The Speaker Company T300 Subwoofer Review

tSc T300 Build Quality

I don't know how I became the budget gear reviewer here at Audioholics but I'm glad I am. Trying to tell the differences between a $7000 sub and a $9000 sub is a lot harder than between a $300 and $500 one. Honestly, though, even that's getting harder as more companies are offering great deals at unbelievable prices. The Speaker Company (tSc) has already shown us that they can do just that. At under $400, a sub that does most anything is a great deal. From what I've learned of The Speaker Company, the T300 will probably do much more. Gene Della Sala (Audioholics President) has already sung the praises of the budget ASW-8 tSc sub so I really was excited with the T300 showed up for review.

Build Quality

The tSc T300 sub arrived double boxed and well packed. In full retro fashion, they even had packing peanuts. The interior box was branded and marked but the exterior was plain. I prefer this as it doesn't give away to the shipping company (who may decide to leave the box on your doorstep) any indication of what is in the box. It was marked with "Fragile," "This End Up," and "Caution, Heavy" stickers (not that I think they pay those the least bit attention). Regardless, the sub arrived undamaged by shipping and ready for battle.

The T300 isn't especially large (a plus for placement and moving around). It is only 14 1/2” wide and 18 1/2" deep. The depth is really the only dimension that should give consumers pause. As always, when buying a subwoofer online, construct a box out of cardboard of the same dimensions and make sure it will fit your space. The T300 features a flat black, slightly textured finish and rounded corners. The stock picture on the website shows a seam on the front but the review unit did not - the front face was smooth. There are two side firing (one from each side) woofers and a front firing slotted port. The bottom has pre-attached rubber feet which are fairly short. There are no provisions for carpet spikes.

The T300 weighs in at a paltry 36lbs. While this isn't the lightest sub you're going to come across, it does make it very easy to move around. There are two side-firing 10" aluminum drivers, a front slot-style port, and a rear mounted amp. The grills are actually mounted through four of the holes that would be used for mounting the drivers. This leaves four (instead of eight) connection points for the driver to the enclosure. My first concern was that those holes might be predrilled and allow extra avenues of escape for air other than the front port. I did multiple tests during playback and found no evidence that any air was escaping any of the holes.

The grills fit snuggly but not tightly. This means that they won't be falling off on their own but they also won't resist the prying of curious little fingers. The front slotted port is wide but unobtrusive. In fact, if I had to describe the T300 in a word, I'd say it was unobtrusive. The flat black blends well with the shadows and the overall look doesn't exactly draw the eye. It does pick up fingerprints fairly easily but they aren't easy to see in a darkened room. The driverless front of the T300 should get most the credit. However for those that like to see their subwoofer work during those intense action scenes, you'll have to turn the sub or just make due with what you can see of the rubber surrounds moving.

The amp sports 300 watt Bash Class D amplifier and all the usual connections and controls. Variable volume and crossover control (50-150Hz) are present. Phase switch (0-180 degrees), stereo RCA and LFE inputs and high level inputs also there. One thing I wasn't expecting was not only a Standby/Off switch but also an On setting for those (like me) that don't trust auto-sensing functions.

The only fit and finish issue I found was a bit of a crack along the bottom of the box. It was right along the edge along the side at the bottom. While this particular imperfection was invisible to the owner, it might indicate a systemic problem. New owners should be aware and check out their new purchase thoroughly. With free return shipping and a 30 day trial, this shouldn't deter any potential buyers.

Opening up The T300, we see two drivers in a 3/4" MDF enclosure. The drivers sport stamped rather than cast baskets which is probably not unreasonable considering the price. The drivers also aren't magnetically shielded so you'll need to keep the sub away from any legacy CRTs or other magnetically sensitive equipment. The cabinet has modest stuffing and only a minimal reinforcement at the corners. One thing I was really impressed to see was total dampening of the internal wiring. Each wire was covered with foam tape so that any possible internal noise would be eliminated. A really nice touch at this price point.

Setup

Setting up the T300 was just as easy as you'd think. All I did was connect my Impact Acoustics SonicWave Subwoofer Interconnect from my Denon AVR-2307CI to the sub. I did listening tests with both the Velodyne SMS-1 engaged and not. The T300 was set atop an Auralex SubDude isolation platform. My room is fairly small but open to the rest of the house. On top of that, I have a number of DIY acoustic absorption panels and six GiK Tri-Traps. The room has been acoustically analyzed and tuned by Auralex through the Room Analysis Plus service. Together, this makes for a room that looks a lot bigger to a sub than it really is. For all intents and purposes, I have a large room.

T300 Measurements and Conclusion

For laboratory measurements I used the Sencore SP395A FFT Audio Analyzer. Placing the subwoofer outside, I did groundplane measurements at 1 meter. During the test, when pushed hard I noticed some chuffing from the port and a bit of rattling from the amp.

