Shane Buettner

• $2,499
• 42" Plasma
• 1024x768
• Key Connections: Two HDMI and two component video inputs, SD card slot

Features We Like: Excellent connectivity with dual HDMI and component inputs, Over-the-Air and cableCARD HD tuners,

Price: $9,000 At A Glance: Room- and house-threatening LFE bass for movies • Surprising rhythm, pacing, and articulation for music • Relatively small footprint for a behemoth sub

Because You Can

So, I’m wheeling this ginormous 230-pound Paradigm subwoofer down and around the side of my house, to the double-door, daylight basement that serves as my home theater room. Being impatient, I’m doing this by myself and hoping like hell I don’t tip the thing over and watch it roll end over end down the slope in my backyard. About this time, it occurs to me to wonder, “Why am I even reviewing something this big?” The answer that came to mind is probably the same reason people will buy this $9,000 powder keg of bass. Because I can.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. At CES 2010, the best home theater demo I saw and heard was in the Anthem room, with Anthem’s electronics and sister brand Paradigm’s speakers and subwoofers. The bass was sensational, thunderous, and room shaking, and yet it was strikingly refined. That was the first time I saw the SUB 2, a 4,500-watt subwoofer (rated RMS, and never mind if you can actually get that out of your wall), with six 10-inch woofers arrayed in pairs, firing out of three sides of the cabinet. You read that right. I was every bit as awestruck as you probably are now. Why would Paradigm design and build such a thing? Because they can. In home theater and in life, it’s my firm belief that anything worth doing is worth overdoing. If that’s your philosophy too, read on, because the SUB 2 is a helluva ride.

Paradigm is rolling out its PBK-1 Perfect Bass Kit as an optional upgrade for its entire subwoofer line. For $299 you can use the included microphone and tailor your sub’s response. The microphone and supplied software are based on the ARC system Anthem uses in its surround processors (Anthem’s parent company is Paradigm) and measure several different in-room positions to calculate correction for a variety of listening positions. No sub should leave the dealer without it!