All subwoofers are equally fast at 80 Hz and rooms slow them down

Evidence

What sounds “tight” is actually a drum-head/volume resonance superimposed on room resonances. During that time the amplitude at the room resonance frequency increases before the ringing decay begins; the higher the Q, the longer the build-up interval, and the longer the ringing. So, the perception of such an event is not a simple one. The notion of “fast” subwoofers is misguided, in that the time-domain performance of minimum-phase systems is predictable from the amplitude response. With an 80 Hz bass management crossover frequency, all subwoofers are equally “fast”. So, what we confront in the real world is essentially “fast” subwoofers communicating through “slow” rooms. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1641

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier Figure 5.4 on ring/build-up and to minimum-phase system theory familiar from filter/signal processing.
• CANDY: The phrase ‘fast subwoofers communicating through slow rooms’ is a memorable, tweetable one-liner.