Audio Video News

Atlantic Technology's newest subwoofer is a piece of gear you'll want to hide away in a corner of your home theater - but not because it looks ugly. (I've seen it, and it doesn't.) The 10 CSB is specifically designed to be placed in corner for two very good reasons.

One reason is aesthetics. Yes, it's obligatory to mention the tired, old "spousal acceptance factor", but the fact is that lots of people - women and men - don't like the look of a big honker of a subwoofer plopped down in the middle of the living room. (No one ever comes to visit and says, "Oh, I love the way you've added that big ugly box to your room. It makes the place look so mah-valous, dah-ling!") So the 10 CSB's cabinet is shaped very much like a triangle - the actual shape is something I'm sure I learned about in Geometry class but have since sadly forgotten - so it will slip discretely into any 90-degree corner of a room.

The other reason for the out-of-the-ordinary design is acoustics. (Wouldn't you know it?) Placing a subwoofer in a corner - technically known as "corner loading" - increases the bass response and sound pressure level generated by the subwoofer. Atlantic Technology's 10 CSB happily takes advantage of this well-known acoustic phenomenon (it's like cheating, only you don't get in trouble for it); and, since placement in a corner is a given, the company incorporates specific corner-mounted equalization that further improves the subwoofer's response and output. Atlantic Technology points out that a conventional box-type subwoofer can't be tailored specifically for use in corners because the eventual owner might use it in a variety of other room locations in which corner-mounted equalization would make the subwoofer sound less than optimal. ("Sounds like poo-poo" is the technical term for such a situation.)

The 10 CSB includes a 10-inch long-throw composite cone driver in a sealed enclosure. The built-in 180-watt amplifier uses a high-current design that's matched and equalized to the driver. The package also features a phase inversion switch, an adjustable (40 Hz - 140 Hz) 18 dB/octave crossover, plus low- and high-level inputs.

Atlantic Technology says the 10 CSB is available now. The suggested retail price is $899.

Which corner you put it in is up to you.