Audiophilepure

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/arendal-1723-speakers-and-subwoofer-2v-sublime-sounds

The towers and center give you the option of running in sealed or ported mode, the later having multiple variations affording you the ability to tune them for whatever works in your situation. The center has 2 ports, so 3 possible configurations; sealed, 1 port open or 2 ports open. The towers have 3 ports, giving you 4 potential variations. Arendal includes very dense plugs for each of the ports, all of which fire out the back of the enclosure. That goes for the 2V subwoofer as well, its port is also on the back of the enclosure. If you’re at all concerned about “chuffing” – port noise – don’t be oriented that way, it’s all but guaranteed you would never hear it even if there was any.

The binding posts on all the speakers are the same, perhaps the best word to describe them is beefy. They’re made from polished, CNC machined copper which is then plated with highly-conductive, and corrosion resistant, Rhodium. However you want to hook them up you can; banana, spade or pin type connectors, as well as bare wire. There are 2 sets of posts on each speaker allowing you to bi-amp them. If you choose not to go that route Arendal supplies stout Rhodium jumpers to bridge the posts.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/starke-sound-sw15-subwoofer-review

The opening salvo of Hans Zimmer Live in Prague is a medley consisting of “Driving”, “Discombobulate” and “Zooters Breakout.” Those three set the tone for the rest of this disc. They slowly build to a towering crescendo, beautifully crafted by the 70+ musicians that grace the stage by the end. Inevitably I’m playing this one loud. To put it more accurately, I’m playing this one loud. As the musicians start coming in the sound gets hectic and lively, yet the SW15’s seemingly enjoyed the challenge. The upright bass and electric bass guitars, drums, and tympani are all recorded on the hot side, but not excessively so. They underpin this composition, producing a sound that was rich, warm and inviting.

Forgoing what was fast becoming a trend in this evaluation—live recordings—I opted to close out the music section with a studio track instead, featuring a song from a very long time ago. From Pink Floyd’s seminal album Dark Side of the Moon, I went with “Time.” That pulsating double-beat that occurs at the beginning was lush and striking, despite the other instruments being recorded louder. The plucked strings from the bass guitar rang out with authority, immediately grabbing my attention. At first they have a very Rickenbacker sense to them, with the more trebly tone that bass guitar is known for. When the song kicks into the rhythm itself, it quickly becomes apparent Roger Waters is now using his more customary Fender Precision, with its meaty sound. The Starke Sound SW15 handled all of it with poise.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/bowers-wilkins-db3d-subwoofer-review

Flashback to 30 years ago, when I bought my first Bowers & Wilkins subwoofers—a pair of Acoustitune passive subs. From then onward, I have religiously checked out Coil’s track “Her Friends the Wolves” from the album Stolen and Contaminated Songs. When the track gets going — which takes a while — a dry, growling, “edge of the infrasonic threshold”-type bassline settles in. A lot of systems miss it altogether. The effortless rendering of the full bass palette of this classic track represents endgame-quality fidelity.

With music, one DB3D makes a great pairing for a 2.1 sub/sat system featuring a pair of the 705 S3 speakers. For even more impact, a pair of DB3Ds offer just the right amount of oomph when matched up with the 703 S3 towers I used for my two-channel music sessions

Three subwoofers and six pairs of Maggies later, I’d finally found what for me was the perfect sub: a REL T9. The REL was a UK-designed, Chinese made subwoofer that offered a very different experience from the other subs I’d owned: it produced shockingly musical and thunderously subterranean bass in a compact package. And for such a small format subwoofer, it seemingly had limitless power reserves, and blended seamlessly with the Magneplanars. It was, quite literally, an audio match made in heaven—that is, until it died a couple of weeks ago! In high-end audio, twelve years of perfect service is always a gift, but I still wasn’t ready to assign the REL to the scrap heap. After reaching out to their North American distributor, considering the age of the unit and type of damage it apparently sustained, repair wasn’t an option. Replacing the REL wasn’t an endeavor I was quite prepared to undertake—I didn’t even know where to start.