whatthedileo

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $360.00 from uBid.com

Summary:
This sub is designed for intimidation - big box, big driver, and Sunfire logo to scare off all visitors who own a HT-in-a-box. Infinity, Polk, Sony and JBL lovers can go home now. This review is critical, but I think this Advent sub creams these mainstream brands. of course, who cares since Advent (thre REAL Advent) went out of business shortly after the success of this unit! For MOVIES, it typically works extremely well. Hoever, on low-thresshold passages that tickle the subsonic limit of human hearing, you notice that the sub sounds exactly the same. It is as if there is a conductor inside the amp who has decided "Anything at 30Hz or lower, I will play at 27Hz steady". The result is sloppy sound reproduction that becomes tiresome to listen to. This may be in part to port noise - you can physically hear the rush of air breathing through the port, and this pitch will not really change no matter what frequency is being produced. This sub will rattle light fixtures in several rooms of your house, for sure, but this sub will expose its limits to you in some of your most covetted movie scenes - Saving Private Ryan tank scene, which lasts about a half hour, for instance. You start out extremely impressed at the magnitude of the sound, but that 27Hz catch-all frequency becomes a fatiguing drone that wears on you, unless you are able to focus your attention to the storyline (but let's face it - anyone reading this is focusing on far more than the storyline). For MUSIC, this sub does not like you to shift gears - if you jump around the dial on the radio, or play random cuts from various recordings, you will notice a big difference in the response of the sub. I beliieve the blame lies with the sound engineers who tailored the recordings, but this sub makes it painfully obvious that all recordings are not equal. You almost want a MOVIE/MUSIC switch on the sub. It is great for smooth jazz, rap, and R&B, but I find rock music especially wearying due in no small part to the sub. Perhaps because the sub is not prominently featured in most rock - if you go from 50Cent to VanHalen, you are going to wonder where the bass went, because it will no longer be filling your room with 50ft sound waves (note: a 20Hz sound wave is approximately 56 feet long, basically the reason that bass is non-direction sound). I ripped the whole sub apart and braced the three long walls with angle iron and put a cross brace across the two opposing long walls. I also Dynamated the outside of the port tube. I never bothered to use a meter before and after, but my ears told me that I hadn't reduced resonance perceptably, so I can say that the box is tighter than you might expect when you rap on it with your knuckles (hollow echo, instead of the desired faint knock that makes a cabinet sound like solid wood). I don't think anything out there in its price range will compare with this sub - however, I have decided that I am not a listener in this price range. I will probably step up to a Hsu or Velodyne that guarantees me some 20Hz no-distortion listening.

Strengths:
Loud wall-shaking bass that you can hear from the road or INSIDE a neihbor's house.

Weaknesses:
Boominess, lower-end inaccuracy make this a choice better suited to less critical listeners.

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic, dbx, KLH, SVS.

