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The Short Form

Prices $2,400 (GLOSS-BLACK); $2,200 (MATTE-BLACK, shown) / home.jlaudio.com / 954-443-1100

Snapshot

A fine, very high-performance, comparatively compact subwoofer.

Plus

•Powerful, controlled deep bass •Reasonably compact size •Flexible crossover; auto-EQ controls

Minus

•Heavy •Expensive. (Did I mention heavy?)

Key Features

•12-in woofer; 1,500-watt RMS amp; 19.5 x 16.5 x 19.8 in; 115 lb •Finish: Gloss or matte black Full Lab Results

Widely respected in high-end mobile sound, JL Audio has only recently navigated into home theater waters. Domestic notoriety may come quickly, however. The new JL Audio Fathom f112 subwoofer has a high-tech 12-inch driver rated at more than 3 inches peak-to-peak linear excursion, mated with a digital amp said to produce "unclipped output voltages equivalent to 1,500 watts." Weighing in at a measly 115 pounds (less than half the mass of JL's largest sub), the f112 certainly has a big-bass recipe.

The f112's electronics include flexible low-pass filtering (though most will bypass this for the receiver's crossover) and an Extreme Low Frequency trim control supplying +3/—12 dB equalization over the bottommost octave. There's also Automatic Room Optimization: Plug in the supplied test mike, and the JL adjusts its single parametric filter to "tame the primary room mode." In many cases, this will yield at least somewhat smoother and subjectively deeper-sounding bass. In my room, with the sub in my proven spot left of my front-left speaker, it resulted in subtly tighter music bass.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE Here's the executive summary: The JL f112 outperformed my everyday sub, a somewhat more compact sealed 12-incher of similarly lofty price, by an audible margin in both depth and power — the first visiting woofer to do so in some time. I tried lots of film and music tracks, and while passages rating only "very demanding" yielded no audible differences, my "most demanding" list told the tale.

On the helicopter rotor-beats from Chapter 4 of Black Hawk Down, at cinema-reference levels, the f112 produced a clearly more thoracic overall effect. When playing the full speaker system, this was discernible only to a practiced ear, but it was perfectly obvious with the full-range speakers muted. Plus, the JL excited rattles in my room that my regular woof could not. More important, it delivered tangibly more near-infrasonic gut-thumping from stuff like that old standby, the 'zilla footfalls from Godzilla.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE Music playback was just as impressive. Even with a fairly high crossover (80 Hz) dialed in from the processor, the JL produced a smooth, continuous blend with smaller sats, including exposed material such as solo string bass. I heard no hint of sub artifacts that called attention to its location, nor any of the "boom," "bloom," or "bloat" that afflict many subs. The f112 was invariably tight and detailed. And it was highly musical — along with powerful and low.

BOTTOM LINE This is a hell of a good subwoofer. If you've got the scratch to buy it and the abs to unpack and install it, you won't be sorry.

Full Lab Results
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