ECS-10/Fathom 110

Have to make a decesion on a sub. Currently have the Fathom 113 sub. Besides looking good it is amazing piece of equipment for Home Theater. I have decided to put a sub in front of my room. There is a good deal on Audiogon for a Fathom 110. I was comparing specs and feel they are similar. However I am not qualified to determine if the specs for both subwoofers are even close.
Both subs have a 10' driver. The Fathom weighs in at 67lbs. and the Outlaw at 46lbs. Dimensions are similar. The Fathom amplifier is rated at 900 watts and the Outlaw at 1000.
One thing that does scare me is the size of the ECS-10...I want small but I could put this thing in my pocket.
My room dimensions are 25' long and 13' wide in a dedicated room

Can someone weigh in without predjudence would be a good match.
I am a little leary with an unproven sub such as the ECS-10.
More importantly I would like someone more knowledgeable then myself to compare.

Thanks in advance

Hmm. Sorry if this isn't technical enough but if you are familiar with the sound of JL's Fathom line and already have the 113 I'd definitely spring for the Fathom 110 if it is within your budget. I'm all for having matching gear and from what I've read in misc forums specs aren't always the best indicator of how good a sub or any HT grear will sound. I don't remember the exact product line but SVS states that even though their BASH amps are below 500 watts the sound they got trounced subs having 1000 watt amps.

JD

It's hard to say much about the ECS-10 now, before they've even shipped one to anybody. You do have the 30-day return policy with Outlaw, and a little sub like that (even at 50-odd pounds shipped) isn't likely to be a major expense to ship. There have been a number of very successful little subs like this, so the small size doesn't worry me. On the contrary, that's the whole point behind the sealed approach (and a big part of the reason that the ECS-10 costs so much more than the LFM-1 Compact).
Power alone means very little - power must work with the rest of the product. I would counter SVS's comments with the following questions: was that 1000-watt sub amp being fully used, and what kinds of subs were being compared? Compare two subs that only needs 300W peak, and the fact that one has a 1000W amp will not give it any advantage. Similarly, take a ported sub (which generally needs less power in the first place) and compare it to a sealed sub (which generally needs more power, all else being equal), and the low-power sub can still "trounce" the high-powered sub due to the significantly different designs.

Was anyone else surprised by the price? Just wondering…

For a small sealed design? Something close to or above $1k seems pretty common to me. Look at some of the Sunfire offerings out there, or Velodyne, or HSU Research. The HSU sealed sub (which uses a 15" driver instead of a 10") starts at $1300.

Ahhh, I see…thanx, gonk. Hadn't realized that it's actually recession priced. That's good to know.

It's sort of like the old expression "Fast, cheap, and good - pick any two": good subwoofers can be had that are inexpensive, small, and good - but the physics involved are such that you can't put all three in a single product.

hey rubbersoul,

I obviously don't own an ECS-10 but for what it's worth I've been messing around with my 2-sub configuration and I have similar room dimensions as yours and I have a Fathom F112.

Recently I have been moving equipment in and out of my living room. I was down to just the Fathom F112 and I have to be honest - I wasn't overly impressed with it alone in my room. It must be the size of the room and placement. I let it go that way for about 2-3 months but the other night with the wife and kid out of the house, I pulled the Earthquake 12 back into the mix and I'm a much happier listener now.

Part of my issue was movie watching with the Pioneer I just bought. No amount of adjustments could make the Fathom 12 alone come alive enough like I had grown accustomed. I had the sub channel on the BDP-51 maxed at +6, the sub channel on the 1070 maxed at +10, and was even resorting to using the tone adjustments on the 1070. I finally threw in the towel and brought back the other sub.

So for what it's worth, getting a second will be worth your time. The ECS is a great looking sub - much better looking in my opinion than the Earthquake units, and if your new sub is going to be sitting front and center, that's certainly something to consider, but I'm willing to bet the Earthquake sub would pummel it dollar for dollar. I got mine for $600 dealer direct. I find the 2 seem to work together quite nicely.

Alas, should a few hundrew bucks not matter, and if it didn't matter to me and my wife, I'd go get another Fathom F112. But I'm "constrained" by the equipment in the house.

Happy hunting and good luck.