Aperion Audio Bravus II 12D Subwoofer Review

Aperion Audio Bravus II 12D Subwoofer Introduction

Aperion Audio is an internet direct retailer and manufacturer of a full line of speaker systems including bookshelf, floor standing and architectural speakers, plus a line of powered subwoofers. The Bravus II line of subwoofers are compact passive radiator equipped models with down firing drivers and efficient class D amplifiers. The Bravus II 12D is the largest, most powerful subwoofer in the Aperion lineup and carries a price tag of $899 shipped. The box that the Bravus II 12D arrived in was moderate in size and weighed about 65lbs. The packaging is a thick single layer cardboard outer box with top and bottom foam inserts that slide down over top of the subwoofer. The top insert also holds the accessory pack containing the power cord, both rubber and spiked feet, owner manual, etc. The subwoofer itself is inside of a very nice royal blue color velvet bag which is in turn inside of a plastic bag. The packaging looks plenty adequate for a sub of this size and mass and appears to afford the protection needed for most “handling” encountered during shipping.

Unpacking of the 12D subwoofer was a short and relatively easy affair involving removing it from its protective bags and screwing in the rubber feet supplied (Spikes are also available). After doing so the first thing I noted was the diminutive form of the 12D, more similar in size to miniature sealed designs than most 12” bass reflex units. The second thing that hit me was the finish and visual presentation of this unit. It was very nice indeed. The gloss piano black finish was mirror polished and clear reflections could easily be seen in it. The corners additionally have a nice rounded edge and the grilles are inset into the sides of the cabinet. Topping off the presentation is a small Aperion logo on the front of the unit. Removing the grilles reveals the side firing opposed passive radiators each adorned with the Aperion logo on the cone. The overall look of the 12D is high quality and the subwoofer is quite small, resulting in one of the more aesthetically pleasing exteriors I have encountered regardless of price. Black gloss is the only finish option available, but it is a good one. Aperion backs the Bravus II 12D with 2 years warranty on the amplifier and associated electronics but a generous 10 years on the cabinet, passive radiators and active driver. Aperion lists the weight of the unit as 62lbs but I suspect that this is the shipping weight and the weight of the 12D unpacked feels closer to 50lbs, but I did not bother to verify this by weighing it.

Design Overview

The Bravus II 12D is a very compact bass reflex design utilizing a 12” down firing active driver and a pair of side firing 12” passive radiators instead of the typical port vent in a small 15.5” cubed cabinet constructed of 1” HDF. The plate amplifier occupies the entire back panel of the enclosure which leaves only 2 faces without either a driver or controls on them. This is a packed little enclosure! I am a fan of using passive radiators over ports in compact bass reflex designs like Aperion has done here. Many consumers will want a small, light, good looking subwoofer, but also want maximum performance from the standpoint of both extension and output. These goals are at odds in many cases. One typical way to offer a lot of output for a modest cost is to have a larger vented subwoofer in order to make the most of modest components. However these systems are typically larger than many consumers will want in their room, let alone multiple units and they are typically more expensive to ship and not finished as well. In the other direction you typically have sealed alignments which can be very small but rely solely on the driver for output and are the least efficient design. In order to make a lot of output for headroom and extension in a small sealed design requires a robust, heavy duty driver design and a lot of amplifier power, both of which indicate high quality components that cost more money. Conversely you can choose to use components of lesser quality in a sealed design of course but the extension and headroom of said unit will suffer even further as a result. The use of a passive radiator set-up is a good way to split the difference between bass reflex and compact sealed and I am surprised that it is not utilized by more manufacturers. Passive radiators have many advantages over ports. They have no pipe resonances and they do not eat up the internal volume of the enclosure as much. The passive’s can have mass added in order to achieve a lower tuning in a very small enclosure volume than would be physically possible with a vented system. The lower your tuning the longer your port needs to be for a given enclosure volume so there becomes a point where a tuning with a port simply becomes impractical. Passives also do not suffer from vent noises or port compression, which often sets in much earlier than thought on many vented systems, especially when vent area is compromised in order to get a low tune from a small cabinet. Passive radiators also do not provide an opening into the cabinet for critters to crawl in or “little ones” to drop random inexplicable items into. However, passive radiators do add extra cost and complexity to the design as the suspension characteristics and mass of the passives need to be carefully vetted in order to ensure that the design goals are met. A good rule of thumb when using passive radiators is to use passives with 2x the cone area and twice the volume of displacement of the active driver at minimum in order to minimize the chance of overdriving the passives at system tuning. Aperion has done just that and additionally has mounted the passive radiators on opposing sides of the enclosure. This will cause the mechanical forces of the passive radiator diaphragms to cancel each other out. This is a good design choice as passive radiators are typically very heavy and can cause shaking of the entire enclosure at high volumes if this is not done.

