Capable of tight, deep, clean bass when set up right.

Twitchy controls (not an issue once dialed-in). Not beautiful to look at, and bigger, due to the dual drivers, than some others.

Been pretty happy with this sub for movies and music since I got it, am writing this review because I did some reconfiguring lately and discovered its better than I thought! Set it up with a pair of PSB Alphas for casual music listening - I have them pointing into my kitchen now from the dining room. It takes some fiddling to get things set up right, but it makes a huge difference getting it dailed in. I wish I had done this a long time ago. At first, in this appplication, the bass was too boomy. It made me realize it has always sounded a little boomy. What made things right was 1. plugging the rear ports in the PSBs and 2. turning the crossover down all the way to 50hz. I know that doesn''t seem right, since the little PSBs can''t go nearly that low (can they?), but it sounds great now. Turn the crossover up much higher and there seems to be overlap making things get boomy and a bit muddy. Also, I put the PSBs on 29" stands, one in each corner of the room - before they were on top of unequal height bookcases. This seems to have helped a lot too. I now get pretty well balanced sound without any obvious emphasis from bass to treble, and no gaps that I can hear. Not exactly world-class for sure, but for $700 total in speakers it sounds pretty dang good, and WAY better than some $1,200 a pair towers I''ve heard recently. Solid, deep bass, and the Alphas are accurate and uncolored, if not exactly spectacular, they ARE good. I agree with other comments that the Quake''s volume control is too touchy - just be patient and get it right. The above steps are obvious to audiophiles, I''m sure, but I''m not one of those, I''m a musician, and lazy to boot. Hope these points help somebody else out. I see from ACIs website that they have a new (more expensive, but not as much as the Titan) sub coming out and they''re discontinuing the Quake. I think at $450 or so its a great deal in a sub, though I admit its the only one I have any experience with. You might want to pick one up at a closeout price.

Similar Products Used:

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Many.

May be difficult to integrate with main speakers.

I have been using an ACI Quake for nearly a year. After the required long break-in period, I was very happy with its tight and reasonably deep output. However, my main speakers have fairly strong output below 50Hz, and even with the Quake's crossover set to the minimum frequency (50 Hz) I got strong overlap between the Quake's output and my mains (which sounded noticeably bad). It seems that the Quake's high pass filter rolls off slowly, so the overlap was strong even significantly above 50 Hz. After many months, I finally bought ACI's 65Hz high pass filters and put them between my preamp and the power amp driving the main speakers. With the mains' output rolled off below 65Hz and the Quake's crossover set at the minimum (50Hz), I was very happy with the overall sound of my system. It sounded far better than without both the 65Hz filter and Quake. At $450 for the Quake plus $30 for the 65Hz high pass filter, the improvement was definitely bargain-priced.

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REL Stratus, REL Stadium

Tight Base - adjustable crossover

Wow - I have had this sub for about two weeks now listening to both music and movies and was very pleased with the sound even during the break-in period.

I'm using it with the Outlaw 1050 reciever and ACI's MC2 sats and MC1 center channel.

Last night I decided to test this puppy on a pure action movie and rented the "Vertical Limit" DVD. I live in an apartment so I had the volume at a moderate level (I thought)- Until the heavy artillery in the movie fired of about six shots - WOW - I thought I was standing three feet away from the guns with no ear protection. Very loud, tight and clean booms rattled the living room. I had to turned the volume down since it was fairly late at night. I'm gonna play that scene again tonight a bit earlier and crank the volume - hope I don't get complaints from the neightbors.

Anyway back to sub - I am very impressed (to say the least). I was skeptical at first with the dual 8" providing the bass as compared to bigger 10" or 12" subs - not anymore.

I also like the adjustable crossover and phase knobs. I still plan to tweak a bit more to see if I can get even better sound.

