Couch Potato: CP8, Review by: Jim Milton

By Jim Milton, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

Original link here.

Introduction

Is there a more apropos name for a manufacturer of subwoofers than Earthquake? True, they now make a fine line of speakers and their power amplifiers have won many awards, but their real claim to fame has always been their subs. During my recent trip to CEDIA last fall, I had the pleasure of meeting with Abraham Sahyoun, Earthquake’s marketing director. He encouraged me to attempt to lift the Super Nova Subwoofer off its display pedestal…he grinned while I attempted and failed…and then told me that it weighed in excess of 300 pounds.

The point he was making is that Earthquake constructs all their subs with quality, care and performance as their fundamental design goals. Earthquake is serious about bass! He then demonstrated the sub with a 14Hz test tone passing through it. It was barely audible to the human ear, but the cone was moving with a greater than 3 inch excursion that could be felt. As I recall, he explained that a 1 pound weight was applied to the inside of the diaphragm to assist control of the excursion and keep it from flying apart. From my observation, the Super Nova worked just fine while it massaged my insides with its powerful bass. It had me grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

He then introduced to me a new sub that, at that time, was not released to the public; the CP-8. With dimensions measuring at 7" H x 12" W x 25" D, it was certainly one of the most diminutive subs Earthquake has produced. With only an 8 in. driver, what was the point? When he said that the CP stood for “couch potato”, I thought that perhaps he was kidding. Such was not the case. This sub is labeled as a “special applications” subwoofer. The sub was designed to literally be placed under or behind your seating area, whether couch, chair or bed. The benefits of such a placement will be revealed in this review.

Design

Mr. Sahyoun explained that the CP-8 was designed to have a placement in close proximity to the listener which delivered a few key audible advantages. First, the bass response time would be better realized as compared to the typical sub placement, say in the front of the room by the mains or in the front corner away from your main seating position. Next, the volume of the sub could be turned down more if it were located closer to you. A closer proximity also lessens the chance of sitting in a null at the primary seating position. But the real benefit was the seismic sensation you experienced as you felt the effects of the sub being just a few feet away.

The CP-8 has a 150 watt digital amplifier on board and a long throw 8" driver in a ported enclosure. The driver was remarkably well built and appeared to be in the same general design of the Super Nova. Underneath, there were hi level inputs as well as R/L line level inputs. Volume and phase adjustment were present as well.

Setup

A stereo line level cable with a convenient 90⁰ angle is provided with additional rubber feet should you chose to place the CP-8 on its side or on-end between your couch and wall.

I currently have an in-wall sub and had the opportunity to play them together and individually for comparison. Now mind you, my in-wall cost over 3 times as much as the CP-8, so I did not really expect this to be an “apple to apple” comparison, but I was surprised at the performance of this little upstart. On the first day I auditioned the CP-8, I placed it along the side wall, opposite of my in-wall, to see if it would balance out some bass modes. After some adjusting of the volume and setting my crossover to 80 Hz on my processor ( I like to turn my subs crossover point to its highest setting and letting my processor take control), set up was complete. My in-wall sub has a remote which allowed an on/off control comparison from my seat. This feature was a boon as it allowed me to compare both subs together or drop out the in-wall to hear if I was missing sounds on the low end when the CP-8 was allowed center stage. I noticed only a very slight loss of fullness in the bass when the CP-8 played solo.

For the sidewall demo, I placed the CP-8 on its side with the driver facing out into the room. This made tweaking easier as well as allowing direct observe the cone excursion and to hear if the 8 incher was being overly stressed. When driven hard, it never exhibited strain, though the cone was pumping vigorously. I was impressed! No distracting port noises or huffing were noted.

The real fun began when I placed the CP-8 behind my chair, as it is intended. I found myself reaching behind the chair to adjust the volume lower as the bass was really quite over powering.

