Emotiva Airmotiv SE12 12 Flex Subwoofer Review a great sub at an overwhelmingly fair price

Author:

Video Creator’s Channel Nemo Propaganda

author link

Hey Guys Welcome Back To The Channel

today. We are going to review the Emotiva Se12 subwoofer and if you’ve been following my channel for a while you might remember about six months ago. I reviewed the emotiva Se8 subwoofer and I really enjoyed my time with that and I remember thinking it’d be really cool if they made a bigger version and lo and behold they did here we have it today. This is the 12-inch version, so I’m going to take you through the review the same way we usually do. I’m going to tell you about its specs, its features, pros and cons a little bit about what it sounds like and because it’s only a hundred dollars apart from its little brother.

Ill Compare It To Its Little Brother

towards the end so what do we got is a 12-inch down firing driver a 12. Front firing passive radiator 200 watt Rms Amp 400 watts peak. Its frequency response plus or minus 3 db is 28 hertz to 200 hertz. It has LFe RCa and high level inputs that’s going to be really helpful for those of you that don’t have pre-outs or subwoofer outs on your preamp or Avr or whatever it is that you’re using what else do we have it’s. Frequency adjustment is going to allow you to go between 60 and 150 hertz.

Its Got A Zero Or 180 Phase

switch auto or on switch. It also has a rocker switch to turn it off completely. If you’d like to size is going to be 15. 75 in in length width and depth. Its weight is going to be a hefty 46 pounds not bad for 400 and it only comes in black next.

Im Going To Tell You About Two

of its unique features. The first one is what they call a transparent limiter and what that’s going to do is stop this thing from running out of steam. It’s going to stop it from bottoming out distorting being overdriven. Any number of things that are very common with budget subwoofers. Those of you that have used cheap subwoofers in the past.

Know If Youre Watching A Movie For

example, and some low energy rumble comes through and you’ve got that thing turned up a little too much. It’s going to freaking bottom out it’s going to sound like crap you’re going to risk damaging your subwoofer Also no one likes that the built-in limiter stops this thing stops that from happening and. Does give you a sense of like this thing is more powerful than it actually is which is pretty cool. I never noticed the limiter kicking in and holding me back at any point during my movie watching or listening to music. I watched two different movies with it and I spent about 10 hours of music listening with it so the next standout feature is the built-in crossover so a lot of people believe that for proper subwoofer integration what you want to do is remove the base or some of the base from your main speakers cross them over let’s say 60 Hertz.

For Example, And All The Base 60

Hertz and below goes to your subwoofer. More expensive. Avrs have a feature like that built in but if you’re looking at this video and you’re interested in this 400 subwoofer I’m guessing your processor or AvR doesn’t. Something like that because you usually need to spend a lot to get that this subwoofer has that built in you can see it on the screen behind me that’s why I chose to have that picture up so what you’re going to do and you can do this for music too if you like so whatever your front end is say it’s an AvR for example, and normally your RCa outs go to your power amp instead of going to your power up it’s going to go to this and then the RCa outputs on this are going to go to your power ramp instead. You’re going to choose either 60 80 or 100 Hertz cut off for your mains.

Then Youre Going To Set This Up.

You know based on that if you choose 60 Hertz cut off for your mains you’re going to set this thing to 60 Hertz. For example, and it should should give you pretty quick, seamless and easy integration and if I didn’t already mention it. A lot of people believe and I do believe this it is true that when you remove some of the bass from your main speakers. You’re going to get usually better clarity imaging and they’re going to be able to play a lot louder which is going to be.

Id Say More Important For Budget

gear right what else do we have here market context what other companies are going to be competing for your 400 for subwoofers. In this category did a quick Google search and this is what I came up with first We got the Polk Hts 10 that’s a 10 inch. ported model with 100 watts and it’s 350 bucks. Next. I found the deftec pro sub 800.

Its An 8-Inch Driver With An Eight-Inch

passive 300 watt amp 400 bucks. Next I found the Klipsch R-100 that had a 10-inch ported driver. Sorry I poured a cabinet 10-inch driver 150-watt amp 400. and lastly the Aperion Bravos 8d that had two passive radiators that were eight inch one eight inch driver and 300 watts. I don’t know if you guys noticed this but I didn’t list another 12-inch subwoofer.

I Didnt Do That On Purpose.

I couldn’t find another 12-inch subwoofer that was 400 so I’m not saying one doesn’t exist. I couldn’t find one if you know that exists maybe leave it in the comments, but that’s where this thing really presents the value in my opinion um if you step up your budget sure you’re. 18-inch 21-inch subwoofers but at 400 bucks. Most subwoofers are eight inch some are ten.

Some Are Ten.

Most of them are eight inch. Though Pros and cons big output for the money . It really does have big output and its slam and attack is really good too and I I’m happy that it has that because the smaller version. The eight inch also has that in the review for the eight inch model I talked about how when the bass comes on its initial attack and slam is quick and effortless and what I believe is happening.

