Performance

Reviewing the SB13-Plus proved more challenging than usual because I couldn’t find a single music track or movie clip that really stressed it. Thinking its big, heavily damped woofer might prove too brutish to convey subtleties, I cued up tracks from showboating bass players like Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Yet the SB13 Plus portrayed them all beautifully, with plenty of punch and perfect-pitch definition. The slick L.A. studio grooves of Toto and Steely Dan also sang through the SB13-Plus.

Thinking that ultra-deep tones might torment the sub, I cued up my favorite bass torture tracks: the brontosaurus chase from King Kong and the depth-charge scene from U-571 (both on Blu-ray), the spaceship explosion that opens Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and the pant-leg-flapping deep organ notes from Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3. Still, nothing but clean, deep, powerful bass. I just couldn’t make this thing distort, and couldn’t find a track on which it sounded less than stellar.

But I had to get some kind of handle on the SB13-Plus’s performance, so I compared it with the best sub I had on hand, the Hsu Research VTF-15H (about two-thirds the price, but much larger). I stuffed the VTF-15H’s ports to convert it to a sealed box and better match the sound of the SB13-Plus, and deactivated the latter’s P-EQ, which the VTF-15H lacks. I then plugged both subs into my custom testing switcher and let the low notes fly. Even in careful listening, it was hard to hear the difference. Finally, after countless repeats of a 6-second clip of a stumbling brontosaurus, I found the difference. The SB13-Plus gave me a bit more definition, so I got a better sense of the crunching of the rock as the dino fell to the ground. The VTF-15H, meanwhile, gave me a touch more subsonic vibration, so my couch shook slightly more. Clearly, the SB13-Plus can keep up with its supersize brethren.