In Us

Eventually I whipped out my trusty SLP meter and brought the bass output down into line with my Revel F12s. I began my audition with the “Flight of the Phoenix” (Dennis Quaid not Jimmy Stewart). The exhilarating scene where they “gently” set the plane down on those soft, downy sand dunes…was GREAT! Every time the plane smacked into a dune, my chair vibrated forcefully in tune with the impact of the plane. This was my first real experience with what would be considered a tactile transducer and I was having some fun now. I called my wife up into the media room and demoed the scene for her and she nearly jumped out of the chair. She gave her tacit approval and went back to her book reading downstairs. (Really, she was impressed but didn’t want to let on about it. ) After a bit more adjusting with the volume, I was able to get the vibrations to only be felt on the really loud and deep bass. This added an exciting sensation during action movies while producing solid, tight bass sound.

With my in-wall engaged or not, the added dimension of tactile bass really added to my enjoyment of movie viewing. Master and Commander was better than I remember at the local cinema. The cannon fusillade in the first 10 minutes of the film were all the more terrifying because of the percussive roar and shaking of my seat. The Dark Knight is another film that uses explosions to, shall we say, advance the plot. Again, the deeper explosions rocked my seat and really pulled me deeper into the movie experience. Overall, every action movie I played was enhanced with the CP-8…but how would all this play out with music? Would this effect become a distraction or an annoyance?

I love classical music and organ music in particular. The CP-8 will play low enough to cover almost all types of music that you would listen to. For general orchestral music, I played Bartok, Copland and Brahms. All three had compositions that had brass and tympani generously sprinkled throughout their works. I found that other than the very lowest or loudest passages, the tactile sensation was rarely experienced. When sensed, it was very brief and non-distracting. Indeed, the slight shaking of the seat during a particularly deep pedal note on the organ felt “right” somehow. Same as what you would actually be subjected to in a seat during a live concert. My initial fear was that it would be too much of a good thing and really become distracting from the actual enjoyment of the music. But when really called upon ("Fanfare for the Common Man" - Copland), the impact of the kettle drum was felt as well as heard. And as it should be. For good old rock-n-roll, I tried Porcupine Tree’s Light Bulb Sun, in high resolution surround.

Once more, the bass was satisfying and made its presence felt. Eventually I noticed that when I played my in-wall sub alone, it seemed less engaging then when it was supplemented with the CP-8. I believe that this was a good thing as the sub was working as it was designed to perform.

Conclusions

I am an advocate that two subs are better than one. Not just because two play louder than one, but that two will help smooth out bass modal inaccuracies and provide better quality bass throughout the entire listening area in your room. This certainly was achieved with the CP-8 along with my in-wall. The big advantage of this small sub is the flexibility to place it anywhere within the room where it may be both heard and experienced. Movies were more engaging. Music was more palpable and “live”. I see a few other specific usages for the CP-8. It could also be used in a college dorm room, bolster the gaming experience with PS3 or Xbox, adding depth to a living room music system where you want bass to be heard, but not seen, or in my case, enhance the already good HT / music room with a bit more punch.

Weaknesses? Sure. I would not recommend this as a stand alone sub in a moderate to large room. In the Pantheon of subwoofers, the CP-8 is not the “god of thunder”. A larger sub may give you more subsonic depth, but at this price point, you could buy two or three and still come out ahead compared to the cost of one 15" modular sub. You would also benefit from smoother bass response through your entire room. Adding the tactile sensation you experience at your seat would be serendipity!

The size and shape allow for easy concealment, and the bass output is nothing short of remarkable. I have a friend who has a HT in his bedroom and this would easily fit under his bed (but he should discuss this with his wife first, I would think). If you are in the market for a tactile transducer, why not have one that actually outputs substantial bass as well? The Earthquake Audio CP-8 left me shaken and satisfied while adding some “fun” to my media enjoyment at a modest cost. Anything that adds to the excitement of a movie experience or enhances the enjoyment of music listening is worth considering, in my opinion. The CP-8 has my seismic approval.

For Earthquake UK Dealership enquiries, please email us on sales@earthquakesounds.co.uk

www.earthquakesounds.co.uk 

Earthquake Sound Titan Tigris, Review by: Chris Groppi

Earthquake Sound is a company best known for producing knock your socks off subwoofers and amplifiers for home theater. They also manufacture several lines of speakers, including the Titans. The Titan Tigris weighs 89 pounds each and stands nearly 5 feet high, with an MSRP of $9,500 per pair. They are certainly imposing speakers that look the part, and are priced to compete with the crème-de-la-crème of tower speakers. In this review we’ll see how they perform.

