"The huge advantage of Liber|8 over Libération is its small paralleled woofers over a single 18" driver. Excursions spread out over six drivers and six motors so seriously reduce the work per unit. This benefits overall speed. Stop and go are far superior from much reduced physical inertia. The difference is phenomenal. The big woofer's moving mass is ~200g. The 8-inch Enviée with all its suspension components weighs 20g. That's 1/10th the mass so an order of magnitude lower. The other immediate benefit is responsiveness at low SPL. This bass system wakes up with practically no signal. But like you wrote in your DSUB15 review, it'll be a struggle to re-educate people that there's an alternative to conventional high-power box bass."

Four shows, four Wave 40 demonstrations.

Here I pointed Martin at a video in which REL's John Hunter speaks out against isolating subwoofers from the floor because his firm works so hard to give us maximum low-bass SPL. Why would we want to throw away bass output by decoupling? He argues that we want maximal structural coupling to the room instead.

If one has made comparisons with properly engineered properly weight-rated footers like Carbide's, Hunter's dismissive argument on 'wobbly isolator platforms' evaporates. Extra output from structural resonances is always late. It's texturally undamped. It's unpredictable, uncontrolled and nonlinear. As he himself admits, it can migrate LF energies into neighboring rooms. That's noise pollution for co-dwellers even neighbors. Besides being rude, it's plain distortion particularly in the time domain. A dipole/Ripol bass system or isolated box sub can easily be set for linear output. One doesn't need the room to become a resonant contributor like the car chassis of a primitive boom truck. Back to Martin.

SK16 in Le Mont Pelèrin flat.

“Obviously you and I have heard the DSUB15. We know how it works across the bandwidth we set it to. With the Liber|8 structurally isolated from my suspended floor, I now have confirmation of the full-range dipole concept's usefulness across far broader bandwidth. It really is a fundamental gestalt changer. Even on raw bass output I'm getting more from these paralleled small woofers than I ever did from the Libération's single 18-incher. What's more, that big driver doesn't really come alive unless you sink a lot of power into it. That means playing the whole system louder. It's why I always told Soo In [then of Bakoon Int. – Ed.] that I couldn't use his 25-watt AMP-13R on the Libération. It didn't run enough current into the big woofer. With his new AMP-23R on the Liber|8, it's really improved the low-end response. It's now nearly as good as with Alberto's 200-watt class D Vivace monos. The top end is obviously a completely different story. So ever since the 23R arrived, it's been all Enleum.

Martin, Nagra's Matthieu Latour and Ivette listening.

"Of course it also depends on what people mean by loud: 75dB or 105dB? If it's the original 105dB THX reference threshold—115dB peak for an LFE channel—they really stress out their system to drive up distortion exponentially. Voice coils run hotter to get more resistive. That kills dynamic expression. The system sounds far worse an hour later. In a fruitless attempt to compensate, now people dial things up even more. It's like what cinemas did with action movies. SPL crept up for the last half hour to compensate for listening fatigue. It's abnormal. The obvious reset button for unhealthy sound pressures is a speaker system that comes fully alive at very low levels. Now there's no need to go deaf. That's exactly what the extra cone surface of the Liber|8 creates. It's far more responsive to small voltage fluctuations. That magnifies dynamic range.

Inside the SK16 cab.

"Then its 'figure 8' radiation on the edges of the open baffle cancels usual sidewall reflections. As a speaker designer, I must obviously account for SPL abuse. I must insure that nothing will fail. I just don't see why people would want to listen to 100 decibels in the first place; and why others promote it. It's not even realistic. If I were to cram a live 5-head ensemble into this room, they'd adjust their loudness to be appropriate. Why would I want to exceed that when I play back their recording? I remember a publicized case of a classical viola player who sued his orchestra. The lead trombonists had upgraded their instruments to new end bells with bigger flare. Now they could go even louder on fortissimos. The viola player sat right in front of them. He had developed such severe tinnitus that he could no longer hear properly. That ruined his ability and desire to play. Playing unhealthily loud isn't just true for arena concerts. It's not only aging Rockers who have ruined their hearing. It happens in the classical sector as well."

SK16 drivers with wooden baskets, honey-comb internal dissipator lining.