting to compensate for a dip in the higher freqency bass region, and boost considerably at 25 Hz, but got it reasonably flat. I started my listening test, and was sold on the Depth right away. Diana Krall, Lyle Lovett, The Killers, Mingus. The bass was crisp and articulate. A huge difference between this and the (admittedly overwhelmed) little Velodyne, which seemed very muddy at the levels required to fill the room. Now I know what "fast" bass is. The Depth was plenty powerful to fill the 14'x25'x16' room. To achieve the flattest response with the test tones, I had the gain at 5.6/10. But with music, I needed to turn this down a bit to integrate better. Once I found the right level (i.e. not too much bass), you could turn the sub off and on to see what you were missing. It was substantial, and I came away feeling the Depth really added to Aeons nicely, but in an invisible, very subtle way. I guess it would have been nice to listen to a larger Velodyne (e.g. DD-15) to hear the difference, but the cost of this puppy would have been prohibitive. The DD series are packed with features. The EQ is the most valuable, but you are also getting remote-accessible EQ presets, etc., which I don't really need. Although remote volume control on the Depth would be a nice add-on.
So I guess my quest for sub is over. Thanks to everyone for their comments and input.