Design and Setup

The Titan Tigris speakers arrived via freight service on a pallet. I was barely able to wrestle the giant boxes inside the house, and there was no chance I could get them upstairs to my listening room without the help of a friend. Once I got them upstairs, unpacking was straightforward due to excellent instructions provided on the outside of the box. The speakers come double-boxed with foam separating the two boxes. Inside the inner boxes, three pieces of foam secure the speakers, which come enclosed in a velvet bag. Cloth gloves are provided to prevent scratching the piano black lacquer finish during setup. The speakers need to be handled carefully to avoid damaging the top mounted tweeter enclosure. I found the gloves a bit slippery in trying to get a grip on the super smooth finish. I just removed my watch and wedding ring and moved them around with bare hands.

The Tigris is a very well made and handsome speaker. The sculpted and curved MDF case is finished in very high quality 3mm thick piano black lacquer paint, with silver colored trim encircling the drivers. Beefy, gold plated dual binding posts with gold plated copper jumpers allow for bi-wiring and bi-amping. The binding posts do accept banana plugs. No grilles are supplied, and there is nowhere to mount them, with the exception of the tweeter. A permanently mounted perforated grille protects the 1” neodymium magnet silk dome super tweeter. The main tweeter is a 2” silk dome with ball loading, and the midrange and woofer are Kevlar cone long excursion drivers 8” in diameter. A port vents to the rear of the cabinet just above the binding posts. The base accepts four low profile carpet spikes, which are invisible once set up.

This speaker certainly needs to make no apologies when it comes to fit and finish, component quality and design. I have a small listening room, and from the look of the Tigris, it is obvious they are designed for big rooms that will encompass their very large sound production.

The speaker is rated at a nominal impedance of 4 ohms, with frequency response from 25 Hz to 40 kHz. In my room, I got good response down to 20 Hz, as we’ll see later.

I set up the speakers near the location where my Gallo Reference 3.1s normally live. This is about three feet from the sidewalls and four feet from the back wall of the listening room, with the speakers separated by about seven feet. I toed the speakers in toward the listening position, which I found to give the best imaging. I ended up moving my listening position about two feet farther back from normal to about twelve feet from the speaker plane to get away from room modes in the bass (more on this later). I broke in the speakers with several weeks of TV and home theater use before getting down to the listening tests.

In Use

I was a bit concerned about such a large loudspeaker in my modestly sized listening room (16' x 21' x 8'). This turned out to be an issue I struggled with throughout the entire review period. Initially, the sound was characterized by a seriously over-prominent mid-bass. The speakers were exciting room modes in the 100-200 Hz region. I moved my listening position two feet further back (to ten feet). This helped tame the excitation of the room modes, but did not completely solve the problem. I tried moving the speakers around a bit, but the room setup did not allow complete freedom in positioning. I think these speakers would work just fine in the mid-bass if you have a large room. Speakers of this size are not made for small rooms like mine, and the mid-bass is where the issue usually shows up.

Putting aside this room-size-caused-artifact, the performance of the Tigris was stellar. The tall speaker, with high mounted midrange and tweeter resulted in a very tall and expansive soundstage. This gave me some of the most realistically sized images I’ve heard in my room, with vocals sounding about the height of a standing person. The soundstage width did not give up much to my excellent Gallos, a great feat for a speaker with such a large cabinet. The soundstage plane was typically at or behind the location of the speakers, which added to the great amount of space created by the Tigris.

The bass extension on the low side of the mid-bass issue was excellent, offering very good weight and impact with extension to the lowest frequencies. The bass power was superior to my Gallos, with eye blinking transients. Extension on electronic music, like Orbital’s In Sides or Daft Punk’s Human After All, the bass extension and weight shook the inside of my stomach, as it should. The midrange had great smoothness and detail, with great extension provided by the pod-mounted tweeter. The introductory portion of Gomez’Revolutionary Kind was probably the best I’ve heard, with great accuracy and realism to the drums, vocals, and acoustic guitar. Once the bass line came in, the mid-bass issue was apparent, but again, that is a problem caused by my small room. On Beth Orton’s Best Bit, the production on the vocals was clearly audible, making the detail offered by the Tigris a double-edged sword.

