Aperion Bravus 12D Subwoofer

The build quality of this sub really surprised us. Not in the "wow, they actually did something right" sort of way, but the "holy cow, our readers really need to start checking these out" sort of way. So many other Internet brands get recognition for subwoofer performance and build quality, but I think we might need to take a second look at the 12D as a new stand-alone contender. The sub has two 12-inch aluminum high excursion drivers with rubber surrounds that were durable and nicely stiff. Aperion supplies Bravus 12D owners with 4 metal carpet spikes and footers, 4 rubber feet, a remote control and grill removal tool. The AC power cord is removable, making it easy to move the sub around if needed or, if you're so inclined, you can experiment with all those esoteric power cables that cost a ton of money and typically do anything beneficial.

A 500 watt rms BASH amplifier drives the system and the sub supports line level and speaker level inputs. There is also a dedicated LFE input which will save many users the need for a Y-cable splitter. On this sub the left-right inputs are for full range line-level signal, perfect for those who have legacy receivers or integrated amplifiers without a subwoofer output.

What you see here is it - other than power, the rest is via software control

Oh, back to the remote. Yes, you can (and must) control everything via remote control or the side-mounted LCD screen and directional control pad. You can actually set up presets for Movies, Music and Games and recall them as desired to adjust the subwoofer level for those modes. This is excellent since I frequently use different subwoofer levels for music and movies. With gaming, all bets are off - crank it up! If you're a true audioholic, you'll program these into your universal remote control's macro commands. There is no analogue pot control on the rear of the sub for setting volume, nor is there a phase switch or high-pass crossover adjustment. Everything is done via software. I'm not a huge fan of this, as it seems unnecessarily complicated, but I can appreciate the trade-off in order to gain the functionality of having the settings and not requiring a separate video display to use them.

The remote has controls for menu navigation and selection. It also gives the user access to Power (On/Auto/Mute), Mode selection (Music/Movie/Game discrete buttons), and Volume. The remote is versatile and does a lot with its minimal buttons. While the up and down arrow buttons control volume normally, hold down the Enter button for 3 seconds and you'll get into the menu system. At this point the four directional controls will be used to scroll through and select menu options and settings.

About the menu system. By using the remote, you can enter into Setup Mode for the Room EQ (1-band parametric equalizer) or customize each of the three listening preset modes (Music, Movie and Game). Just hold down the Enter button for 2-3 seconds and you can set the parametric EQ and configure each of the preset buttons to your liking.

Parametric EQ
For this mode, you can select the phase of the sub (0 or 180 degrees, no increments), the parametric EQ frequency (30-90Hz in 10Hz steps), EQ Width (Narrow, Normal, or Wide), and the EQ Level (+/- 6dB in 1.5dB increments). At the end of each menu system you can save and store the new settings. What you'll want to do with this sub is locate the most active frequency peak in your most common listening position. You can do this with a test CD or simply by playing a subwoofer sweep that can be found on any THX DVD. When you hear that peak, take note of the frequency and see if dropping it 3-6dB helps even out the bass response in your room. We're betting this feature will help lots of consumers get better bass response overall. As always, we don’t' really recommend boosting, stick with cutting and you'll be better off 90% of the time.

Presets
For each of the preset areas you can select the Crossover frequency (50-150Hz in 10Hz steps), and Low Bass Adjust (this is a +/- 6dB level control). In this way, we could set a strict 60Hz crossover for music, but flex into an 80Hz crossover for movies to give us more bass, but also a smoother integration of the surrounds. We could also increase our sub level for movies by 3dB in order to deliver a bit more bass. For music, we wanted the bass to be a bit more controlled and subdued. It's a flexible system and one that we feel will get a lot of use from tweakers... and people who like to press buttons (but I repeat myself).