Once removed from the enclosure, the driver of the Bravus 12D appeared to be a fairly heavy duty and long throw unit as did the passive radiators. All appear to be of good quality and commensurate with the price range of the finished product. The frames, cones, cosmetics and soft parts of all three are identical. All use an aluminum cone with an inverted dustcap embossed with the Aperion logo and a suspension consisting of a small rubber half roll surround and a 5” diameter spider. The frame is a sturdy stamped steel unit with plenty of venting. The passives are open to the back and each have three small weights attached to tune their resonance. The active driver has a 2” diameter voice coil and a motor with a single magnet slug of about 5.5” diameter and 1” thickness. The t-yoke has a large bump out to clear large excursions.

 Aperion Bravus II 12D Driver

The amplifier is an efficient class D switching type rated at a generous 650 watts, which should provide plenty of power to excite and control the system. The input and output connections and controls available for the 12D on the amplifier are very basic consisting of only: RCA style left, right and LFE inputs, speaker level inputs and outputs for connecting to systems without a dedicated subwoofer output, a 0-180deg phase control, auto/on/off switch, main power switch and input gain adjustment. Aperion even makes mention of getting rid of frivolous and seldom needed features in order to keep the final cost down in their literature, a stance which makes a lot of sense when trying to offer maximum performance for the dollar. What controls are left on the unit are more than what is necessary to integrate the 12D into most any system. 

Back View of the Bravus II 12D (left image) ; Bravus II 12D amplifier (right image)

The enclosure of the 12D is constructed of 1” HDF and as previously mentioned is very nicely finished. There are some spots like under the grilles and drivers which are less than perfectly finished but considering the rarity that these points are looked at and the price bracket that this sub falls in this is completely acceptable in my view. Speaking of the grilles they are made out of a wood frame and fasten securely into place with fasteners that seem a little sturdier than most. After removing the driver to look at the internals it could be seen that the 12D did not use any lining or stuffing material inside of the enclosure and only 2 small braces none of which were panel to panel cross braces. Considering the tiny size of this enclosure, the 1” wall thickness and the fact that 4 of the available 6 enclosure faces are taken up almost entirely by either the amplifier or a driver, the lack of heavy internal bracing or dampening does not concern me. In a larger more open subwoofer it would but this is a tiny shoe box crammed full of active components. This lack of concern was borne out in both the outdoor testing and listening sessions where the cabinet never exhibited any signs of resonances, rattles or other distracting colorations. Looking at the sum total of the parts and build quality it certainly looks like Aperion has put considerable effort into this design.

Aperion Audio Bravus II 12D Subwoofer Listening Session

For all of the listening sessions the Bravus II 12D was placed in the front right corner of the room with the PR about 3 inches from the wall. This places the subwoofer about 4 meters from the primary listening position. I have determined this to be the best available single subwoofer placement in the room for most units. Audyssey was run on the system to allow it to integrate the Bravus II 12D, which was then followed by a check and recalibration of the subwoofer and speaker levels prior to the listening sessions. It is assumed that the majority of purchasers would utilize some form of automated room correction system to integrate a new subwoofer. The Bravus II 12D’s internal low pass filter was defeated in favor of a 100Hz internal one inside of the Onkyo PR-SC886P processor.

Editorial Note: I have recently moved into a new home and have a listening room that is significantly different from my previous one. The new room is a smaller 3150 cubic ft but open to a large hallway connecting to the rest of the basement with a shorter ceiling and more complex shape. Additionally the new room is cement slab floor with 3 walls of brick as opposed to the larger wood frame and floor constructed room I had been in. This room is easier to drive than the old space but has much less tactile transmission so I now use a -10 master volume setting for movie playback instead of -15. I am still slowly getting acclimated to the differences in sound in the new room.