On all tracks, the dynamics presented by the speakers was exceptional. Not only were big transients delivered with shocking impact, the small scale dynamics that preserve the live quality of the music were there in spades. I haven’t heard that level of excitement in my listening room since I listened to the super high sensitivity Zu Druids. This is another feature I wouldn’t have expected in such a large speaker. Many big speakers struggle with dynamics without colossal amplification behind them.

What I heard from the Titan Tigris says that if you have a large room where the prodigious bass capability of these speakers can do their job, they will be certainly compete with the best $10k-$20k speakers. If you don’t have a big room, I would suggest caution. They might work for you, depending on how much furniture you have in there. If for example, you have a devoted music listening room, with just one or two chairs, wall and corner treatments, they could be terrific. Of course, this applies to any large speaker. On the other hand, if you are using the speakers in a home theater system, with just about any modern receiver, the built-in EQ, such as Audyssey, can flatten the response so that you don't have that extra mid-bass.

The Titan Tigris was measured in my listening room using my M-Audio ProFire 610 Firewire audio interface with a calibrated Earthworks M30BX microphone and SpectraPlus FFT analysis software. Impedance was measured using a Smith and Larson Woofer Tester.

The impedance was measured from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and is presented as traditional stacked amplitude vs. frequency and phase vs. frequency plots and on a Smith Chart as I have described in previous reviews. The impedance of the Tigris is specified at 4 ohms. The impedance drops to this level over most of the audio band, but rises to well above 10 ohms at a peak around 55 Hz (revealing the port tuning) and at around 500 Hz. The wide variation in both the magnitude and phase of the impedance indicates that you will need an amplifier that has plenty of power, and the specs state a 100 watt RMS minimum.

Total harmonic distortion measurements made at frequencies of 50 Hz, 1 kHz and 10 kHz show good results, similar to my Gallo 3.1s, but not quite as good as the Thiel 3.7s or Legend Tikandis I reviewed in the past.

The frequency response was measured at 1 meter on axis from a single speaker, both at midrange height and listening height and at the listening position with both loudspeakers. In both cases, the test tone was white noise.

At 1m from the speaker and at the height of the midrange driver, the response shows broad response peaks at around 1.5 kHz and 80 Hz, or a response valley between 100 Hz and 1 kHz, depending on how you want to look at it.

At listening height, the midrange peak is gone, but the peak at around 80 Hz still remains. It is exacerbated by a room suck-out (a null in the floor-ceiling standing wave) at around 150 Hz.

At the listening position, the bass is smoothed out, but the 1.5 kHz peak shows a little. A fairly prominent broad peak at 100 Hz is also visible.

Conclusions

The Earthquake Titan Tigris is proof-positive that the room and the speaker must be matched. In my small room, the speakers sounded uniformly fantastic, but with an overactive mid-bass. In a bigger room where the speakers won’t excite room modes to the same degree, these speakers will be absolutely wonderful and a serious player when compared to the similarly priced competition. Just be sure to try these out in your own room before you commit!

By Chris Groppi, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

For Earthquake UK Dealership enquiries, please contact sales@earthquakesounds.co.uk

www.earthquakesounds.co.uk

Earthquake Sound SWAT 2.4 Wireless Transceiver Review - by Secrets of Home Theatre & Hi Fi

Introduction

I think that most of us who made the transition from two-channel audio to home theaters with a projector and surround sound never realized the mass of cables we would end up with along the floor, along the ceiling, or wherever else we could stuff them. For me, this has been going on for about 15 years now, and although I have replaced cables with other cables, I never replaced cables with no cables, until now.

Our cordless phones have moved up the frequency chain from 900 MHz to (recently) more than 5 GHz. With that increased RF range comes less noisy interference.

I don't know about you, but I am really primed for a wireless world - aka wireless home network - throughout my house. I have just installed 802.11n Ethernet for our computers, which lets me choose 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz.

In the home theater world, wireless has been slow to catch on. For some reason, we seem stuck to our endless bundles of cables.

Well, if you want to be an early adopter, here is your chance.

Earthquake Sound has just introduced its SWAT 2.4 Stereo Wireless Transceiver, at MSRP $349, which includes a transmitter, receiver, 5 volt DC wall warts, and short cables (until receiver manufacturers build the wireless transmitters into their products, I guess we will still need at least that last foot of cable).

