Home theather subs are more rumbley than musical , so they deal with explosions better than music.
Some subs will play a low freq as a loud rumble and others will play the note with clairty and defention , you should look at the cone type and excursion for a rough idea of how it will sound, polypropylene cones and kevlar cones are tougher than paper cones so the bass will be alot tighter and much more controled as the cones won't break up, also the less excursion the less likely the cone is gonna break-up and distort. A high excursion paper cone will produce the most distortion and uncontroled rumbley bass, A polypropylene cone with less excursion will sound cleaner and clearer, the disadvantages of tougher cones is there normally heavier so require more amp power to move so your get less spl.
