The price is great and it hits incredibly low.

None that I can think of, maybe more voice coil options, maybe a dual 4 ohm version would be good, a little better for the car audio guys.

I got this sub because I had read so many good things about it and my old sub just wasn't hitting the low frequencies as well as I wanted. I'm using this in the car with about 1.8 ft^3 sealed. Right now, it's getting about 200 watts. I think it would work at it's best at about 300 watts rms. When i first had it hooked up, I didn't think it was working very well, but it turned out that the sub was just hitting a lot lower than I was use to. There are more things rattling in the car than ever before :)

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I've used a smaller 8" JL W3 and a cheap 12" Infinity. They really can't compare.

Adire Audio Shiver 12" driver Sealed , which is oustanding for music and great for HT. Well built with real wood veneer, rounded on corners and well braced. 250 watt class A/AB plate amp with a defeatable crossover and everthing else you can think of. what about this, a variable low pass crossover. $399!!! Unbelievable!!

None.

First let me say this review is for the Adire Audio Rava Subwoofer which consist of the alreadly venerable "Shiver" 12" driver. This sub has not been around very long, but I am very happy I found the RAVA. After doing my research, and being an analytical chemist for 30 years makes me a very particular person, especially about my music and HT. I have listen to may great subs in my time and this sub has no peers at its price point and even higher. I cannot say enough about the RAVA. This sub does not only sound outstanding, but also look simply stunning. Being a sealed sub it is mostly a musical sub, very articulate with great definition and speed. Blends well with any fronts on music and in your HT setup it slams very well in medium to large rooms. Check with kyle@acoustic-visions.com and you will be happy you did. My System: Adire Audio Rava 12" Subwoofer (already a ledgend), trust me!!! Acoustic Research "venerable" AR302's 1995 on Front. Canton Nestor 403 in the Center. Mirage FRX One's in the Rear. RCA 46" rear projection. Pioneer D-V414 DVD Player. Onkyo Integra DX-C606 CD Player. Dual Turntable. 2-Parasound HCA 1201A THX Ultra 150 watt Amps pre-out from front channels of Teac AG-D9320 Receiver.

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Velodyne HG10, FR12, Mirage, Infinity and Paradyme 1200.

Transient response, frequency extension, build construction, large xmax (needed for low frequencies!) I'm blown away by the control exhibited by the driver. It can rattle the ceiling and windows one second, then a split second later be dead quiet! 300Watts max is the most I'd pump into it - as between 25Hz and 30Hz 300Watts is enough to reach the excursion limits of the driver (eg. you reach the mechanical limit before the 650Watt rated thermal limit of the voicecoils)

Price - when you consider the shipping and raw components. The cabinet is the cheapest of the bunch (but it does take 2 of us to lift it!)

In NZ there aren't many options for quality subs. You either have to buy a "McCombo" speaker package - including a sub that lacks power and frequency range with a box construction that is flimsy (note. A solid box is probably the single most important thing with a quality sub). I can buy decent REL etc... subwoofers - but these start at $2,500. I was left with DIY. I investigated both a Shiva from Adire and a Peerless XLS (from peerless) subwoofer drivers. Both are 12" and have had excellent reviews. The Shiva is slightly more expensive than the Peerless but has received better overall reviews and computer simulations looked better than the peerless. I bought the Shiva from Acoustic Concepts in australia, and a 300 watt plate amplifier from redgum audio. Both gave excellent customer service. This is the first component I've ever built. I designed my own cabinet, using a single front facing Shiva driver with a rear 4" PVC port. The port can take a screw on cap so I can make the box either a sealed or vented, depending on whether I want excellent transients or bass extension (same as the HSU designs - only better as the capped screwed on is airtight). With careful planning the enclosure is straightforward to build - with only a jigsaw and cordless drill. I did cheat and have a local timber yard cut the MDF for me - highly recommend this if you do not have a tablesaw. I have a wife who was particularly fussy about the finish - even she thinks I've done a good job (simply painted it with black enamel). The cabinet is a net 141 litres, tuned to 22Hz. This sub reaches the low of the lows. In the Matrix I did not realise how much background sub 30Hz bass there is at times. The scene with the helicopter crashing into the building makes you back away from the TV! On music - I need some more tuning to blend in the sub, but on drum in bass, dance, even pipe organ - it handles this with authority

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None (unfortunately) - then I could give a more meaningful review. In summary - if you wanta decent subwoofer that will last and deliver on all your HT and music needs, and you want a true "theatre

Natural Bass, Price, Very Robust

Still looking

I listen to a wide variety of music and expect my sub to accommodate my needs every step of the way. I also watch plenty of movies and need low trembling bass when the DVD call for it. The Adire Shiva MKIII is what I have spent the last 2 years looking for! If you want real bass without spending $3000 then you will want to check out this sub. Do not buy a pre-made commercial sub without exploring the Shiva first, otherwise you may waste your money on a 'sub-standard' sub that will provide disappointing sound. If you have no woodworking skills to build the enclosure, just go to any car audio shop in your area and ask them if they make custom enclosures. Most of them will, then you can just print out a pdf from the web that and it will give them the specs on recommended enclosures for the Shiva. Whatever you do, make sure to put the shiva in a good box. You should check out www.acoustic-visions.com and ask them any questions you have about the Shiva.