SPECIFICATIONS

• Design: Stereo Transmitter and Receiver, Operating on 2.4 GHz Band
• Frequency Range (20 Channels): 2.4 Ghz - 2.528 Ghz
• Transmitter Power: 20 dBm
• MFR: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
• THD+N: 0.3% at 1 kHz
• Inputs and Outputs: 1/8" Stereo Phone Jacks
• Dimensions: 1" H x 2.7" W x 3.2"D
• Weight: 0.5 Pound/each Transmitter and Receiver
• MSRP: $349 USA (Extra Receivers $199/each)
• Earthquake Sound

Design

The SWAT 2.4 consists of two small units that are labeled Transmitter and Receiver on the bottom. One end has the input or output jack (a standard 1/8" stereo phone jack, like the one on your iPod that connects to your ear buds), a channel button for changing the frequency on which the unit operates, and a USB jack that you can use to power the units if you choose not to use the included 5 volts DC wall warts. The USB connections are only for power, they do not carry an audio signal. There is also a mute button and the status light. On the other end is the on/off power switch, the jack for the wall wart, and the antenna.

Out of the box, the transmitter and receiver are paired, meaning that they are set at the factory to be on the same frequency. However, depending on what other wireless components you have in your house, or maybe even your neighbor's house, you might need to change the channel of operation. Also, occasionally, the transmitter and receiver will simply stop communicating because they lost their pairing. You can easily pair them again or change to a different channel. This is done by pressing and holding the CH button the transmitter and receiver until the status lights start to blink. You then release the buttons, the transmitter light will blink a few more times and then stop blinking and stay illuminated. The status light on the receiver will turn off. This indicates successful pairing of the transmitter and receiver. The transceiver operates on your choice of 20 channels in the 2.4 GHz band.

Here is a short video (*.mp4) demonstrating the procedure.

In Use

I decided to really put this product through the wringer by setting up three transceivers in my home theater lab, each operating on a different frequency. Transceiver 1 would drive my front left and right subwoofers, Transceiver 2 would drive the LFE subwoofer, and Transceiver 3 would drive the rear channels.

Pairing the three units was very easy. I just pressed the CH button three times for transceiver 2 and six times for transceiver 3 (transceiver 1 was already paired at the factory setting). They all then operated independently. I simply connected the subwoofer and LFE pre-outs on my SSP to to transmitters 1 and 2, and the rear channel pre-outs to transmitter 3. I placed receivers 1 and 2 near the subs, and ran the output cables from the receivers to the RCA input jacks on the left and right subwoofers, and the output of receiver 3 to the inputs of (two) subs that I use for the LFE. Receiver 3 was placed behind my couch and connected to the inputs of two Bryston PowerPro 120 monoblock power amplifiers which had speaker cables that ran up the corners to my rear speakers. I chose the Bryston's due to excellent build quality, their ability to drive low impedance loads (planar speakers are notorious for this), and also because of their low profile (they fit easily under the couch). They also run cool when idle.

So, basically, I eliminated several sets of long cables that ran from the SSP to four subwoofers, and also eliminated speaker cables from the power amplifier on my equipment rack to the rear speakers (these cables normally ran along the molding at the top of the side walls).

I used some Velcro^® 2" wide strips (Cat # PN-90595) to attach the transmitters and receivers to the wall behind my equipment rack, but they can be placed on the floor if you want. I just like to keep the floor as clear as possible for cleaning purposes.

I did run into some issues with whistling noises, but this seems to be a problem that is addressed by arranging the input and output cables so that they don't act as antennae themselves.

In any case, I was delighted with the results. One bit of serendipity was that a ground loop hum in one of the subs that had been driving me crazy disappeared, because there was no longer a direct wire connection from the SSP to the subwoofer.

