#SOUNDSTREAM STEALTH 13 BOX DRIVERS#

Definition and clarity were good as well, plucked strings and acoustic bass were well reproduced and sounded quite natural, with only a tiny bit of ringing or boominess, which many people seem to prefer anyway. The sound from the woofer was much better than I was expecting, with pretty decent low extension and nice warm “round” sounding bass.

As usual, I ran the gamut of musical genres during the evaluation, and the Stealth 13 couldn’t have cared less whether I played Bach or ZZ Top. I have become used to accepting some performance tradeoffs for the convenience of a shallow woofer, but the Stealth 13 has raised the bar for what I expect from a moderately priced shallow woofer. Because I have tested quite a few of these shallow designs, and because of the very reasonable price of the Soundstream woofer, I had relatively low expectations. With the woofer connected to my reference system, and the low pass crossover adjusted to about 80Hz, I began to evaluate the sound and power handling of the Stealth 13. Once those were completed, I mounted it in the optimum recommended enclosure, a 0.75 cubic foot sealed box, and took it into my listening room. Yes, port heads… I’m talking to you! Don’t do it! As the owners manual made very clear, the specifications make the woofer ideally suited to sealed enclosures only… don’t even bother trying to come up with a vented design. In the case of the Stealth 13, I let it sit overnight, and then made all of the small signal parameter measurements first thing the following morning. After break-in, the woofer is allowed to cool for at least 4 hours before doing any further testing.

#SOUNDSTREAM STEALTH 13 BOX DRIVERS#

This process allows the mechanical elements of the drivers suspension to loosen up and normalize. I usually apply a 20Hz sine wave signal to the woofer at a level of about 25% of rated power, for a period of about 4 hours, with the woofer in a free air state. Before I begin testing any woofer, I put it through a break-in or exercise period.

Soundstream stealth 13 box