Music: With the 12D being the first compact subwoofer that I have listened to in the new house I was curious as to how it would behave and how much energy it would impart in a space without wood framing to energize. Turns out it did rather well. I started off listening to random selections from my collection including but not limited to: Loreena McKennit, The Police, Animals as Leaders, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Volbeat. Throughout which the 12D happily provided solid fundamental tones and support to underpin the music. The electronic bass tones, bass guitar and drum work from various random genres of music were all well reproduced by the Bravus 12D and without any sense of over emphasis on any particular part of the bass spectrum. The sound was neutral and clear at typical listening volumes for me, especially through the crossover region. So far so good. For a greater in depth listen I decided on the “Red” album by the rock band Baroness. This album has a distinct and clear bass guitar tone that is set very nicely in between the drums and guitar in the mix while the drum set has a large and thumping kick drum and booming floor toms. The music is at times relaxed and meandering and other times morphs into furious rock riffing with the result being that it sounds better the louder it is turned up. As usual I started off at low volume for the first couple of tracks where the 12D did a great job tracking the often wandering bass line amidst the dense guitar and drum work at which point the song Isak came on and volume knob was twisted up a bit more. The 12D responded with more volume and seemed to have no issue with maintaining composure even among the most treacherous and twisty passages. Tonal accuracy was very good with no obvious smearing of notes, loss of purity or lack of kick drum attack. The final track is Wailing Wintry Wind which starts off with a great drum build up running from the rims, to the snare, into tom work descending into the floor toms before finally breaking into full riff and a bass line that is complex and prominent with fundamentals covering most of the mid bass and typical crossover region between sub and mains. During this build up the drums are mixed loudly with the snare thick and woody when laid into and the floor toms cavernous. I turned the volume up a bit louder still for this track and the 12D was up to the task and produced a strong presentation of the low register present in the track without the warming over or smearing sound that often occurs when smaller subwoofers are asked to do heavy lifting in a large open room. The kick was even starting to get a bit of tactile sensation to it and the bass line was still clear despite the heavy kick drum being reproduced at the same time. Certainly there are limits to the Bravus 12D but I was impressed at the composure and what amount of “fun factor” was available from such a compact unit.

Blu-ray Movies: The Grey

Since the 12D did so well supporting the low end of all of the music I listened to, I was curious to see what it could do with the louder and much lower frequencies present in modern movies. One movie that I viewed with the 12D covering the bass range was The Grey starring Liam Neeson, which isn’t the most demanding soundtrack ever but has a couple of parts requiring significant power from the subwoofer. There are plenty of background bass rumbles that accompany the howling Alaskan wind throughout the movie and it can get quite loud at times. The 12D did a good job of transporting me into a howling gale force wind when called to do so. Near the beginning Liam Neeson’s character goes into a bar which is accompanied by loud bar music. Here the 12D again did a nice job of acting like a bigger sub system and projected lots of thumping bass into the room sufficient for me to believe that I might actually be in a club. At about 25 minutes into the film the plane that the workers are riding in experiences major catastrophic failure in several systems and the horrific plane crash that follows is home theater demonstration quality material with violent bass and lower midrange reproduction required from the subwoofer and mains as the plane disintegrates and plummets from the sky before finally plowing into the ground. The 12D valiantly gave its all during this section and produced lots of roaring bass to accompany the onscreen destruction but seemed to lack the lowest bass frequencies and dynamically the presentation seemed a bit squashed and muted compared to what it can be. Less scary lets say. Similar to the difference between experiencing a plane crash from a hundred feet back rather than having the plane crash around you. I also thought that I perhaps heard a bit of overload or distortion from the 12D during this part but with so much going on at once I can’t be sure. This is a very difficult piece of audio for any subwoofer to handle at these volumes so considering the price and size of the 12D the fact that it gave a good account of itself in a large room during this section without going into protect or obviously sounding bad is a result to be proud of. The 12D can produce substantial bass output but for loud HT playback adding a second 12D would be worthwhile.

