L22 Initial Reactions

OK, so the shipping container that just arrived had my L22 in it (yay), and I had the house to myself for about three hours the night it arrived so I set it up and let it try to impress me.

First, thank you to @laulau at AVSForum for the "Dialing-in Rythmik Subwoofers" document. Clear and very helpful. I haven't yet checked anything with an SPL meter and I might still do some fiddling once I do, but it got me pretty quickly to something strong.

Second, to provide some context, this is my first "real" sub. My HT setup isn't Ascends, as it all predates the existence of Ascend. I have PSB Image speakers all around (4T, 5C, 50S) from around 2001, and they're still fine speakers. However, the sub was a PSB SubSonic5 from that same time period. Subs have changed quite a lot since 2001; the SubSonic 5 is a 10" vented sub that is only rated 60W continuous and is -3dB at an underwhelming 30 Hz. It only weighs about 30 lb. Not exactly a bruiser by modern standards. Last fall I bought an Emotiva S8 for my study, which is a pretty small room (< 1000 cu ft), and that seemed fine for music in a small space, though it struggles with some material at high volumes.

So how'd the L22 do?

Well, obviously it's early, but my initial thought is that I'm a happy camper. The first thing I threw at it was the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, which is the first thing I throw at anything when I want to evaluate bass performance. Not only was the bass plentiful (I could feel the couch vibrate) but what really got me is how clean it was. The word that really came to mind was "effortless." So many times I've played this music on things and it just sounds like a struggle to make it happen. (It's a labor for the S8 and for, say, the stereo in my car.) The L22 just conveyed this great sense of "dude, I got this, no sweat." Copious beautiful clean Daft Punk.

Next was Dark Side of the Moon. Generally whan I listen to this start off I have to turn it WAY up to really hear the heartbeat and then dive for the volume control to not be overwhelmed when the music starts. Not this time! The heartbeat was clear as day on the same volume, no adjustment needed. Roger Waters' bass was great throughout.

But this is my HT system. What about movies? Unfortunately in a three-hour window I didn't have time to get very deep into that. Big explosion set off by the Mangalores in Fifth Element? Check. Battle scenes in The Two Towers? Check. But that's as far as I got. Got in a full viewing of Stop Making Sense on Friday, that was also excellent but doesn't really stretch the sub too much, but it did a great job with Tina's bass when called upon. This is going to need more, uhh, research.

But it's a good start.

I’ll report back later when I’ve had more time to put it through its paces.


Notes
Room
16.5' x 20' with a vaulted ceiling up past the second floor and open at the back to the kitchen and a little to one side to the foyer/dining room. Probably ~3500 cu ft. This AVS community is, I think, a little bass-crazy because I know people will say the L22 is not enough sub for a space that big. I dunno, because at my primary listening position on the couch, I can feel the couch vibrate when the L22 is going hard. I don't have the sense that I desperately need more than this. Highly probable that I just don’t know what I’m missing.

Why the Rythmik L22?
Rythmik's design philosophy appeals to me; I want clear and articulate, not boom. I went with the L22 in particular for WAF reasons; there's a space in the living room where I can get away with a good-sized box, but that space is really only about 14" wide; the L22 just fits width-wise. If Rythmik made an LVX22 that was the same width but a little taller, I might have gone with that.

(Side note: posted pretty much the same thing over at AVSForum but not everyone here is there)