INFINITY SV06
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PHOTOS BY TONY CORDOZA

very day it�s the same: You stand on the same subway platform, at the same time, looking at the same cluster of fellow commuters, all of you waiting to begin the long trek home. But as you feel the concrete platform begin to rumble and see the headlight play along the tunnel wall, you suddenly imagine the train careening wildly into the station and � brakes screaming, sparks �ying � coming to a halt. Everyone else on the platform hits the deck as a blaze of gun�re erupts from the train�s shattered windows. And then the doors �y open and the arch villain strides out, ready to take you on in the �nal confrontation. Suddenly, the commute doesn�t seem so dull. Once at home, still in your daydream�s grip, you pop End of Days into your DVD player and jump to the scene where the subway train, engulfed in �ames, comes �ying through the tunnel. But your home theater system isn�t even giving

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you the rumble of the real subway, let alone the slam of a train out of control. It all seems �at and distant, and you �nd yourself faced with the fact that your system just can�t keep pace with either the movie or reality. It�s time to buy a subwoofer. True, many CDs and DVDs don�t have much going on at the bottom end (below 50 Hz or so), so a sub might seem like an audiophile indulgence. But more and more discs � especially DVDs � exploit what lies beneath, and the big blockbuster �lms almost always do. So getting a �rst-rate subwoofer isn�t a matter of keeping up with the home theater Joneses � it�s about experiencing all the fullness and depth movie soundtracks and music have to give. And there are more mundane reasons for thinking about adding a sub to your speaker array. The best locations for reproducing bass aren�t the same as for higher frequencies. While you should keep your front speakers away from the

SOUND & VISION JUNE 2001 77 SOUND & VISION JUNE 2001 77