Aperion Audio Bravus 10D Introduction

Lately it seems I've been on a personal crusade to review small but potent subwoofers.  Aperion Audio seems to have built their entire subwoofer lineup on this philosophy, with the Bravus 10D being their most popular offering.  I'm a champion of recommending multiple subwoofers in virtually all home theater installations because of the superior bass response across all of the seats that is inherent thanks to modal averaging.  If you want consistent bass for all seats, strategically positioning multiple subs (2 or 4) is the best way of achieving this.  It’s often impractical with large expensive subs. But, my argument rather than spending $2k on a large sub is to spend $2k on two smaller but competent subs (see: Are two subs better than one?) I recently caught a glance at Aperions new subwoofer offerings through a 5.1 system review Clint DeBoer headed up.  I was intrigued to check one out myself.  Could the reasonably sized and priced Aperion Bravus 10D deliver the goods?  Read on to find out….

Design Overview

The Bravus 10D is in the middle of the Aperion line of subwoofer offerings.  Aperion offers two finish options: cherry or high gloss black.  I selected gloss black for my review sample.

The 10D features dual anodized black 10" Aluminum cone woofers with butyl rubber surrounds firing on opposing cabinet walls. This is beneficial configuration for the drivers to cancel one another's stress on the cabinet, reducing cabinet coloration.  Aperion claims the cabinet is constructed of 1" HDF but when I pulled one of the drivers out, it appeared more like 3/4" to me but Aperion Audio engineering assured me the side panels, front baffle and bracing are all 1" thick.  Needless to say the cabinet was well braced and passed the knuckle rap test with a solid thud.  The cabinet is rounded with NO sharp corners or boxy look as can be found in many of Aperion's competitors.  Aperion supplies both rubber cone (for hardwood floors) and metal cone feet (for carpets) and even includes pads for the metal spikes should you decide to use them on delicate hardwood flooring.  

The woofers are stamped baskets but have a lot of steel mass on the frame which helps to push the resonant frequency above the woofers passband thus reducing their susceptibility to adding coloration. The drivers are NOT magnetically shielded but the opposing magnets in close proximity reduces the net magnetic field for those still using CRT screens in close proximity to the subwoofer.   The 10D employees a 300 watt BASH amplifier.  It's unclear how the power of this amplifier is rated but it's been our experience with other subwoofers employing BASH amplifiers that their ratings tend to be a maximum best case scenario rating and NOT even close to a continuous power rating.  What matters most is how much clean SPL the subwoofer can deliver which we will get to later in the review.

The side firing woofers are recessed into the cabinet making the grills flush with the box which is very aesthetically pleasing.  If you want to pull the grills off to get a glance at the woofers, you will need to use their supplied tool to do so.  A simple insertion into the top of the grill, a twist clockwise and a small pull will get the grills off.  In my opinion, Aperion should have included a holding spot on the amplifier backplate as it's very easy to lose this tool. The 10D comes with a remote control which is a  rarity in a product in this price class.  Again it would have been cool to be able to store the remote in the sub, perhaps via a small slot below the front panel controls.  It's very easy to lose such a small remote control so be sure to stow the remote and the grill tool in a safe place for future use.

The backpanel has both high level (stereo and LFE mono) and stereo speaker level inputs, a 120/220V selector and power on/off switch.  There are no speaker level outputs so if you're planning on running a subwoofer-satellite system you're gonna need to use the bass management of  your A/V receiver which, in most cases, is the preferred option anyways.

The 10D sports three custom presets which are factory set with the same null settings. The setup options include:

• variable and defeatable crossover from 50-150Hz in 10Hz steps
• low bass boost/cut from -6dB to + 6dB in 1 dB steps
• phase from 0 to 180 degrees in 30 degree steps
• single PEQ (Paramentric EQ) +-6dB gain/cut from 30Hz to 60Hz in 10Hz steps, with what Aperion refers to as "Narrow", "Normal" and "Wide" Q (aka. filter width) options.  I tested the PEQ feature of the 10D and verified the variable Q settings to be between 2 for the "Low" setting and 6 for the "Narrow" setting which is what Aperion claims.  The high Q setting is useful for taming real world real world bass issues if you have the proper tools to measure and analyze the problematic frequencies in your room.

Set-Up & Installation

I tested the Aperion Bravus 10D in the Audioholics Showcase Home family room system which is a medium sized room opened to a kitchen, a room layout which is typical in Florida. In this system I am using a Yamaha RX-Z7 7.1 A/V receiver, Oppo BDP-83SE Universal player,  RBH Sound Signature series speakers with Status driver upgrades and two JL f110 subwoofers.  To be fair to the 10D, I disconnected one of my f110s and directly compared a single f110 placed side by side with the Aperion 10D both level matched to the rest of my system. Both subs are located towards the front left of the room behind the left couch about 4 feet from the corner.  I also spot checked how the 10D sounded in my main theater room using my EMPtek 41-SE/B desktop speakers  crossed over at 90Hz.