Listening Session
Diana Krall "I Love Being Here With You"
The track opens with an upbeat tempo with the stand-up bass strumming away. The Ultimo driver was extremely accurate and responsive, projecting a realistic audio image. As the bass line scaled toward the upper octaves, the transients and decay were so realistic that I could almost visualize the bassist's fingers walking across the strings. Incredibly, any hint of bloom or abnormal frequency excitations were non-existent, which created an enjoyable listening session at elevated volumes. Whether it's a direct reflection of the implementation of the PFS system or just a great design, the Ultimo 12 maintained near perfect linearity at high volumes without breaking a sweat.
9/10
Dreamgirls Soundtrack "One Night Only"
Jennifer Hudson performs this beautiful song with conviction and deep emotion. The soothing yet dramatic baseline creates a dramatic effect that grabs a hold of you. This was especially felt and noticed with the Ultimo 12. Drama seemed to pump into the air with every note. Each emphatic note was delivered with determination and purpose. A feeling of exhilaration surfaced as the lower octaves came rolling in. The driver transformed the song to another dimension. Absolutely extraordinary.
9.5/10
Maroon 5 "If I Never See Your Face Again"
The driver was so transparent at the beginning of this track that I had to check if it was still activated. I toggled the dash-mounted remote wire switch for the amplifier a couple of times in amazement. Kick drums were high located along the dashboard and blended extremely well with the notes from the bass guitar. I was hard-pressed to find any flaws in the Ultimo 12 on this track. This is how a subwoofer should perform-adding body and fullness to an audio selection without sacrificing tonality, disrupting clarity of other instruments or over-shadowing the vocals.
9.5/10
Cyrill Lutzelschwab/Martin Hess "Boxenkiller"
With the success that the driver had on the previous selections, I added a pure percussion track to the mix. This track is impressive (well, only with capable drivers) with its complex percussion combinations and passages. With the kick drum firing away with the double and triple combinations, the driver didn't miss a beat, nor did it allow for the image to stray to the rear of the vehicle. What was interesting was that the kick drums seemed to be borderline overbearing but never stepped over the line resulting in chest-pounding, acoustically pleasing notes.
9/10
T.I. "Top Back"
In this track, T.I. represents the A with a mean bass line. There is only one way to play this track, LOUD! But be careful-blasting this track through your block can either leave you looking lame or earning respect depending on the SPL that's demonstrated. The Ultimo stood on the tallest building and beat on its chest like King Kong, showing all that there's a new champ in town. What continues to be remarkable is the fact that this driver can hang with the best of them when it comes to output but it also has the unique ability to linear without cone breakup.
9.5/10
Jaime Foxx "DJ Play A Love Song"
I thought I ended my listening session as I started to scan a couple of other tracks for my listening pleasure, but the Ultimo performed so well on this one that I had to include it in the review. I was completely mesmerized by the tonal aspects. To my delight, as I leaned on the volume knob the rich notes continued to pour out of the Ultimo. Even when the volume was at low levels, the attentiveness of the Morel product continued to prove itself.
9.5/10