Listening Tests

My first step was to send a few test tones with the Rives Test CD II. The Speaker Company claims a usable frequency response down to 19Hz. That's got a lot of bass heads real excited - especially at this price point. Using my Radio Shack SPL meter placed on a stand at my listening position, I measured 81dB at 1kHz. Yes I know the sub isn't playing at 1kHz but I wanted to get a relative measure of loudness in my room with my other speakers. This told me that if the T300 was really giving good output down to 19Hz, I should be able to measure something close to that dB level with a lower test tone. When I bumped the Radio Shack corrected tones down to 20Hz and even 25Hz, I got about 76-78dB. Not bad until you consider that it was all port noise and chuffing. It wasn't until the 31.5Hz tone that I got clean output. Now, as I said, my room is heavily treated and is therefore much larger to a sub than the dimensions would suggest. In a smaller room, the 19Hz claim might be valid but in mine, I probably wasn't seeing much usable output under 30Hz.

DVD: Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
There is nary an Audioholics without a mental (sometimes physical) list of their favorite bass scenes. One of my personal favorites (mostly because it gives so many subwoofers problems) is the flyover scene at the beginning of Episode 2. Sure the acting and questionable and the direction… well, I've beaten that dead horse enough. The T300 did a good job holding up to this demanding scene. At medium volumes the sub sounded very linear and deep. While it didn't have nearly the visceral impact of my reference Axiom EP500, it hit fairly deep and linearly. When pushed, I could hear a bit of strain and compression during the loudest/deepest portions but overall it held up well.

DVD: Dark Knight
I love it when a movie like this comes out - great action flick with lots of reference material. The most recent in the "Christian Bale does it better" line of sequels delivers with a gritty flick and arguably Heath Ledger's greatest performance. This particular movie I watched at "wife reference" level. This equates to as loud as I can turn it without having the wife come out and yell at me for waking her up. You'd probably call it "almost loud enough." At this volume, the T300 real shone with tons of extension and impact. It blended well with the rest of the system and was forceful when it needed but not overpowering when it wasn't. Honestly, about half way through the movie the thought occurred to me that I might consider switching out the EP500 for it. While it didn't have the chest-thumping ability of the larger sub, its smaller size and ease of moving it around seemed to be a good tradeoff. Or so I thought.

Blu-ray: Serenity
During the review of the T300 my AV Rant home theater podcast sponsored PS3 arrived. I thought about holding out on my first Blu-ray purchase for something meaningful (like the extended versions of Lord of the Rings) but when I saw Serenity on sale for $16.99, I couldn't resist. DTS Master Audio didn't hurt either. With the wife and kids out of the house and my system cranked, I settled in for a wild ride. Well, the T300 provided a few bumps right away. At the beginning of the movie there are a few really low notes that had the sub chuffing and clanging like a train. I'm pretty sure I bottomed out both the woofers. I tried recalibrating my system and even defeating the Velodyne SMS-1, but nothing helped. Nothing except lowering the volume. The T300 had clearly met its match - at least in my room. In a smaller (or at least enclosed) room, you're probably not going to run into these problems and honestly, for 90% of my listening I didn't either. But throughout the movie I could hear the sub straining and compressing even at lower volumes. Don't get me wrong, the T300 seems to be a great little sub, but it just isn't going to be able to fill up a large room by itself. Of course, at this price you could get two or four…

For a comparison, I decided the hook up my Axiom EP500 to see how much better a sub at 3x's the price could do. I was a bit surprised to find that I could also hear the EP500 strain a bit with this passage. This was only at the loudest volumes and even then the rattling of the dishes in the kitchen and pictures in the hallway nearly completely covered it up. Suddenly, this piece has become my new subwoofer killer.

My experience with the T300 was pretty well bourn out through all my listening tests. With music, in particular, the sub was great… as long as I didn't turn the volume up too much. As soon as I did, the output would compress and start to sound flat and boomy. At normal listening volumes, the sub was musical and performed very well. It just couldn't take the lowest or the loudest. What is obviously in need here is a subsonic filter. This feature, often bemoaned by bassheads, essentially limits the lowest output of a subwoofer to protect it from bottoming out or distorting. In my opinion, it is better to have a sub that only hits down to 25Hz but does so cleanly rather than a sub that tries for 15Hz with nothing but distortion or port noise below 25Hz.

Conclusion

Given my previous experience with tSc, I probably had unrealistically high expectations for the T300. For the price, it has really impressed me. Usually, with an online retailer, a well performing sub is either huge in size or huge in price. The T300 manages to pack a lot of performance in a very small box. I'd like to report that the T300 passed all my tests with flying colors… but it didn't. For a smaller to perhaps medium sized room, the T300 is too good of a deal to pass up. For larger rooms, you're going to need a bit more, perhaps two or four T300s. The 19Hz extension claim, while possible when in the right room at low SPL levels, probably won't be realized for users in larger rooms. At this price point, you're going to have to expect some tradeoffs. But if the tradeoff is, "don't put it in a huge room," you're getting a great bang for your buck. The Speaker Company has another great deal on their hands, for the right buyer.

tSc T300 Subwoofer

$379.97

The Speaker Company
100 Corporate Drive
Mahwah, NJ 07430

www.thespeakercompany.com

About tSc
We offer quality speakers and speaker systems at discount prices. From towers, satellite speakers, in-walls, bookshelves and surround systems as well as headphones and iPod Docking stations The Speaker Company offers a full line of speakers & accessories.

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The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

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Metric	Rating
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Build Quality
Fit and Finish
Ergonomics & Usability
Features
Performance
Value