Сабвуферы — Wilson Audio Audio Subsonic

The Subsonic is a passive subwoofer from Wilson Audio Specialties of Provo, Utah, announced in October 2018 and listed in the US at USD 37,500. Wilson calls it the fraternal twin of the WAMM Master Subsonic - both use the same drivers and the same internal volume, and they differ only in the metalwork, which here carries the finish used across the regular Wilson range instead of the prismatic finish of the WAMM version. In the company's subwoofer line it sits between the older Thor's Hammer and the WAMM Master Subsonic.

Key specs that matter

Three 12-inch long-throw woofers with a dual-spider suspension work in a front-ported enclosure. Wilson rates the response at 10 Hz to 150 Hz, +0 and -3 dB, as a room average figure. Nominal impedance is 4 ohms and sensitivity is 87 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. The cabinet is 165.25 cm tall with spikes, 45.87 cm wide and 69.09 cm deep. Each unit weighs 229 kg uncrated and about 310.7 kg packed for shipping.

Engineering and use context

Long cone travel is what lets the Subsonic reach so deep in a cabinet of this volume, but a cone moving that far tends to rock away from a single plane. The second spider restricts the moving assembly to straight pistonic travel, and Wilson says this keeps mechanical distortion down. Wilson had already applied the dual-spider approach in the WAMM Master Subsonic and the Thor's Hammer. The enclosure is built mostly from the company's X-Material, a dense and hard composite chosen for both stiffness and damping, while the internal cross bracing uses Wilson's own HDF, as in the Thor's Hammer. The grille frames are milled from solid X-Material too, and the cabinet stands on heavy-duty spikes. The finish is a seven-step WilsonGloss paint process with five standard colours, a wider palette of upgrade colours at extra cost and custom matches made from a paint sample the owner supplies.

Pairing

Wilson positions the Subsonic next to its medium and large floorstanders such as the Alexx V and Chronosonic XVX, either as one mono unit or as a stereo pair. With no amplifier inside, it needs its own power amplifier and an active crossover. Wilson's ActivXO is a two-channel analogue unit with balanced and single-ended connections, a low-pass filter adjustable from 30 Hz up to the Subsonic's upper limit at 12 or 18 dB per octave and a phase control variable from 0 to 180 degrees.

Alternatives

The Wilson Audio Submerge is a smaller subwoofer with one 12-inch woofer, a built-in 1600 watt amplifier and a 20 Hz to 100 Hz range.