We spent a month testing the SubPac S2: Here’s what we thought

We’ve been closely following SUBPAC since their debut several years ago – today SUBPAC is the leading force (no pun intended) in tactile bass solutions, giving producers and engineers unparalleled improved control of their low end. In addition to the benefits for musicians, casual music listeners can also benefit from experiencing immersive music. Here’s an awesome video from SP detailing some ways in which music can be used as therapy, especially in conjunction with stellar accurate bass reproduction.

Torkom Ji and Eron Zehavi have been working together by combining sound therapy and the SUBPAC to explore and experience different healing modalities that could help Eron on his road to recovery.

Many other companies have since occupied the tactile bass market since SUBPAC’s debut, but none have achieved the same level of success. We decided to test out the SUBPAC S2 for ourselves to see what the hype is all about. The SUBPAC S2 Studio Seatback is marketed for “Pro Studio”, “Home Studio”, and “Travel” use, while the SUBPAC M2x is marketed towards “Bassists”, “Monitoring”, and “Onstage” use.

We also got a compatible backpack with our S2 so we can use it in a similar fashion to the M2x, albeit a bit clunkier. That said both versions serve two different demographics, so make sure to try out both and pick the one that is best for you.

The driver response is extremely precise in the S2. We ran the device off of our Universal Audio x6‘s additional headphone output and had no issues whatsoever with interference, audio dropouts, or quality.

While some photos online show the S2 configured within the seat-back of a chair, we found the S2 was most enjoyable resting directly against our back, especially for production and audio engineering applications. Thanks to Dada Life we were able to implement the S2 more permanently in our studio, with the help of a few accessories.

We think that the SUBPAC is a must-have for any producer or engineer wanting to get serious about creating an accurate monitoring environment. Subwoofers often create many more issues than they help fix, especially in smaller or acoustically untreated studios. If you don’t have an additional headphone output on your computer or audio interface, the SP also features an audio in/out and Bluetooth 4.0, so you can easily use the SUBPAC with limited gear or while traveling.

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