Price Paid:  $350.00 from ubid.com

Summary:
When I first got the sub a year ago it sounded good but not to my expectation. It had a lot of port noise with buzzes and it sounded boomy at moderate to high volume levels.
My main speakers are Infinity SM152 which have 15" woofers, Yamaha RX495 Receiver (with sub out) and Sony LD/CD player. I mostly listen to Rock and Alternative music with occasional Hip Pop and Regae Music.
As soon I hooked up the Advent av550s subwoofer to my system I noticed a tremendous amount of low bass that I didn't hear before with the Infinity speakers alone. I also found out that this subs is not very good at playing bass notes above 80Hz. I have the sub crossed over at about 60Hz leting the Infinities do the upper bass reproduction. With this setup the sound is incredible from all the types of music I listen too especially music with lots of deep bass bellow 30Hz. For example in the Crystal Method sound track "Trip Like I do" the bass is just unbelievable. It is very deep probably around 25 to 30Hz and the sub produces it with ease. At higher volume levels the sub tends to get very boomy and I could hear the port vibrating inside the cabinet so this is what I did to fix that.
I opened the subwoofer to take a look inside and man is this box cheaply made. Part of the box is 3/4 MDF but the woofer side is made out of particle board ... what gives ??? The port is 4 inches in diameter and about 12" long. The box measures 22" by 18" by 16" which give about 3 cuft of volume so the enclosure is tuned to about 27Hz. I braced the internal walls with MDF 1" by 3/4" strips all accros and along the edges. I wraped the port with polyester fill thightly so it could stop the buzzing and stuffed the box losely with another 2lb. I then sealed all the mating surfaces of the amp and subwoofer driver with good'ol silicone cauching to keep the air from leaking out. What did all this translate to? A very very good sounding subwoofer. The boominess is completely gone, the low frequency sound has been increased and it sounds as good as my 10 inch Orion XTR Pro sub I have in my car.
I'm going to keep this sub for a long time because it matches the infinities very well. The Infinitis reproduce the upper frequency bass >60hz well but they fall short on the <45hz material so the advent sub is a big help.
Maybe when I get sick of the advent and have nothing better to do I will design and build a box for two Orion XTR Pro 12 subs and hook them up to the Carver sunfire amp in a sealed enclosure for the ultimate sound quality. But for now this setup is very pleasing and I recomend this sub to anybody who wants deep bass capability and who doesn't mind doing some minor modifications. If you have small front speakers this subwoofer is not for you.
My friend has a M&K MX200 subwoofer with two 12" drivers and let me tell you that the advent car still go down very deeply even compared to the MK. Sure the sound is a bit tighter from the MK but who wants to spend over 1 grand on a sub when you can spend $350 (including shiping) and with some minor modifications get an awesome sounding subwoofer for a much cheaper price.
I've listened to the Audio Source 15 sub at my other friends house and it doesn't even compare to the Advent. It doesn't go deep enough and it is even boomier than the advent(unmodified form).
Compared to vaious Velodine models at Audio shops, I find Velodine subs to be too boomy to listen to. They give me a headache after prolonged listening times. But that could be due to a poor setup.
Now if you compare home subwoofers to car audio subwoofers than there is no competition. The little 10" Orion sub I have in my car is something to be reconed with. In only a 1 cuft sealed box it sounds extremely accurate and tight with really good low frequency response, mostly attribuited to the cars low resonance effect. Never the less I think the ultimate subwoofer would be made out of drivers from car audio subwoofers. Even the M&K subs are weak compared to a well built home made subwoofer costing far considerably less money. Not too many subs can pound out bass or sound as good as MTX or Orion subs hooked up in a sealed or vented enclosure.
If you have the money to get an M&K sub or some other high priced piece of furniture then go ahead. But if you are looking for a great deal, low frequency response and great potential then I recomend you listen to the Advent. With the money you save you can get other audio equipment like decent front speakers etc...

Strengths:
Low frequency capability bellow 30Hz.
Cheap price for the sound quality with minor mods.

Weaknesses:
You have to brace the sub internally, silicone the sealing surfaces on the woofer and amp and stuff it with some lose packed polyester fill to get good sound quality.
Knobs are hard to adjust but once done right it will sound good.

Similar Products Used:
Miller and Krisel 200MX
Various Velodine models (can't remember which)
Audio Source 15" drive model
Car stereo subs by Cerwin Vega, Orion, MTX, Rockford of various sizes.

Price Paid:  $420.00

Summary:
This is an awesome sub with power that nothing else can touch. I was playing some music at myt birthday party in my garage and my neighbors called the cops on me. I didn't even have it up as loud as it could have been. I like this unit very much because of the deep bass and amazing power. I think almost everyone with a decent stereo could buy this as an add-on. It has about every tpe of input that you could think of including Rca, speaker, and LFE. It also has Gain, crossover, and phase controls to make the perfect sound for movies, cd's, and anything else.

Weaknesses:
None that i have found

Price Paid:  $420.00

Summary:
This is an awesome sub with power that nothing else can touch. I was playing some music at myt birthday party in my garage and my neighbors called the cops on me. I didn't even have it up as loud as it could have been. I like this unit very much because of the deep bass and amazing power. I think almost everyone with a decent stereo could buy this as an add-on. It has about every tpe of input that you could think of including Rca, speaker, and LFE. It also has Gain, crossover, and phase controls to make the perfect sound for movies, cd's, and anything else.

Weaknesses:
None that i have found

Summary:
For the 270 I paid for this it's great. But i will have to get a sub with some kind of built in compressor.This thing can bottom out pretty easy and the port can make some funny noises.Dont use this with bookshelf speakers it's not for that.
At first I was using it through the lfe channel output.But I got tired of overdriving it.So I hooked it up to lr preamp outs and told the reciever there is no sub.My 8 inch towers are set to large.So the sub and the towers share the bass and I crossover at 60 hz or so.Kinda the best of both worlds.
And yes,there is no such thing as"fast" bass.Some subs perform better at higher frequencies.A strong peak at 80 to 100 hz will make kick drums and such have a "tighter" feel.

Strengths:
Low bass that shakes the floor.

Weaknesses:
No limiter .Port noise