Overall I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

First of all I would like to say that I know what true fidelity is. I am the head of Research and Development for a large computer company, in other words, I extensively do my homework. I spend my life on the Internet and in the libraries studying. Yet in regards to audio, I think I've heard true fidelity. Have you ever heard of Jim Fosgate? If not does Rockford Fosgate sound more familiar? Jim Fosgate is one of my dad's patience here in Utah. Jim has a summer home in Utah. I have been to Jim Fosgate's Home-entertainment room. How many of you can say that? Well anyways, it was the coolest thing I had ever experienced. I vowed I was going to get a speaker system like his, not knowing the magnitude of this man. Of course he made his himself, he has been called the inventor of surround sound(Dolby Pro Logic ect...) Well after all of this I would like to state me happiness on the decision to buy, factory direct, from Mike Dzurko.
The Quake:
This is defiantly what makes home theater worth it. I would prefer to have just two speakers and a Quake subwoofer than 5 speakers without the sub. This produces very low bass, 33Hz I believe. This bass is not muddy, but rather sharp, quick, and makes itself notable only when asked. In movies it adds to sooooo much. It will only speak, when spoken too. Other subwoofers always seem to be on and deliver muddy "bass" all the time. Yet this amazingly beautiful subwoofer is quite the opposite, it is NOT ported, and is an active subwoofer. This subwoofer is my pride and joy of all my audio stuff. Its big, square, and beautifully constructed, all black. It uses Two 8" woofers, but don't be fooled by that. It delivers great bass. I never though that sound could be created in my room! It has RCA connectors, and adjustable crossovers and other things in the back to match it up with my other speakers, MC1's and MC2's.
Now that I've experienced this kind of bass, I am getting curious about what two would sound like... Or maybe in the future, a Titan...

The Quake: This is defiantly what made my first home theater/Music system worth it. I would prefer to have just two speakers and the Quake subwoofer than 5 speakers. The Quake produces pretty low bass, down to 33Hz I believe. While not 20Hz, the bass is not muddy *at all*, but rather powerful, quick, and tight. I hardly notice it's here until I flip it off. In movies it adds to sooooo much. It will not only speak when spoken to, but roar. Other subwoofers always seem to be full on and deliver muddy "bass" all the time. Yet this amazingly beautiful subwoofer is quite the opposite. Quality bass, regardless of what I throw at it. And like all good subwoffers its not ported, is active. This subwoofer is my pride and joy of all my audio stuff(okay just the speaker stuff). It uses Two 8" woofers, but don't be fooled by that. It delivers deep quality bass. I never though that sound could be created in this room! Now that I've experienced this kind of bass, I am getting curious about what two would sound like... Or maybe in the future, a few Titans... I compared the Quake to REL, the only other Subwoofer that sounded decent. The quality of ACI won the face-off, hands down. Anyways....

I have a tone generator and this sub goes down pretty far. It's amazing when I heard the file; 320Kb/s Jurassic Killer, (sound programmed down to 5hz), I wasn't paying attention to much when I was playing it, until I thought I heard something like an earthquake, my head shot up and my eyes had panic in them. I thought what was that!!(fear) I barley heard it, it sounded like a huge dumptruck outside passing by. The sound was barley hearable, and I was struggling to pin-point where it was coming from, then as the T-Rex (in the track) came, 'closer' I realized with a huge sigh of relief that it was that track I was playing. (whew) Then I became really exited! Wow, what a SUB! and I enjoyed then playing the track over and over again. I love playing that track when people are over here. I wait until its really quiet, and play it with out them knowing. I like to see there heads shoot up and eyes full of fear of "what is that ...thing... I seem to be sensing?" that 'thing' the ACI's little brother to the Titan that Quake.
The quake is extremely powerful. I have it turned up just a tiny hair; about 1/10 from 0. It has a built in crossover that you can select form 50hz to 150hz; Another reason why I bought it, other go from 200-100. This sub if not ported, just tight clean acuate deep bass.
The wood working is amazing. Solid black, and pretty heavy little sub. Very dense. It gets a deeper thud when pounding on it, deeper than my 1" thick desk. It's just an overall wonderfully built sub. It may not go as low, but the quality of bass makes up for that. The quality of bass is outstanding. I play everything from Classical, to Alternative to watching blockbusters to the Simpsons, and it NEVER stops amazing me.
Quality products from ACI and a VERY generous, intelligent guy named Mike Dzurko, I will always hold up there right by Jim Fosgate. I've had the Quake for over a year, a love it.(12-97-present) Currently I've just heard the Sapphire III's and am amazed!!! They are incredibly better than the already wonderful MC1's. Now I recommend the MC1's from Center Channel only. Right now I am going to build myself some Jaguars. The only thing I've ever head slightly better than Sapphire III's is Martian-Logan's ES speakers. though I bet for a pair of $800 Jag's can give them a run for their money. ACI *is* truly the best kept secret, not just in budget and DIY audio, but overall. My future setup:
2 Jag's (Stereo) ($700kit)
1 MC1 (center) ($189)
2 Encore II (dipole surrounds) ($250pr kit)
2 Titan Sub's (L & R) ($800ea)($500kit)
All from Mike at Audio Concepts.
Darrell
Why Mike doesn't play with the big boys? Because Mike is to busy to 'play', he's working. And he's damn good at it; the best I've seen in the business. He'll take the time to personally talk with you, and always answers his email pretty quick. I don't know where he finds all the time. Find any other president of a company who's like this... I haven't.
ACI's has some good return policies, but I never use them.... :)

