Bass-to-Go at its best: Nubert nuSub XW-800 Slim Review – Movies, Studio and Gaming with more Depth | Teardown

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Unboxing and funktionality 3 - Teardown: , Corpus, speaker and PCB 4 - Software and Calibration with the app 5 - Sound comparisons: Living room, studio and gaming table 6 - Summary and Conclusion

Operation with two smaller active speakers without proper low frequency response

Please forgive the miserable cable mess on the desktop and the unscrewed PC, but here in the office I’m virtually a permanent hardware swapper and also do the writing of the articles in addition to the daily office work. In addition, there is video editing and one or two workstation interludes. By the way, gambling is also possible. On the table is a pair of older nuPro A-200 and as a bass booster under the table is a now somewhat aged nuSub AW-350. But this combination still does it almost perfectly today.

Since the nuSub XW-800 Slim with its 180 watts RMS is only slightly above the power of the AW-350 with its 150 watts RMS, but brings more volume, I dared once the direct comparison and already feared that I like the AW-350 afterwards not so real. Yes, you can really do the math on me, because that’s exactly how it came out. The room calibration alone gave the whole thing a much smoother yet more precise feel, and I finally set the cutoff frequency for the transition to 60 Hz for the active speakers and 70 Hz for the sub. This should overlay the flanks quite well. I was still a bit higher with the AW-350.

Although the specifications in the data sheet look similar, the bass response is much more comfortable and you can even hear the subcontraoctave. You gain in music playback and games to the same extent. More pressure, subjectively also more volume and a clearly later onset of clipping. The XW-800 Slim is definitely also much more level and also distorts less at full level. If you want to add it to a pair of nuPro SP-200s, for example, I can only recommend this solid bass foundation. The SP-200s already go relatively low, but the nuSub XW-800 Slim goes a whole floor lower!

Operation with two nuPro X-4000 RC

Sure, the two X-4000 RC can also go really deep on their own, but they lose a good amount of power in the process. Here I let the nuSub XW-800 Slim play again upright and turned to the wall, connected via the wireless function, which the X-4000 RC is capable of. However, the speakers are already quite potent, so I just lowered the bass on the speakers a bit (- 3 dB) and the upper frequency of the nuSub-800 was lowered to 100 Hz. I then adjusted the relative volume of the sub so that both the subwoofer and the speakers together still play without distortion at full output. The rest can be tuned individually via bass control on the master of the combination.

Sonically, you even gain a bit more bass in this constellation, but the real gain is in the increased level stability, especially with hard impulses (gaming) or deep rumble (gaming, movies). As for the music, big orchestras and all bass-heavy genres win. Especially electro now bangs much more concisely and those who want to party will soon have new enemies in the immediate neighborhood. Guaranteed.

To compare this to a larger solution, I turned off the nuSub XW-900 normally installed there, or switched back and forth later. Of course, the nuSub XW-900 has much more potential, even downwards, but the difference is not that huge. If I didn’t already have the nuSub XW-900, I probably would have been happy with the flat XW-800 Slim and saved a lot more space (and money). Only the shelf for my headphones would have disappeared at the same time.

Combination in the living room with floorstanding speakers and AVR

Looking at the picture, you’d think the nuSub XW-800 Slim was in a losing position against two huge nuLine 334s, a nuLine CS-64 as a low center, a potent nuSub XW-1200 and the small nuLine in the back along with Dolby Atmos in every corner and a Denon AVR driving it. Of course, it is logical that this is to the disadvantage of the slim subwoofer. But that’s not what this is about. For the test, in fact, I turned off the nuSub XW-1200 and set the nuLine 334 on the amplifier to a lower cutoff frequency of 50 Hz to simulate mid-sized compact speakers. Normally, they also get below the 30 Hz mark with a bit of thrust.

Then it was off to the home theater. The usual suspects, from family films like Fantastic Four, to trash like various natural disaster B-movies, to Avatar with the full range of all sound effects. It was important to me to first test movies at this point and then also listen to good music in stereo quasi as a 2.1 system. I compared both options here in the room: once standing next to the massive 120-pound sideboard made of real wood (nothing vibrates there even with the nuSub XW-1200) and once lying under my couch, which is sensibly located in the center of the room.  Even if the room isn’t huge, acoustically there’s something going on. Especially loud as well.

Let’s now compare the standing and lying positioning of the nuSub XW-800 Slim. Especially in movies, the part underneath the sofa has a clear advantage, but this is certainly also somewhat due to the fact that the central placement is just about optimal and the couch above it does not interfere. You also don’t see what you hear because the part is so gallantly hidden. By the way, I removed the guitar from the room during the test, which also gave me the opportunity. put all the fun once like a radiator along the wall. In both cases, however, you MUST provide decoupling to the floor and I like to remind you again about my rubber hedgehogs (dampers). This makes a significant improvement over the uncoordinated, rather muddy booming in some pitches when you’ve caught some of the inventory at its resonant frequency again. Structure-borne sound can be quite cruel (stimulating).

Whoever can and wants to: please lay down or at least let it radiate against the wall and do not point the opening of the bass reflex tube towards the head (distortion). If it can’t be avoided, then a slightly pushed plug helps, which even gives the nuSub XW-800 Slim a bit more propulsion. You only have to boost the bass a bit if necessary. But then you win sonically in any case. If you also notice that the subwoofer is still too much for you, you should generally use a plug in small rooms and you will be surprised what the rather small part is capable of. Yes, he can do something. Even in relatively loud.

In the picture above, I have pulled it forward a bit so that you can see it better in the photo. During my listening test, it was about 30 cm further back. How my sound impression is then defined in this adjusted setup, you can read on the next and last page before the summary.