From the time of the earliest Quad electrostatics, audiophiles have sought low-frequency transducers that can live with the agility and accuracy of their favourite loudspeaker. Many superb small speakers, and large planar speakers, fail to render lower registers with authority, but many subwoofers designed to plug this gap fail to render lower registers realistically. Finland’s Gradient Audio were among the first to demonstrate the benefits of dipole bass units, and they created an open-baffle subwoofer designed to match the Quad ESL models that successfully met its brief.

In that spirit,  Item’s CC range of open-baffle subs form the foundation of the Series Four speakers, but they are equally suited to any speaker and are available as standalones in singles or pairs, and in passive or two active configurations. The model designation of the CC range refers to its pistonic capacity (Vd) – broadly, how much air it moves. Each model comprises dual 15″ drivers that differ in their build quality and ability to hit the lowest notes with authority. They can also been used as cinema subwoofers, but apart from the 2988cc they are intended primarily for realistic music reproduction. They are therefore equally suited to professional studio use.

1008cc: £299
26Hz-350Hz @ 90dB ±3dB
Dual 15″ 8ohm drivers
Constrained-layer damped cabinet
Weight: 18kg
Dimensions: 42x42x42cm
Optional Hypex nCore XO/DSP/PEQ: +£345

1884cc: £550
25Hz-350Hz @ 90dB ±3dB
Dual 15″ 8ohm drivers
Constrained-layer damped cabinet
Weight: 23kg
Dimensions: 42x42x42cm
Optional Hypex nCore XO/DSP/PEQ: +£345

2988cc: £2100
19Hz-250Hz @ 90dB ±3dB
Dual 15″ 8ohm drivers
Constrained-layer damped cabinet
Weight: 31kg
Dimensions: 43x43x43cm
Optional Hypex nCore XO/DSP/PEQ: +£395

Stereo Bundles

2x 1008cc + modified ‘silent running’ Behringer NX2000D with XO/PEQ: £999
2x 1884cc + modified ‘silent running’ Behringer NX2000D with XO/PEQ: £1,399