Aperion Audio Bravus II 12D Subwoofer Measurements and Analysis

The 12D was placed outdoors in a large field with the nearest large objects a minimum of 60ft or greater away from it and with its active driver pointing directly at the microphone and the 2 passives firing 90degrees perpendicular to it. The measurement microphone was placed on the ground at a distance of 2 meters from the nearest enclosure face of the 12D containing the active driver and pointing directly at it. The LFE input was used with the gain at maximum unless otherwise specifically noted for all measurements. For more info on the testing equipment and procedures please see the article here.

Powered Subwoofer Testing Outline and Procedures Overview

 Aperion Bravus II 12D: Effect of Low Pass Filter Settings

A measurement was taken of the 12D with the low pass crossover bypassed using the LFE input and also at its maximum, minimum and settings corresponding to the 3,1,11 and 9 o’clock positions on a clock in order to observe its effect on the response shape. This is presented in the graph above. The effective adjustment range appears to cover what amounts to a 60Hz low pass to a 150Hz low pass with a 4^th order roll off. Interestingly using the LFE input gives about a 4dB boost in input sensitivity.

Aperion Bravus II 12D: Basic Frequency Response as Tested

The response shape of the 12D subwoofer measured using the LFE input stays within a 6dB total window from 22-400Hz which is very good and confirms Aperion’s response rating. There is a bit of a hump in response at 40-50Hz but this is low q and less than 3dB in total. The 12D is capable of running up as high as 180Hz or higher if needed to match small bass limited speakers.

Aperion Bravus II 12D: Group Delay

The group delay plot for the 12D shows only a small increase in delay between 16-25Hz which is likely to be where the passive radiator tuning and rumble filter are located. However the total delay barely breaks 1 cycle and not until below 23Hz. 1.5 cycles is never approached. This is a fairly clean result for a bass reflex system and certainly there is nothing likely to be audible or worth worrying about shown here.

 Aperion Bravus II 12D: Long Term Power Compression

The long term output compression sweeps for the 12D subwoofer indicate that the response shape is well maintained through the 100dB nominal sweep level. A 105dB sweep produced some overload noise from the passive radiators and active driver over a narrow bandwidth. The measurement appeared to indicate that this was around 20Hz as output barely increased there and compression below 25Hz was substantial. The subwoofer likely still has output headroom to go in the upper bass range but the testing was stopped here due to the behavior in the deep bass. It appears that the high pass filter to protect the system below the passive radiator tuning might be set just a bit too low in frequency. Being the nice guy that I am I decided to see what happened if I push the 12D even harder in the deep bass in an effort to ascertain whether the protection circuits would prevent the drivers from beating themselves to death below tuning. The limiter circuits did clamp down preventing any further level increases before any damage could occur. A simple change to a few components in the amp to raise the frequency that the rumble filter kicks in a little higher would likely prevent the driver noises entirely. This was the only objectionable sound that I could get out of the 12D and it seemingly only occurs when pushed very hard around 16-20Hz. Otherwise it was unfazed throughout the testing and listening sessions both and emitted no rattles, buzzes or bad resonances from the cabinet which was inert throughout.

Editorial Note on Output Compression Testing: This is by far the most demanding measurement type conducted on the subwoofers during our testing and will reveal any issues with overload, port compression, port noise, driver distress, creaks, rattles, buzzes, etc. Additionally the test is conducted outdoors with just the subwoofer operating so there will be no nearby walls or objects to vibrate and no upper frequency content from other speakers in operation. These would normally help to cover up or mask any objectionable noises from the subwoofer in a typical room. Any sort of audible distress or issues with the subwoofer are readily apparent in this environment.

Aperion Bravus II 12D: Output Compression Magnitude

Looking at the amount of compression exhibited only, it can be seen that the 12D performs well in this regard up until the point that the drivers in the system ran completely out of excursion near 20Hz. Above 30hz the compression is less than 2dB at the maximum sweep level used.

