Velodyne 80-DDP10BG Digital Drive Plus 10-Inch 117V 60Hz Subwoofer (Ebony High Gloss)

I purchased from a friend who works for Velodyne and was able to get a huge discount. I could never be able to justify spending $3k+ for a subwoofer, but boy am I glad I have this sub. I am not new to subwoofers, and currently own 4. My current subs include the Hsu Research VTF3-MK2 ($600); Hsu Research STF-1 ($300); Klipsch 12" ($300) and this new Velodyne. The Velodyne is the smallest of them all and cost more than 10 times my other subs. However, this sub is very very musical. My subs are placed in various listening room of my home. The Hsu Research VTF3-Mk2 is in my home theater, and for the price, I highly recommend that. For home theater, where you want the max bass for the least amount of money, the Hsu Research is the way to go. However, for my family room, I have this Velodyne. The family room (20' x 20') is connected to the kitchen which is even bigger than my family room. This makes it very hard for any speakers. To make matter worse, because of where the patio door is in relation to the TV, I cannot put floor standing speakers because the left one would partially block the door leading to the patio and backyard. Thus, I am forced to have bookshelf speakers. I have the Definitive Tech Studio Monitor 450 for fronts and the Center is Polk Audio CS2. (I know about timbre matching, but I just can't hear any problem or timbre conflicts with my set up. The three fronts sound perfectly fine to me together)So, with bookshelf speakers in the front, our sofa is at the back wall. In the past I had my klipsch and my Hsu Research STF-1 on each side of the sofar. It shakes my sofa well, but the soundstage is just not right. I could locate the mids and higs in front and the lows all over. The sound was good for normal movies, but for music, I could tell this was a small satellite speaker set up with a sub. Not good!With the Velodyne, I installed the EQ software into my laptop. Connected my laptop to the front of the sub. I connected the included microphone to my listening area. The sub is connect via LFE to the receiver and I played the included cd (test sound) through my dvd player. You either use the laptop or press in the front of the sub to do auto EQ. I tried the manual EQ, but it was just too complicated.With auto EQ done the sound is AMAZING. I finally felt like I was listening to floor standing speakers. The speakers and sub integrated seamlessly. The bass was automatically set at level 32 (1-99 max). I felt the bass a bit lacking at that level, but the owner's manual say that is normal because the human ears will rapidly lose hearing at 100hz and under and the manual recommended that for most people, a flat EQ does not necessarily sound good. It recommended increasing from +2 -+8db. I added +4db and it sounds as if I have normal floor standing speakers. This can be done from the included remote control!Bottom line is: if you want only floor rattling sub, you do not really need this subwoofer. If you want floor rattling for movies BUT also want to be able to enjoy music with good tight, clean bass, then this is it. My only analogy is this. Your typical sub is like a Mustang 5.0 or Camaro. Raw V-8 power, period! It's noisy, uncomfortable but darn fun!The Velodyne is a Mercedes S600. It is very expensive; but quiet and luxurious when you want it to be, but can also be just as fast or faster than any mustang or camaro. If you want the best of both worlds, and can afford it, this is it.