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Klipsch KSW-10, KSW-12, RSW-10 and RSW-12.

EVERTHING...the last driver you will need period...does not bottom out like a lot of the more expensive drivers that talk big but crumble during DEMANDING scenes.

'Weak' and Shiva do not mix!

This is the last driver you will ever need! IT MOVES TONS OF AIR HITS HARD AND GOES DEEEEEP! My home theater will never be the same! I have made an HSU killer with this driver. My box is 4.75 cu ft. It is bottom firing with two front firing 17 inch ports. It is tuned to (18 Hz) with a boost at 30 hz. The scene in lord of the rings with the cave troll can not be described....when he first appears there is MASSIVE 20 Hz,30 Hz AND 40 Hz energy! The driver can reproduce his hammer blows that not only sound loud but will make your couch and house.....bounce violently! The part when the elves are crossing the bridge and the when the bridge is breaking apart...you can FEEL every stone tearing apart....and the Balrock's footsteps...20 hz of pure stomp will make you run for cover! Monster's Inc...is full of HUGE bass energy as is the Phantom Menace...the pod race has so many different frequences of bass that I could not feel and diferinciate until I aquired the Shiva. EVERY drivers engine has a different bass energy that if you close your eyes you can tell by feeling the different resonating bass..which driver is on the screen! I built my sub for under $400 including an amp....lets say it is worth about 2000! Do yourself a favor...don't buy any of the store 'toy subs'...the shiva is a high excursion driver! It can move 4 times the air than any of the store brands at 5 times less the price! What I like best about the Shiva is that I have yet to bottom out this driver! Other drivers like the Titanic have bottomed out during some scenes...not the Shiva...make sure you have a dedicated HT....or the wife will hate ya!

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Titanic, Stryke divers various inferior drivers as well..

- Price - Good for both home theater and music - Good customer service

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I've been looking for a good subwoofer at a low price for a while to hook up to my home theater system. I decided to get a Shiva after reading the reviews posted here and I am happy with that decision so far. Take advantage of free shipping from acoustic-visions.com. If you have the basic tools and a little bit of room to do it, building your own enclosure can be fun. I live in a small apartment and it was not too difficult. Or you can get a enclosure kit from acoustic-visions at a reasonable price. I built mine based on the instruction found in adireaudio.com. It is 5 cu. ft. of internal volume made out of MDF from Home Depot with 15 inch passive radiator from ampmanaudio.com (free shipping) and 250 watt amp from partsexpress.com. The total came out to around $400 including the finish work. Although it was $100 more than my original budget, I am very satisfied with the result. The idea was to spend little more now and not upgrade later because that upgrading process will be much more than $100. As for the performance, I could not ask for more from a $400 subwoofer. It produces very clean, smooth and tight bass. At the same time it will give a punch when needs to or musical when you play one. Beethoven's 9th symphony never sounded better and Dizzy Gillespie's Bird Songs sounds warm and cozy (its cold during the Winter in Chicago). I've listened to my friend's $1000 subwoofer by Klipsch and I'd say mine can compete head to head against it and possibly do better. Way to go Shiva!

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none

it sounds loud

it didnt break no windows cause it was in a sealed box

It friggin rules

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good ones like Vifa

Awe-imspiring bass extension with inceribly clean output.

My living room!! No seriously, it is under rated I feel!!

I have had my SHIVA for about a month now, and have had it iin two different enclosures.. my first one, which was only temporary was an 83 liter sealed enclosure... which was hooked up to a meaily 50watt sony subwoofer amp module I ripped out of a little Sony sub...

I now have ALMOST finished adding the final touches to my new enclosure, a 120+Liter box, with a tuned 4" diameter port to 21Hz. the sub and port are downfiring... and my box designis VERY similar to one of those high end R.E.L acoustics subwoofers.. mine even has a plate glass top over two layers of MDF...

Ok, I now have my sub wired up to the internal 200watts RMS subwoofer amp module, with an independant front mounted remote controllabe motorised volume and xOver section.

Even wit the original smaller sealed box... I immmediately noticed the shear purity and cleanliness of the bass... not muddy, nor boomy, nor overwhelminly abtuse.... but a very very nice, tight, transient bass just like what you get at the cinemas..

Now woth my 120 liter ported box.. I am getting the same tight transient bass just like a sealed box.. since I have a VERY low tuning frequency.. but BOY OH BOY!! This sub Goes SO LOW it is not funny... I am hearing notes I never thought my ears could hear!! But what impresses me so much is the fact that with the X over set to 40Hz, I STILL hear sooo much bass information, not only that.. but I acn also turn it up to extreme levels without any loss in quality and control!