Here Is Because Emotiva Is An

amplifier company at their core. I believe the amplifier they designed for this has a good power supply and a strong output stage. It’s high current and it can deliver the power needed during those dynamic swings quickly and efficiently to move that cone. Immediately pressurize your room that’s not something I’ve really heard at this price point before so big hats off there. The next pro listed was the built-in crossover, the built-in limiter and the fact that you’re getting a 12-inch driver with 200 rod amp for this money.

I Thought That Was Great Cons Setup Was

a little bit difficult in my room. my room seems to not get along really well with passive subwoofers that have passive radiators. I don’t know why that is I’ve had a few in here maybe it’s my equipment overall in the system synergy. I don’t know it always seems to take a little bit longer to set up and integrate properly. In fact in my room.

Subwoofers With Passive Radiators Have A

different sweet spot. Even than say a sealed subwoofer would sealed subwoofers usually go over here. Subwoofers with passive drivers usually. I’m sitting over here, I’m actually sitting on a subwoofer right now What else do we have oh and of course with the whole setup thing that can vary Maybe in your room. This thing will set up in five minutes.

Maybe In Someone Elses Room Itll Be An

hour. It really depends on the other gear you have, but what I do want to say about setup is this and it’s really important every subwoofer sounds bad when it’s set up poorly. This one sounds really bad when it’s set up poorly and that’s actually a good thing because if it sounds like crap you’ve got it set up wrong spend more time with it hell even call emotiva. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help you get that thing set up right so um and I I dealt with that myself actually um for the first. couple hours, I was like This is like not meshing well for some reason, and I knew it wasn’t the subwoofer because I know emotiva makes good stuff.

  • emotiva se8 subwoofer really enjoyed
  • se12 subwoofer ve following channel
  • subwoofer know emotiva makes good
  • 12 inch subwoofer
  • 12 inch subwoofer 400

Ive Heard Lots Of Their Subwoofers

Over the years, so I didn’t give up and I was able to get it to sound right. What I was doing originally is. I had it in the same spot. I have my sealed subwoofers and then I remembered ah in this room subwoofers with passive drivers go right here behind me anyway. The only other con I listed was that the frequency adjustment knob only lets you go down to 60 Hertz.

I Usually Like To Set My Subwoofers Closer

to 50 Hertz so for me that was kind of annoying but no big deal next. What does it sound like I’m saying about its output distinction, speed, extension and authority output is going. to be excellent it’s got excellent output like. I said it’s got slam and it delivers and it pressurizes your room quickly and I I think this is about as much output as you’re going to get for 400 bucks straight up the distinction when I say distinction I’m talking about do the different bass frequencies sound different cheaper. Subwoofers have a bad habit of homogenizing the sound of bass meaning whether you’re playing a 30 hertz tone or 50 hertz tone.

They Kind Of Sound.

The same one is just maybe louder than the other. This doesn’t do that you can tell the difference in base frequencies with the subwoofer. I appreciate that speed surprisingly good, surprisingly good that impressed me because the 8-inch model has very good speed and you would expect it to it’s an 8-inch subwoofer I thought the 12-inch would be a. lot slower it’s not it’s a tiny bit slower as you would expect from a larger driver in the budget category, but I would not consider this a slow subwoofer.

Typically Its Been My Experience That

if you’ve got a sealed subwoofer over here as being the quickest by design and a ported subwoofer over here being the slowest by design. Usually subwoofers with passive radiators land right in the middle has been my experience This one isn’t right in the middle. It’s more over here. It’s it’s almost as as quick and tight as a sealed only subwoofer extension pretty good.

  • subwoofer
  • subwoofers
  • se12
  • amplifier
  • rca

Id Say Really Good Especially For

this price category. Most subwoofers are on this price category. You know you got like 30 32, 34 even 38 Hertz cut-off frequencies. This goes down to 28 add a little room gain into the mix you’ve got a healthy 24 to.

Hertz Frequency Extension, Which Is Not Bad

at this price authority again very good. I think the slam and initial attack really helps it helps this thing sound like it’s got some good authority to it um the base also sounded what I would consider fairly controlled and it hit deep too. This thing got pretty deep, which again the eight inch model also did this really is just a larger version.

Summary

Emotiva Se12 subwoofer is a 12-inch down firing driver . Front firing passive radiator 200 watt Rms Amp 400 watts peak . Frequency response plus or minus 3 db is 28 hertz to 200 hertz . Frequency adjustment is going to allow you to go between 60 and 150 hertz. It’s got a zero or 180 phase switch auto or on switch. It also has a rocker switch to turn it off completely. It has LFe RCa and high level inputs that’s going to be really helpful for those of you that don’t have pre-outs on your preamp or Avr or whatever it is that you’re using what else do we have it’s. A transparent limiter and what they call a transparent limitor will stop this thing from running out of steam. The first one is what they say is stopping it from bottoming out distorting being overdriven. The transparency limiter stops it from bottoming out . The weight is going the…. Click here to read more and watch the full video