Here is a photo of three transmitters and two receivers mounted on the wall. The transmitters are on the right and the receivers are on the left. You don't have to mount them this close together, but I plan to experiment with them, and I need them close so I can press the CH buttons on the transmitter and receiver without having to disconnect anything. Notice that the antennae are not all pointed in the same direction. You have to play around with the direction to find the best reception. If you look down near the bottom, on the power strip, there is another transmitter with its antenna sticking straight up. This is my wireless lighting controller. So, you can begin to see that it can complicate things to have several wireless components in your setup, all operating on the same frequency bands. Transmitter 3 on the right doesn't have its input cable connected as I was in the middle of some other tests. The cable that comes with the transceiver has unbalanced RCA plugs. My SSP has XLR balanced outputs, so I bought some 1/8" stereo plug-to-XLR Female adapter cords from AudioGear priced at $12.89 (the item at the bottom of the linked page). You may also need an extension cable for the audio connection. I used Radio Shack Cat # 42-2492.

On the Bench

The SWAT 2.4 does have more noise than you would encounter with a direct wire connection, but that is to be expected. Here is a 1 kHz sine wave spectrum. The receiver output clipped at about 1.2 volts output, and the output varies with the input to the transmitter (which varies as you change the volume control on your receiver). I did not hear any noticeable clipping in use, so the output voltage of the receiver obviously stayed below 1 volt. I could hear a hiss only if I turned the volume up nearly to full output (with no music playing).

The frequency response of the SWAT 2.4 was flat from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. It was down 2 dB at 10 Hz, which might affect some subwoofers, but this is correctable with the Auto EQ functions that are present on most receivers these days.

For transceiver 3, which had the receiver under the couch, I used two Bryston PowerPro 120 monoblocks, shown with the transceiver in the photo below. To test the limits of the system, I used an extra receiver paired to transmitter 3 and ran the left channel output of receiver 3a to one monoblock and the right channel output of receiver 3b to the other monoblock. It worked without any problem. Under normal conditions, you would only need the one receiver since it has stereo outputs.

I thought it appropriate to give some performance spectra for the Bryston PowerPro 120 monoblocks here.

THD+N vs. Power Output is shown below. It delivered 160 watts rms into 8 ohms and 240 watts into 4 ohms before rising rapidly to clipping (1% THD+N).

I measured THD+N vs. Frequency in a different way this time. Instead of the usual power resistor as a load, I used one of my Carver Amazing Mark IV ribbon speakers, because impedance changes with frequency, and this affects amplifier performance. I use planar speakers for the rear channels, so I wanted to see how the Bryston would perform into an actual planar speaker load. First, here is the Impedance/Phase graph for the speaker.

Now, THD+N vs. Frequency for the Bryston PowerPro 120, with 10 volts output into the Carver speaker. For comparison, I also tested my reference McIntosh MC1201 monoblock at 10 volts into the Carver speaker. You can see that the Bryston, with no load, had a steady 0.002% THD+N from 10 Hz to 50 kHz, while the McIntosh was at 0.0007%. At 10 volts output, the Bryston maintained a distortion level in the 0.005% to 0.009% range. The McIntosh had about 0.02% distortion in the low frequencies, but then dropped to 0.001%. Both amplifiers had a distortion peak at 8 kHz, which in the speaker impedance/phase graph, corresponds to a low impedance and - 60⁰ phase (difficult region to drive).

Conclusions

Just as hard copy media (music and movie discs) will disappear in favor of on-demand downloads from music and movie distributors, we are headed for a wireless home networking for many of our electronics, including our home theaters. The Earthquake Sound SWAT 2.4 transceiver is the first salvo, with more to come. Try one out and see for yourself.

For Earthquake UK Dealership enquiries, please email us on sales@earthquakesounds.co.uk

www.earthquakesounds.co.uk 

Earthquake Shell ShoXX Gaming Transducer Review by Jeff Roy, Stereowise Plus

Most people have had no experience of hearing a subwoofer. It could have been in your home surround system, car stereo, or maybe just at the movie theater. Subwoofers help make the sound so much fuller. Sometimes though, there is a lack of space. Subwoofers after all can take up a lot of space. Subwoofers after all can take up a lot of space. Transducers, however, provide a similar effect, but require less space. Up for review today is the Earthquake Shell ShoXX shaker for gaming.

The Earthquake Shell ShoXX is a shaker designed for gamers. It is designed with a transducer to be mounted under your seat. And then it has a class J amp to power it. The transducer is not a speaker, so it does not output sound. Instead, it is a shaker motor that vibrates back and forth, simulating the low vibration that you feel with a subwoofer.

