JL Audio E-112 Subwoofer

JL Audio E-112 Subwoofer: $2500 Piano Black, $2300 Black Ash

When You’re Done Putzing Around!

I’ve written effusively about JL Audio subwoofers on several sections of our site. I won’t take the time to rehash JL from square one here.

What I will do is make an effort to be sure the MIGHTY JL Audio E-112 is not lost in the shuffle.

I’ve written loads about E-110 because it is the FIRST sub out there that separates the men
from the boys. At $1800 E-110 is a major league sub that will be at home matched with Maggies or other serious wing speakers.

Now back to the E-112… The E-112 is built to the same standard as E-110. Of course the woofer diameter is a 12 instead of a 10. E-112 uses the same CITY BLOCK DEEP, DOUBLE SPIDER design of E-110. The cabinet is a bit larger and weighs 74 lbs instead of 53. E-112 uses a 1500w amp while E-110 has a 1200w amp.

Where might you want E-112 instead of E-110?

First of all, if you have a very large room, E-112 will fill it more effortlessly than E-110. Our big demo studio at AE is roughly 30×20 with a ten foot ceiling. In this GIGUNDO room E-112 fills it with no stress. Regardless of the R&L speakers, E-112 sounds like it’s coasting while it can wield a sledge hammer. In the same room, E-110 does well. However, if you really hit your music hard (not you, right?) you can feel E-110 compress a tad as it tries to fill this enormous space.

In an adjacent smaller studio (24×16) E-110 has no trouble plumbing the depths. But as we go to the big studio, we can discern where E-112 is a better choice.

The Basement

A lot of audiophiles get banished to the basement. She doesn’t want you taking over the house with your gear and volume. But if she can send you to the dreaded dungeon, she generally doesn’t care what you do down there.

With this in mind… I’m happy to recommend E-112 for your audiophile bunker. No matter how you dress up the cosmetics, it’s tough to get bass going with a concrete floor in the mix. Your main floor made of wood, or carpet on wood, with basement below, delivers bass in spades.

But the basement floor is literally as thick as a brick. To get warmth and power in the basement you have to have a significant amount of muscle. This almost always requires a subwoofer. Not only does it require a subwoofer (or two?), it requires one built like a brick outhouse.

If you run a flimsy sub from big box, it won’t begin to move your concrete. If you run something WAUMPUS like E-112, NOW we’re talkin’! You simply have to get the tectonic plates of your basement engaged before the music sounds balanced and not out of whack. E-112 is a cut above even its formidable little brother in accomplishing this task!

The added benefit of E-112 is that in a large room, or any basement, the extra power and glory of its additional mass and horse power will pay off handsomely!

Inputs & Outputs

Both E series subs have inputs and outputs. Why?

The crossover of the E subs is OUTSTANDING! You can run preamp IN to the sub.
Then run OUT of the sub to your power amp. If you do this, you now have bass management for your R&L speakers.

If you are not running separates, you’ll just use the input. But if you are….

Freeing up your R&L speakers from seeing very deep bass is likely to make them noticeably cleaner. It is demanding for these speakers to try to deliver prodigious bass. Let’s give them a break.

Reduce their load by running though the E crossover. Wherever you set the crossover point will be the hinge of where your main speakers get relief. Since the E subs can drop the hammer big time, consider NOT encumbering your main speakers with draining bass excursion and power demands.

The reason JL Audio E subs are ideal for this task is that their crossovers do NOT pollute your upper level musical information. It is the rare sub crossover than will be transparent when you run high level information through it. With JL, have no fear.