Well, this was essentially the pinch that ended the dream. The whole time I waited for the sub, I thought winning one was too good to be true. But it arrived intact on a private freight truck on Saturday morning much to my pleasure.

First off, the box was well packed for delivery. The box had plastic donut-shaped feet worthy of handling the 130+ shipping weight of the box. The cardboard portion was appropriately wrapped in shrink plastic. I opened the box and was quickly warned by a bright orange leaflet to stop and read it. The sub was naturally packed upside down. It had excellent, thick form molded plastic molds beneath the opened box top. I removed it and carefully flipped the box upside down onto a plush blanket in the living room. Lifting off the box revealed a mysteriously wrapped cube left on my floor.

The sub was wrapped in a soft black blanket off sorts and then beyond that wrapped in a sheet of plastic. I carefully removed all the wrapping and slid the blanket/sub over to the corner of my living room. (I did not go through the motions of relocating the sub from the original home of the B&W ASW650.)

Imporant Pretense: I struggled with the notion of giving away one of my 12's (B&W ASW650 and an Earthquake Supernova MKIV12). I gently presented my dilemma to the wife. She was initially against the idea of two 12's in the living room. She caved to the point of "If I can't see it, I don't care. Please don't mention the word subwoofer again." I saw my opening. I drew the entire entertainment front stage out from the wall about 9 inches which gave me a "hole" behind my left front tower. Voila! However, the hole was barely big enough for the SuperNova and not big enough for the B&W. Oh well, they're both good - In went the SuperNova. 5.2 channels

I maneuvered the Fathom into the corner and stepped back to admire. The gloss finish is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like a hunk of onyx sitting in the corner. The heat sinks on the back feel like they're made of cast iron. The silver control panel, only visible once the grill is off, is very nifty looking. It reminds me of a guitar amp. There's lots of controls on it which make fine tuning a pleasure. I'll refrain from parroting what the reviews already noted...here's a link if you're that interested: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/speakers/1884/jl-audio-fathom-f112-subwoofer.html

What really took me was the the aesthetic quality and obvious build quality of the sub. You just see it right out of the gate. I felt like a kid at Christmas. Also, kudos to JL for packing genius and the nice little touches that someone who actually paid for this unit would be looking for. The calibration mic and wire came in a nice little leatherette pouch embossed with the JL Audio logo. The package came with knit gloves, I guess which to handle the glossy finish. (haven't read that section yet.)

I promptly cracked open the manual to read how to calibrate this puppy. The calibration for a sub is something I've never done before. The instructions and the unit were remarkably easy. Simply hook up the mic, hit the Calibrate button on the front panel, and briskly walk over to the seated position where in five seconds the test tones start to play. Warning: the test tones are so powerful at volume that I actually felt myself getting a little uncomfortable. But it's that sort of uncomfortable you feel flying through corners in your friend's really fast sports car. You trust it not to hurt you but you feel a little sick nonetheless. Honestly, I've never heard a 12 hit that hard except a pair of 12's (JL, go figure) in a car, back in my high school days. Since I was sitting around 16 feet from the sub, it kept failing calibration indicating I needed to turn up the gain. Once it was calibrating sucessfully, it was hitting HARD. Upon completion of the tests, I promptly whipped out Top Gun, Master and Commander, Golden Eye, and a couple music CD's - Gnarls Barkley, The Mars Volta, Beastie Boys new all-jam/funk instrumental CD.

For lack of that audiophile vocabulary, I will say this - I tested the JL by itself for 2 hours of nice, even, non-thrashing use. It's the best in house sub I've ever listened to. Calibrated, the low frequency sounds were even, hard hitting, and concise. I suppose the best indicator was that I actually was smiling and LAUGHING at the output as I watched the first cannon exchange in M&C. I spent another hour playing with the volume of the Earthquake SuperNove and I resolved the problem where my bass was feeling like it was no longer non-directonal. The problem is the B&W (and now the JL), being about 6 feet to the right of the right tower, was really off center. Adding the Earthquake behind the left tower and tweaking the volumes on each unit, I've achieved audio nirvana once again.

Looks like it's time to update the sig!

Wow. I want one!

The part about you laughing really resonated with me. There's something about scary-loud, low bass that makes you giggle. (Of if you're a woman, scream "Turn that down!")

So what was Top Gun like? Specifically, the opening scenes on the carrier?

Top Gun was Top Gun - the opening scene is pretty much the only thing I watch anymore ...I used to love the movie as a kid but as I grew up (a little) I realized there were better cheesey 80's movies.

Seriously though, the opening scene is absolutely great. Full afterburner sounded good. The landing sequences were good. I also watched the IMAX "Fighter Pilor" whose soundtrack re: jets/bombs is far more up to date and more material is provided to boot, and that was even better honestly.

But what I'm REALLY enjoying with the .2 setup, is the latest Ken Burns doc that's running on WHYY/PBS's HD channel - The War. They worked up the sound bits of the artillery/mortar/reports so well...the show is very quiet in segments as they are doing the interviews and covering the US mainland, but every 10 minutes or so the doc cuts back to the European or Pacific theater, literally with a bang. I'm in love with the system.

My wife and I caught a bit of that on Sunday and saw the segment on Monte Cassino and Anzio. Really well done. It jumped around a bit at times, but the human interest part of the story was very compelling. Looks like next time it's on, I need to move to the basement where the HT rig is located!

On a side note, it really is striking to see the difference in resolve and personal sacrifice that was associated with that generation and that war compared to Iraq.

Now, I know Iraq is not a popular war (are ANY wars popular?), but in comparison to WWII, what sacrifices have we, as US citizens, been forced to make? None. And there were more casualties at Anzio alone than the entire Iraq conflict to-date.

A bit of a rant I know, but the Burns doc' makes you put things in perspective.

Best,

- Jim

I'm just starting to catch up on the Burns documentary - recording to the DVR, and started to watch the first one this morning. So far it's shaping up to be a first-rate documentary.