Wall of Sound
Market pressures foment innovation. That's what they teach you in Harvard Business School — or so I hear. I skipped the B-school, being, umm, otherwise engaged. Sunfire's Bob Carver was, too — in his case constructively, innovating products such as his company's $2,995 SubRosa SRS-210W in-wall subwoofer/amp combo, one of several (Polk, PSB) interesting new woofs of the type seen surfing the high-end custom-install wave. (Who knew there were so many rich folks in this country?) The SubRosa features an amp-driven mechanical shaker that "drives" the baffle/mounting plate in anti-phase to its dual ultra-long-throw 10-inch drivers. The result, Sunfire claims, is a dramatic reduction in unwanted wall vibrations and enhanced deep bass. (The separate-component amp, which claims 2,700 watts, includes automatic room EQ.) An on-wall version,the SRS-210R ($3,495) — pretty much the same, but no Saw-z-all required — imposes just 3.5 inches of bump-out. We can't yet speak to the design's bass-ic efficacy, but the demo, showing a little dish of tiny ball bearings that stopped dancing when the anti-vibe gizmo was engaged, was swell. — Daniel Kumin
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