oi what car la? u guys making me pening. i havent been to his place quite sometimes so donno what

New reference audio BD coming....The Expendables....look at the Pink/Purple waterfall graph

The Audio: Rating the Sound

What would a big beefy movie be without a bigger and beefier sound mix to go with it. 'The Expendables' sports a bombastic and jarring 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that should come with a warning that says "Please beware. Constant bass may shake your valuables off the shelves."

This is a non-stop, rumbling soundtrack that never ceases to jar you. As was expected it's absolutely filled to the brim with LFE that thunders throughout the movie. The explosion on the docks produces a massive amount of bass, but it doesn't feel unnatural. The automatic shotgun that Terry Crews uses throughout the movie also provides a deep resonant thwump, thwump, thwump that will definitely wake up the kids if they're asleep and possibly your neighbors. Panning effects are done to perfection as grenades sail from one side of the screen to the other, or as Ross' huge airplane slowly gains speed and takes off.

Think this mix is all bass? Think again. Even the more subtle sounds, like guns clicking into place, magazines being shoved home, or the whizzing noise of a tattoo gun come out clear and intelligible. The surrounds are constantly engaged and the mix makes great use of the extra two channels provided in the 7.1 mix. During the battle scenes it's like evil henchmen have surrounded your living room and are trying to blow you to smithereens. Bullets fly past your head and explosions happen all around you. It's an engaging, violent soundtrack that's for sure. My only nitpick is that Mickey Rourke's lines are constantly hard to hear. This is partly because the guy is a mumbler, but after watching the Post Production featurette and hearing Stallone talk extensively about sound design and how he wants every line of dialogue to be heard it seems Rourke's few lines got overlooked.

Price includes a PBK as well.

Looking closer at the comparative results here, the Emotiva USub 12 is in my opinion the best of the four subs for blending into a system consisting of small satellite speakers. If space weren't an issue, I would also take four USub 12's over a single JL f110 or two Axiom EP400s any day of the week not just for their collective higher output capabilities but for the advantages that multiple subs offer when properly placed in a room yielding smoother more consistent frequency response for every listening seat. The very fact that the USub 12 is competitive with three higher priced, higher profile products, speaks volumes for just how good this "Budget" subwoofer is. If I were SVS, I'd be worrying should Emotiva one day decide to make a larger, high output subwoofer.

At the price Emotiva is selling this sub for, both its specs and performance are pretty compelling, even more so after we heard the Ultra 12 in some of our reference rooms. It's nice to see that a company known for its amplifier design can branch out and make an equally compelling subwoofer product. What's really amazing is its output capability; this sub literally rocks the house. There are few comparisons and when you factor in value, it's one of the best deals available on the market - bar none. At the time of writing this review, Emotiva had this sub on sale for $429 with FREE shipping.  Nothing at this price can touch this.  Also consider that they normally only charge $20 for shipping anywhere in the USA, while much of their online competition makes 40-50% margins on their shipping rates, Emotiva is really providing true value to their customers.

We can recommend the Emotiva Ultra 12 Sub to anyone interested in a value product that will deliver tight, musical bass in almost any size room. If you think you want more output or your room opens up and is on the larger size, then by all means buy two. For the rest of us, this is the sub to beat for manufacturers everywhere. It somewhat redefines value and raises the bar significantly - so much so that it just might embarrass most if not all of the competition.