Emotiva Ultra 12 Introduction

"Subwoofer" - it's like a magic word around here and makes all of us audioholics have little dreams of black boxes that cause our walls to crack, dishes to rattle, and rock our children to sleep... from the other end of the house. Some people think a good subwoofer will go down to 2 Hz, cost $200 and live in a box the size of a small laptop computer. Others go for size, wanting nothing less than a small refrigerator that will smack them around like a rag doll. We prefer a slightly more balanced approach, so when Emotiva announced their affordable Ultra Sub 12, we were intrigued.  A 12” high quality driver mounted in a modest sized sealed enclosure with a meaty power amp for under $500 sure sounded like a winner to us.  Could their reasonably sized black box deliver good bass and punch at an affordable price?  Read our review to find out.

Emotiva Ultra Sub 12 Subwoofer Video Review from Audioholics.

Build Quality and Features

Can an under $500 12-inch subwoofer really compete? We weren't sure, so we got one and hooked it up. And we began our evaluation by looking at the features of the budget-minded 12-inch sub. First off, the Ultra Sub 12 uses a high efficiency power amplifier with high current switchmode power supply. I don't know about you, but when amps are concerned, the nice thing about Emotiva is that it's not just grabbing the nearest model off the shelf. The company knows amps, and the Ultra 12 has a 300W Class-D amp with 500W of peak output that is quite sufficient to drive the sub to its limits (see our measurements section). When you get a look at the circuit board of the included plate amplifier, particularly with regard to its layout and complexity, you really get the sense that this company knows what it's doing.

As far as the driver is concerned, Emotiva used a 12-inch long-throw woofer with a robust, almost overbuilt (were it not a subwoofer) die cast frame and one massive motor assembly. They paid attention to a lot of details, like the woven tinsel leads and a heavy-duty butyl rubber surround that looks like it will last far beyond the practical life of the sub (remember the days of simple foam surrounds?) The tinsel leads eliminate the worry of lead slapping against the driver during high excursion while also proving more travel.  The woofer is constructed out of a triple-woven synthetic product used in bulletproof vests. We didn't shoot it, but in fairness we're pretty certain they're going for stiffness, not defensive measures. The design is front-firing, with a sealed enclosure that is tuned to reproduce frequencies as low as 25Hz at astonishing levels of output for its size and cost.

Emotiva Ultra 12 Sub Driver (notice cast basket and tinsel leads)

Speaking of the box, it's constructed out of MDF with a 1" thick baffle and extensive bracing and dampening throughout to ensure the sub only makes noise from its driver and nothing else - even the grill mount includes rubber boots so it won't rattle. The bracing is even rounded off on the interior corners providing additional reinforcement. The rounded braces are a nice touch and you can tell that Emotiva has a pride in workmanship that you don't always see with subwoofer manufacturers. The sub includes both rubber and aluminum feet, so you can use it on carpet or hardwood and tile floors. The cabinet passed our knuckle rap test with flying colors. It's built very well, and really its boring black wood laminate finish was the only stand-out disappointment.

After mentioning this to Emotiva, the company quickly alerted us that it is now shipping the Ultra 12 in a new Studio Black Satin Lacquer. Gene received one of the new units and it is a marked improvement.  For only a modest $50 cost adder, we think it’s well worth it as it adds a nice touch of class to the product.

The Ultra Sub 12 is essentially a compact 15" cube and weighs 38lbs. It has usable in-room extension down to the mid 20Hz region and Emotiva specs typical in-room output at about 112dB. We measured this to be much higher at frequencies above 40Hz. Our listening tests revealed that the USub 12 sub really has a satisfying sound that plays low enough to hit you in the chest, but never sounds distorted or boomy. This sub is tight and will do well in any type of room we can imagine - check out our listening tests.

On the back you've got both balanced (a rare find on any consumer subs, especially at this price) and unbalanced inputs. There is a Low Pass Filter switch to defeat the internal crossover, which goes from 50-150Hz. Variable volume and phase adjustment are also available, as is a switch for setting the sub to continuous, off, or auto-sensing mode. In Auto it draws 2 watts and goes standby after 10 minutes of no sound. One problem we found with this sub (which Emotiva promises to fix) is that it doesn't have an auto-muting function, so it "pops" each time you connect or disconnect a cable to the inputs.  In normal day to day operation this would never be an issue but more of a pet peeve to folks like us that hot swap cables to test multiple products at any given time.  We recommend powering down products before disconnecting them despite the fact we don't always practice what we preach. 

Emotiva Ultra Sub 12 Backpanel

About the only thing you won't be able to do with this subwoofer is feed it speaker level inputs or use it to crossover full-range frequencies to a pair of satellite speakers (there are no speaker level inputs or outputs whatsoever). With a modern AV receiver this shouldn't be a problem, but if you have a lower-tech integrated amplifier or a true legacy system or audiophile rig, you may need to look into an external crossover.