Price Paid:  $429.00 from HSU.com

Summary:
Blends in nicely with a 7.1 Infinity Primus set up and is excellent for the lows when movie wathching. I keep it nearfield in a dedicated HT room which is a little too large for a sub of this size. I Would however reccomend a Bigger sub if yor room is over 2500Cu'. If its under I would say this sub should be on your shortest list. I have not owned it long enough to evaluate music with it but for HT it is a grat sub. I keep it in max outlet/ max volume mode instead of max extension. It seems to sound best in my room that way.my room needs serious treatments starting with bass traps.

Strengths:
For the money I think its a great Buy. Movies are more dramatic and the sub has me wondering if my pioneer receiver is doing this thing justice.

Weaknesses:
Sounds much better than the poLk sub it replaced but a little week for my 3000cu'
room. not really a weakness just a fact. i should have ordered at least a mK3.

Similar Products Used:
Polk-- Sucked
Sony- Worse
A coulple not worth mentioning

Price Paid:  $390.00 from ebay

Summary:
I'm an 'old guy'. Bred on live music in the 40's, HiFi when you had to build it yourself. Heard stereo first at the '55 GM car show. Bought my first stereo in '60. Discovered the NY Audio Society when Fisher, Dahlquist and Koss were still members.

In '75 a fellow enthusiast and I followed up an audio show with a visit to Radio City. As the house organ shook the entire theater, my friend said, "Now that's what I want my woofer to sound like!"

The VTF2 MK2 is the closest yet. A suble, indistinguishable seam with my vintage Advents, but a very noticable depth, mostly unnoticed until I sat down. My couch felt like a vibrator (ala Radio City).

The best I've heard (the deepest and most accurate) since before my AR 3a was rebuilt. The original 3a was more accurate (as accoustic suspensions will be) but could not go as low, and was not as powerful (even bi-amped).

Strengths:
power and depth best for the money.

Weaknesses:
occassionally reproduces rumble engineered into old LPs.

Similar Products Used:
AR, McIntosh, Cerwin Vegas, Infinity, etc.

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Hsu Research

Summary:
I've only had this sub for a few days,but after setting it up and playing a few tunes I just sat there for a while. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. I've had a few subs like Acoustic Research, Sony and Polk. But the Hsu is in a different league. Deeeep tuneful bass was what I heard on Dave Holland's disk's. The same was true on Buster Williams cd's and Marcus Miller. But one thing I didn't expect was the increase in sound stage and detail. Set up properly, a real sub bass system brings out music that was hidden by the boom,boom,thud of lesser subs. I started playing stuff I don't like any more just to hear the difference.
Movies are a whole different story. This sub will show you where all of the loose stuff is in your room. I have to secure and put some pads on my side and rear dipols. I'm more interested in the musical aspects of this speaker then movies ,and the Hsu blends really well with my B&W 805's. For the money, or any money this is a no brainer.

Strengths:
Easy to set up,
Deep tuneful bass.
A great music sub

Weaknesses:
I'll let you know when I find any.

Similar Products Used:
Acoustic Research, Polk, Sony

Price Paid:  $499.00 from HsuReasearch.com

Summary:
I hate to do this, but I have to question nguyend6 claims of "lack of definition and detail for music" for the VTF2-MKII because that certainly has not been my experience with this sub. Perhaps he forgot to take into account how much his room acoustics, more than likely, affected the overall sound of the sub and, therefore, his final assessment.

Subwoofers that are "tuned" to play in the lower octaves will be more susceptible to room acoustics anomalies, sub misplacement, erroneous level/phase, etc.

My experience with this sub is contrary to what the previous reviewer claimed. This sub is "every bit as musical" as the NHT sw12 (which I previously owned...) and does not come close to the VTF2 MKII's bass extension. In fact, the Hsu performed "musically" as good as a REL Strata III sub that I brought home for audition and for the significantly lower $$$ price tag, it was a "no brainer".

Highly recommended...

Strengths:
- EQUALLY as good for Home Theater and music.

- Bass extension

- Aesthetics, build quality

- And did I mentioned, $$$ price.

Weaknesses:
- After owning it for more that a year, NONE... but I'm still looking.

Similar Products Used:
NHT SW12, Paradigm PW-2200, Paradigm Servo-15, REL Strata III.

Price Paid:  $499.00 from HSU

Summary:
After having read many rave reviews I decided to give this VTF-2 MKII a try. I also listened to several subs from $500 up to over $1K such as B&W 650, Paradigm PW2100, JM lab 11 and 13 inch subs, KEF PS2150, Velodyne SPL1000R, etc. I let this sub break in enough before I give it an evaluation. I have to admit that this sub hits very low. The sound is very deep, clean, lush, and very powerful. It certainly goes deeper than some other more expensive subs like the Velodyne SPL1000R. For home theather it serves the purpose well. For music, however, it lacks a little definition and accuracy. I then compared this with the NHT sw12 ($750) since I had very good experience with NHT sub. This NHT is not quite as deep as the HSU (27HZ instead of 25Hz), but it is much more musical and acurate, and the build quality and astheatics are also superior. I ended up choosing the NHT over the HSU. For the price, the HSU is a good choice especially for hometheater. If you need better definition and accuracy, the KEF psw2150 ($600) or the NHT will do better.

Here are my gear:
Denon AVR3802 receiver
Marantz CD player
Panasonic RP91 DVD player
Panamax power conditioner
Adcom 5400 power amp
NHT 2.5i fronts speakers, NHT 1.5 rear and NHT SC1 center.

Strengths:
Deep, powerful sound, good price.

Weaknesses:
Lacking definition and accuracy for music.

Similar Products Used:
KEF PSW2150, Velodyne SPL1000R, NHT SW12.