Earthquake tremorX 12 inch Subwoofer

Product Details
Manufacturer: Earthquake Sound
Distributor: Earthquake Sound UK
Website: Scheduled to go live soon
Typical Selling price: £129.99
WHAT IT IS
A high power twelve inch pressed Steel subwoofer transducer with decades of high-end bass maker design history behind it. This looks fairly ordinary but has some scary specifications. Like a true more-than-half-kilowatt power handling. It comes with one of the most technically able installation and specification manuals I have ever seen and in the USA, they run a five year warranty. In the USA, 90 days is the legal one, (we have a year as minimum legal warranty) but they offer a year, carriage-paid. Year two is still all labour and parts but punter pays carriage and years three, four and five are just free labour warranties. Unusual versus what happens over here, apart from the warranty only being valid if you fill in the form with the serial number sticker (actual serial numbered product is also rare as hell at this price) and having the product installed at an Earthquake-approved dealer’s. In the UK, it’s run like the rest of the world is for Earthquake, with regular warranties but it speaks of a massive commitment to quality and Earthquake Sound’s attitude really shines through.
FULL SPECIFICATIONS
– Power Handling: 625w RMS, 1,250 w peak
– Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
– Heavy duty stitched tinsel leads
– Spring loaded speaker connections
– Paper pulp cone with concave top piece
– Powder coated pressed Steel chassis
-Military-grade ‘V-12’ single 4-Ohm or single 8-Ohm voice coil options (sample was 8 Ohm)
– High top roll surround
– Anti-wobble cone construction
-TCT Technology (Turbine Cooled Transducer) for high efficiency output
– High density magnet with branded rubber boot
– VAS: 100.15litres
– BL: 17.01TM
– REVC: 6.67 Ohms
– Efficiency 1w/1m): 86.8dB SPL
– Effective Piston Area (SD): 0.0525sq m
– One-way Linear Excursion: 27.94mm
– FS: 27Hz (51.225Hz for 4 Ohms model)
-Qes: 0.493 (1.034 for 4 Ohms model)
– Qms: 5.3508 (2.127 for 4 Ohms model)
– Qts: 0.6359 (0.667 for 4 Ohms model)
Editor Review : Earthquake Tremorx 128 Twelve Inch Subwoofer Driver
Tested in an ‘Acoustic Wood’ marine ply box, screwed and glued, with acoustic foam lining and Chord cable inside, to Neutrik Speakon gastight connector. Amplified by the resident reference JBL GTO24001 monoblock (good for a solid twice-what-the-sub-is-rated-at, even at eight Ohms) and with some front stage supplied by an Alpine MRX-F30 driving some rare import Japan-market-only components, playing on the RCA outs of a Kenwood KDC-9537U.
How Is It Made?
Lots of sexy branding with the Earthquake logo writ large across the cone, as well as appearing in the rubber boot to the magnet and the rubbery top chassis surround. Lots of tooling! The chassis is nicely powder coated in speckle grey, with neatly bent-around edges and the speaker connections can take a nice fat wire and bite bloody firmly when released with the wire connected. The magnet is a smallish looking thing but has a high BL or ‘magnetic shove’ if you like. A distinct back bump on the rear plate shows it is designed to allow the cone to go a long way in and out. The central vent shows the need for and provision of, voice coil air-cooling. The cone’s face has this concave dish shaped plastic cover with the logo raised into it but the cone itself is honest paper pulp and solid and rigid yet affordable for all that. The speaker’s tinsel leads those woven wires that go from the terminal of the speaker to the coil inside, are stitched to the spider suspension which is a high power feature, too. The subwoofer looks blingy without being garish and handsome enough to mount arse-out or within a box with a window and illumination inside.
How Well Does It Work?
I had a little struggle with this at first, as it didn’t like the rich middy crap I was feeding it before I reset the crossover properly. It offered a purring sound and this went away and turned into only pure bass once the settings were set good and steep. So, the woofer likes a nice steep crossover slope and despite its eight Ohm coil, I was able to get it really moving.
I will confess that while the amps and headunit ran happily, I was seeing voltages way down on what they should be at the Odyssey PC925 battery, yet the system ran beautifully. However, I am sure I didn’t really give this woofer much grief, despite the previously expressed bullishness above about the amp delivering the power. That the amps ran at all as well as the head unit, speaks of power supplies inside each product that are well designed for real world situations!
But while it was pleasant on regular tunes and pop, it really came to life when I started playing some heavy Bass CD material through it. It has a lovely rich grip on the bass and does a powerful rendition of even the lowest notes. The fabulously low FS of the woofer versus the four Ohm version must have something to do with this, as they are a startling 33Hz different. So this one plays lowest!
TremorX is about a huge bass hunger with a smaller bass budget. This woofer is a meat eater and will make most others at the price look like a vegetarian. Astonishing value for money, with decent SQ and although low efficiency, this is a feature of a seriously high-power motor. A real budget treat for the committed basshead nutter even suitable for competition in multiples, as the simply brilliant manual shows. With hook-ups illustrated with four drivers, as well as designs for Bass Head design big port, Deep Bass Design, smaller port and Sealed, tight design for all three diameters and even showing how to use the mad passive radiator that Earthquake alone in all Ice sell, in a small box for a fifteen that still drops deep.
Easily recommended.
Overall 8.8
Sound Quality 8
Build Quality 9
Power 10
Efficiency 7
Value For Money 10
In A Nutshell
Low cost for the level of power handling and intended to go in a serious install, you would use at least two eight Ohm woofers of the type tested here. Drops deep easily and loves the mad material, which it plays with real melodic skill no one-note wonder. Top VFM for bass psychos.