Aperion Bravus II 12D: Total Harmonic Distortion

Aperion Bravus II 12D: Distortion by Component

 The distortion results for the Bravus II 12D presented above are rather good for a subwoofer of this size and price. Looking at the THD graph the notch in distortion right at 25Hz indicates that this is the likely tuning of the system. The increase in distortion levels to a peak at 31.5Hz indicates this is the area of maximum driver excursion above tuning. Above 35Hz the THD stays below 10% and below 5% above 40Hz. The distortion by component graph shows something even more interesting as the distortion percentage is greatly dominated by the 2^nd harmonic which is largely held to be the least audible and in some cases a little H2 is even described as sounding better. The predominant 2^nd harmonic distortion and the low overall distortion levels above 25Hz combine to indicate that the 12D will sound very clean in its useful range of operation.

Aperion Bravus II 12D: CEA2010 2 Meter Groundplane RMS Results

Aperion Bravus II 12D: CEA2010 2 Meter Groundplane RMS Graph

CEA2010 Results

The CEA2010 burst testing results for the Aperion 12D indicate that while it isn’t a sub bass Goliath it has surprisingly potent output over much of its range. At 20Hz the 12D could only muster 87dB while passing and just over 90dB if distortion is ignored. This is obviously below the tuning of the system. At 25Hz the 12D grunts out just over 100dB with acceptable distortion which is impressive for a subwoofer the size of this one. At 31.5Hz the 12D recorded 105.3dB and from 40Hz through 125Hz the output approaches 110dB or more. A maximum figure of 112.6dB was recorded at 50Hz. That’s a lot of gumption from a 15.5” cube and partly explains why it did so well in both the music and movie portions of the listening tests.

Aperion Audio Bravus II 12D Subwoofer Conclusion

I really liked Aperion’s 12D. In many ways it is quite different from a lot of its competitor products and includes design choices that make a lot of practical sense. For example instead of adding in extra “features” and bells and whistles into the subwoofer and amplifier, which increases cost and are often of limited practical use, Aperion actively promotes that they removed these to streamline the product and keep costs down. Of course you may sometimes wish you had a remote for it, or built in auto-eq, or a nifty lcd display to look at, but the result of leaving these types of things out in favor of more performance for less dollars is a powerful argument. I also am a fan of the passive radiator approach. It keeps the cabinet smaller than possible with a port but provides the output advantages of a bass reflex versus a sealed system. At 15.5” cubed with another 1.5” for the feet to raise the driver off of the ground the 12D is what I consider a very small or compact subwoofer, not quite in the micro class but significantly smaller than most other bass reflex 12” units. My main issue with tiny subwoofers is that often they sound...well...tiny and bass is supposed to be BIG sounding. Due to the strong amp and passive radiator design the 12D is able to bend the rules a bit and provide strong output down to 25Hz in room from a small cabinet and more upper bass punch than I had expected. I could occasionally tell that the deepest bass content was missing from movies but otherwise the 12D did very well and especially so with music. Sonically the 12D performs. Aesthetically in my opinion it is hands down the best looking subwoofer I have seen for under $1,000. The gloss piano black finish is beautiful, the dual recessed grilles give a symmetric appearance and the Aperion badging is classy.  If there were a rating for spousal acceptance the 12D would get the top marks easily. I only have one gripe with the 12D and that is that it will produce some grumbles from the drivers if pushed really hard near 20Hz. Hopefully Aperion will address this with a change to the high pass filter in the amplifier.

At $899 delivered the Aperion Bravus II 12D is very reasonably priced, but not the cheapest subwoofer around. It is small, but not the smallest, not the loudest, or the deepest extending subwoofer around either, but what it does offer is a compelling mix of size, looks, output and price, not found in this particular combination very often. Aperion has produced a real contender in the small sub market. Highly recommended.

The Aperion Bravus II 12D just barely manages to squeak past the required output thresholds and receives the Audioholics Bassaholic Large Room rating, which means that this sub is recommended as maintaining adequate headroom in rooms or spaces of between 3,000 to 5,000 cubic feet and/or for users who usually listen at moderate volume levels. The 12D is the smallest and lightest subwoofer to be able to pass the requirements for the large room rating so far. For further information in how we make these recommendations see the full article here.

See: Audioholics Subwoofer Room Size Rating Protocol

Aperion Bravus II 12D Review
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The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

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Metric	Rating
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Build Quality
Fit and Finish
Ergonomics & Usability
Features
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value