It's features and specs:

-Advanced Digital Class J amplifier

-320 watts

-Neodynium based shaker motor

The Earthquake Shell ShoXX came well packaged and double boxed. Opening up the initial box revealed the typical printed boxes with pics and info on the product. Opening the box revealed two other boxes. One held the transducer and it's power cord, the other held the digital amp for the transducer.

Build quality of the transducer was absolutely solid. It had some great heft to it, and the fit and finish was very good. The amp was in a gaming style camouflage plastic case. I was initially surprised at the plastic case for the amp. But then realizing it would more than likely end up being mounted to a desk, plastic would be just fine. And it did feel well put together. I have seen Earthquake products before, and they always seemed to be high quality and solidly built products.

The included instructions were easy to follow. It helped make the installation simple. It was just a matter of mounting the transducer and amp, then running the wiring. Simple. The wiring instructions did not include instructions for wiring it to a 5.1 system, but it was easy to figure out.

I have to say, I was skeptical of how well it would perform...just the whole transducer idea. But, WOW, was it cool! It gave a whole new experience to gaming, and I am used to using a subwoofer! There were easy controls to adjust the output level. If you turn it up over halfway, explosions are massive! And in battling the large demon/monster, you could actually feel their breathing. Very cool! And the way it felt.......PERFECT!!! Earthquake really nailed it with the Shell ShoXX! One potential problem is it may not be for everyone. With the high output, the Shell ShoXX could be a little distracting. You can turn it down and the explosions are not as big, but then again that demon/monster breathing which could be felt that I thought was sooo cool...is also gone. I thought it was best at a higher output level, and gave a new experience to gaming. It also could be used for audio music!

The transducer just added to the experience. At an MSRP of $595, it is not a cheap system. But you do get what you pay for, and oh it is worth it! If you are one that likes to get their game on, this Shell ShoXX from Earthquake is a must to check out. Based on it's design, features, quality, and performance, it has earned our Editor's Choice Award. For more details and complete specs, check out their website at www.earthquakesounds.co.uk

To become an Earthquake Uk Dealer email sales@earthquakesounds.co.uk

Earthquake Sound IQ52, IQuake 52 Active Powered IPhone / Ipod Docking Speaker Monitor

Earthquake Sound IQuake 52 Review - Earthquake Sound UK

The Earthquake IQ52 is an active speaker with Iphone/Ipod docking capability. 

The Left Channel speaker has a built in 200W amplifier on the rear and docking on the top for you Apple device. The Amplifier has RCA stereo inputs and a 3.5mm Aux input as well as a subwoofer output.

The best part is an additional AC outlet for your source or even an Apple Airport Express for Airplay.

The Right Channel speaker has an single input from the rear of the Left Channel Speaker.

The system comes with a small credit card size remote control.Remote can control tracks when iphone or ipod is docked.

The size is fairly compact at about 11"H x 8"D x 7.5"W

The Tweeter is a 1" Soft Dome and the Woofer is a 5.25" Carbon Fiver Woven type with rubber surround.

The finish is absolutely perfect. The piano gloss is smooth and sexy. IQ52 comes in several colors.

White, Black, Silver, Pink, and Red.

SO HOW DO THESE THING SOUND??

Very good actually. I put them next to my hifi listening room on 24" stands and they image very nicely. Bass was very deep for a speaker this size. In a smaller size room, these do not need a subwoofer. Tonal balance when you first turn them on is very good. The remote control has bass and treble controls to fine tune the sound. Below are measurements of the IQ52 using Dayton Audio OmniMic.

 Default Setting out of the box. Pretty smooth and Flat Response. +/- 3db from 60Hz to 20kHz

This is with the treble setting all the way up.

 Treble setting all the way down.

Bass setting all the way up.

Bass setting all the way down.

Overall I enjoyed listening to the IQ52. They perform good enough as powered monitors for mixing or even just for the bedroom next to the TV for room filling sound. Versatile connections and most of all, they're great to look at.

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EARTHQUAKE AND LEGO CREATES SUPERNOVA MKVI-15 REPLICA

Earthquake and LEGO co-operates and creates working Supernova MKVI-15 replica.

Check out the video here below: