Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Hsu website

Summary:
I've finally had this thing long enough to feel like I can write a useful review. In a word, amazing. I can't believe the way it sounds. It delivers every note all the way down into the subsonic range with equal ease and power. And the sound is incredibly accurate, you can hear every nuance of the sound waves coming from a stand up bass. It's easily the best sounding, most accurate subwoofer I've ever heard.
The amp is built like a tank, and looks completely badd-ass. Set up was a simple matter of playing with things till it sounded perfect, which came easily. It turned out that it sounded best with the volume knob in the straight up, 12:00 position. The whole thing is very dialed.
I must say that the first amp that I received died about a week after I got it. HSU immediately took care of it, and the new one has worked perfectly for well over a year of nearly constant use, in poorly ventilated spots.
The sub it's self is a thing of beauty. A tall black pillar lurking in one corner of the room. There's no grill on top, so you can walk over and look right at it jumping up and down.
HSU includes a test CD with the sub that has the most amazing track on it, featuring a 16Hz note, presumably from some mysterious giant stringed instrument. The sub reproduces it with awesome clarity, you can hear and feel the note in the air. The house quakes. Also on the CD are some pure test notes, so you can actually play notes that go down below your hearing. Very cool.
All in all, one of the best things I've ever purchased. For $1000 I made my totally mediocre little system into something extraordinary. It blends with the little Klipschs beautifully, and totally outclasses every other sub I've listened to, including mega high dollar subs. Actually, it outclasses everything else in my system as well. It belongs in great company.

Strengths:
Earthshaking yet light-as-a-feather, powerful, accurate bass.
Goes very deep!
Amazingly affordable
Cool design

Weaknesses:
none

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from www.hsuresearch.com

Summary:
Wow! Good clean, tight bass down to 20hz. They integrate perfectly in my system. They play as if they are not there; sign of a good sub. Turn them off and surely you will miss them. Highly recommended.

(2) TN-1220HO subwoofers + 500 amp. Purchased from HSU factory direct one year ago.

Strengths:
- Price. Exceptional value.
- Small footprint.
- Light, easy to move around.
- Fills the room like no other.

Weaknesses:
Easily topples over. Needs a better platform.

Similar Products Used:
Velodyne

Price Paid:  $1250.00 from Hawthorne Stereo in

Summary:
I bought 2 TN-1220HO's & the HSU Research 500 watt amp at the same time. Never had I has such a remarkable improvement in my system with relatively low cost. 3 years later I am still in awe and the bass just gets better and better depending on the cabling upgrades.

I auditioned all the subs available and found these to be perfect for my room space. I was prepared to pay considerably more to get the kind of tight, deep bass I wanted. The organ music CD that came with the subs showed it was clean down to 12-18 cycles. All I can say is if you have never listened to these subs you owe it to yourself to go to a dealer and hear them.

As a demo get the CD SuperBass with Ray Brown, John Clayton & Christian McBride recorded live at Sculler's. Use this on all the subs to demo them. You won't be disappointed.

Strengths:
Deep, tight, low bass.

Weaknesses:
None that I have found. The cannon shot in Russell Crowe's movie Master & Commander will make the hair stand up on your head.

Similar Products Used:
Sunfire sub
Velodyne subs

Price Paid:  $1697.00 from Hsu Research website

Summary:
After much trouble with the Fed Ex people kicking and gouging through the excellent DOUBLE-BOXED packaging, I finally got two of the 1220s and the 800 watt amp. Dr Hsu said these the most musical subs he knew about and I agree. I had tried a Vandersteen sub but couldn't get it to work. (DOA, I guess.) It was incredibally heavy and really took up a huge footprint. The 1220s are about 12" in diameter. I put them both in a corner behind the 3ASigs.

I'm using the high pass filter in the 800 watt amp to take the lowest sounds away from the Vandersteens. The 1220s really crank out the subsonics! During setup, I ran them fairly hard, and I found that the front door began to vibrate in multiples of the frequencies produced and the screws of the door handles and hardware were being loosened. Clearly, too much of the really low sounds can damage plaster walls. Mine were hopping!

The 1220s can produce constant sound in the lower region as in a pipe organ or synthesizer. They can be scary if you use them for the LFE stuff in home theatre. The demo CD included is a terrific collection of fun stuff to show off the speakers.

Dr Hsu and the staff really care that their speakers make you happy. They willingly offer to take back merchandise and fix it at their expense. They even offer a 30-day return if you don't like what you get. My Vandersteen dealer recommended Dr Hsu to me, and I'm glad he did. I cannot imagine any other speaker that produces the sounds of the 1220s, including subsonics, for anywhere close to this price.

Strengths:
Small footprint. 1220s are very musical; smooth when needed to be and fast (for a sub) and scary also when needed. The 800 watt amplifier has all the power you might possibly need. Can be laid horizontally on floor behind couch for really tight spaces. A high-quality company with staff who really care about pleasing their customers.

Weaknesses:
Needs pads for the spikes if you have a really hard wood floor. Easily toppled because of driver mounted on top. There is no grille supplied or recommended and it doesn't bother me, but uncovered speaker cones may bother some.

Price Paid:  $850.00 from hsu

Summary:
wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strengths:
makes everything sound so REAL ... clearly articulates sub-bass musical notes ... fast attack, fast decay ... very high output.

Weaknesses:
can be terrifying on program material with a "kick" ... tall, top-heavy tube easy to topple ... outboard amp is ugly.

Similar Products Used:
Athena 10" sub.