By the way thank you all for your input and trying to figure this out with me. I just watched dune part 2 tonight and it successfully rattled my cage... So much so that I had to tone it down a little bit. It's possible that the matrix was mixed so long ago that it doesn't translate to modern systems as well.. not sure. I probably had an open ported subwoofer 20 yrs ago as well. I've got movies on a -0.5 tilt and I'll keep experimenting.. maybe even play around with putting everything back to the music setting and using dynamic eq... Got a few things to try but worst case scenario uploading two different configuration files isn't awful.
Ported woofer here (and always, since the mid 70's, will be).
The pair that I have at the moment are 2 of the larger (black) floor firing (my preference, for whatever reason) Radio Shack cabs, tuned to 29 Hz. Years & years ago (while I was in Saipan) I replaced the original woofers with a pair of Pioneer Automotive 12 inch dual 4 OHM voice coil competition 12" subs that have a rated FR of 20 Hz-80 Hz (while I have the paperwork in my files, I do not have access to the rest of the specs at the moment). I paired them with a NAD 2200 that Amir tested a long time ago, wiring the the dual voice coil circuit so that each woofer presents a 4 OHM load.
I have them about 6 inches from the back wall & about 18 inches from the side walls (the floors are hardwood & there is a couch, a love seat, triple moderate visibility [together they still let some diffused light in as the sun is going down]) curtains on the bay window.
The room is 15' L X 7' H X 13' W with to openings (no doors, open floor plan) toward the middle of the house, one is 3'8" W X 7' H, the other is 3'4" W X 6'8" H.
I am running one bridged mono NAD 2200 one each of my pair of Dahlquist M-905 speakers (having been tested to a FR 26 Hz-20 KHz +-2DB)
Now to the amount of power I can apply to these subs (actually to the system since I run 2 NAD 2200 amps bridged mono for the mains ([8 OHM mode]) and one NAD 2200 amp in stereo (4 OHMs) for the subs.
My High Cut filter is at 60HZ Low Cut filter is at 80 HZ.
So far: BASS (no matter what input it is coming from) can be adjusted to be "adequate" (or to be more impressive [to unknowing guests] "much more than necessary")
I only run the NAD 2200's using the LAB INPUTS (whether running bridged mono or not) :
NAD 2200 Vintage Amplifier Review
Wow, we have one kilowatt of power coming out of this amp in short duration!
I was surprised that the frequency response was not flat but was relieved to see later in the thread that this is due to insertion of low and high pass filters. So here is the frequency response with Lab input that doesn't have such a filter:
Response now (in green) as it should be, ruler flat to below 10 Hz, and well extending past the 40 kHz limit of this measurement.
I figured the filters may be adding some noise/distortion so re-ran the dashboard again:
Distortion doesn't change but if you look at the noise floor at 20 Hz, it is down by some 10 dB. That improves SINAD a couple of dBs, making the amplifier stand out even more!
Zoomed:
And signal to noise ratio:
Conclusions
Nice to see innovation like this from equipment that is over 30 years old! Shame on manufacturers that produce amplifiers for much less power, more distortion and higher prices these days. No, you don't get a fancy case here and sheet metal is strictly budget category. But you are not going to sit on the amp. The guts are where it matters and NAD 2200 delivers.
NOTE: the output relay on stock 2200 gets corroded and fails over time. There are videos and DIY threads on how to upgrade the relay there to fix the problem. The unit tested here has that fix. Other than that, there are not reports of many other reliability issues even though NAD products are often said to be less reliable than other brands.
Overall,
I am happy to recommend the NAD 2200. I almost gave it the highest honors but given the upgraded nature of the test unit, and the fact that used amps may have issues, I avoided that. But you could have easily pushed me to give it the golfing panther.