I got the Quake with 3 MC1's for home theater. It replaced a RS passive that I thought did OK. The Quake is a different beast altogether. It has more than enough bump for my smallish room. It was easy to hook up. The controls are kind of cheesy (they need some knobs) but I'm not much of a twiddler. This is a stout little unit with a small footprint. It definitely brings out a lot of deep background in movies (and music) that I never knew was there. I still need to play with crossover a bit, but really a great sub with the MC1s

The Quake is a terrific subwoofer. It plays extremely loudly for it's size. More importantly, it is really clean and integrates well with the main speakers. I've heard subs that cost three times as much that are boomy and il-defined in comparison. I had figured it would be an okay sub, but I'm really astonished at how good it is for under $500. The only negatives . . .ACI's phone seems to be busy a lot of the time, took me a few calls to get through, I did leave a message once and it was returned shortly later. Also, the volume control is rather "touchy" it takes a little patience to find just the right level. But well worth the effort! I'm thinking for trying their Titan for my main system . .

The Quake arrived yesterday, so this morning is probably too soon to post a review, but I am too impressed to wait. I was afraid my Adcom GFA 5400 would overpower the Quake, but ACI's in-home trial policy convinced me to take a chance. The subwoofer convinced me my fears were unfounded.
I set up the sub according to the directions on ACI's web site, which are much better than the directions in the photo copied manual that came with the sub. At first I had the sub positioned between the right speaker and my audio rack. That lasted until the cannons fired off on the "1812 Overture." The bass was obviously coming from one side of the stereo. So I unhooked everything, rearranged my gear, moved the subwoofer behind the audio rack. That was better.

I spent the next 90 minutes playing with the crossover point and the gain on the subwoofer. I found the best sound balance with the crossover at 50Hz and the gain turned up to about 2. My main speakers are Magnepan MMGs.

The quality and quantity of bass this little sub produces is amazing, especially considering the price. Bass notes that I thought sounded great with my Snell E IIIs suddenly became much clearer than I had previously heard them. I can now hear the subtle nuances as bass players move their fingers up and down the fret boards. I never realized how much box boom the Snells produced until comparing them with this subwoofer and the MMGs. With the sub positioned behind the audio rack and firing off toward the right wall the stero imaging is incredible.

The manual gives some good tips on positioning the subwoofer, and advises you not to rush to judgement. ACI recommends 60 hours break-in. If this subwoofer improves with break-in as much as the MMGs did I will be overwhelmed. I'm already pleased.

Give this subwoofer a trial. You have nothing to lose, except the return shipping. But this sub is a keeper.

Deep loud bass, blends in well with main speakers, Shakes the walls pretty nicly, The dual 8 inch drivers, Tight defind bass for music.

better for HT then music

I love this sub sooo much ( well i just love it )
I think i got an awesome deal on it.
I watched the perfect storm an hour ago and i'm still amazed.
i'm thinking of buying another one.
I like the deep tight clean loud bass this puppy has it's great for home theater my room is small and this is the perfect sub for small rooms the 2 8'' drivers fill the room pretty good.

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The BIG Jonczyk Acoustics 15" 1000 watt sub

The (2) 8 inch woofers put out more bass then my brothers velodyne ct-120. Solid clean deep bass. LOUD & i mean EXTREMLY LOUD

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For the price i think this is an outsanding subwoofer for me a 15 year old that works at Wendy's.
All my freinds are gelous of my system.
Ha ha for them those fu*king scrubs.
I never new two 8 inch cones could do so much damage.
Great product for the price i like it and it goes low for me.

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Velodyne CT-120