Scenes fromDVD's where I would normally have to turn the volume down with my older commercial subs.. I can now leave the volume way up high on my YAMAHA RXV 2095 (half way even!!!) and there is NO distortion!!!

for music.. this sub is beautiful... and because of its capabilities and power.. I actually turn the sup to about one third gainon the amp module, just so its effects are subtle.. but it truly widens and deepens the sound stage and image.. and gives the whole sound a richness and tactile effect that no other sub I have ever heard does.... It trule DOES sound like the best subwoofer I have ever heard.. which was in fact a $8000 REL subwoofer from the UK!!

I say go buy yourself one of these cones and build a box ANYWHERE between 50 and 150 liters sealed or ported and you will NOT be HAPPIER!!!

Regards

Scott Richardson

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Just some other Commercial subs

Incredibly tight, clean bass
Very reasonable price (and I'm a tightwad!)

None!

Several years ago, I purchased an AudioSource SW-4 (current equivalent is their model SW-12, www.audiosource.net). It has a 150-watt amp and a dual voice coil 12" driver. At the point when I bought it, it was easily the best sub for the money (around $450 at Best Buy). A couple of years later, I noticed my system wasn't producing the deep bass I was used to. A quick check revealed the sub wasn't "subbing" anymore. Being a procrastinator, I didn't deal with repairing it under warranty like I should have. Now the five-year warranty has expired.

Recently I decided to pursue getting the speaker fixed. I took it by a local speaker repair shop that I trust, and they verified that both voice coils were, indeed, blown out. I contacted AudioSource, and they would sell me a replacement driver for $65 plus shipping. Not a bad deal, but I continued to shop around for alternative drivers.

The Shiva piqued my interest since (1) it reaps rave reviews, (2) the price was attractive, and (3) it has dual voice coils. I checked around and found Ampman Audio's website (www.ampman.com). Their price matches the factory's price ($115), but it also includes shipping, so I figured it's like getting a 15% discount. I went for it. Meanwhile, I began a search for some test tones and "bassy" songs to test with. (Did I say Napster?)

I removed the AudioSource driver and replaced it with the Shiva. It didn't quite fit, but well enough to get started with the testing. Man, oh man! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I have test tones down to 10 Hz, and this monster was still going strong! At those lowest frequencies, what I heard mostly was the polyfill inside the speaker enclosure moving around, so I need to figure out to calm it down. The Shiva moves so much air that the enclosure port felt like a blow dryer!

I'm generally not a bass head, and neither do I listen to mega-bass at high volume levels all the time. My tastes are diverse, preferring a broad mix of dinnertime jazz, rock, praise & worship, bluegrass, and classical including some deep pipe organ stuff. And of course, there's also the home theater side of it as well, although I don't have DVD (yet).

Given the testing I've done, plus the "regular" things I normally listen to, I can honestly say the Shiva beats any sub I've heard. It provides the thundering, visceral (gut) feeling I expect at high volume. With my crossover set at 40 Hz, it also generates clean, tight bass at any volume level.

The Shiva is simply a speaker, and you need something to put it in. For the do-it-yourselfers out there, there is a lot of information available to aid in building a custom enclosure. There are also pre-fab kits available, some of which are specifically designed for the Shiva. I'm sure those would be even more awesome than the setup I currently have, especially since my enclosure is between 2.5 to 3 cubic feet, and this puppy would love to have more elbow room to strut its stuff. The Adire Audio website (www.adireaudio.com) has a wealth of informative pages, chock full of design tips and specs. I may ditch the AudioSource enclosure I'm currently using and build something designed around this sweet speaker, and drive it with the AudioSource amp. (It's a nice amp; no hum at all.)

In summary, you absolutely can't go wrong with this speaker or the company behind it. Give it a good home (enclosure), and enjoy the companionship for years to come.

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AudioSource SW-4 (= SW-12)

Extreme amounts of bass delivered at the highest of quality. Extremely clean, and VERY tight. Also VERY easy on the wallet!

I don't see any! For this price no weaknesses I could possibly think of have any meaning!

WOW!

I just had to get that one out there. If you get one of these Shiva's you will not be dissapointed. I bought my Shiva Mark II about 4 months ago direct from Avatar Audio and hooked it into a very temporary particle board box and the bass just blew me away.
Now I know there are probably some of you out there who are thinking, "Oh but the bass is probably just 'Home Theater Bass' and it doesn't actually shake your guts like in my car." Well beleive me, it does. I have been to numerous audio competitions and seen everything from 8 MTX subs to 4 JL 12W6's and this ONE Shiva in a living room will put out a very competitive amount of bass. This sub will literally crack your walls (I've seen pictures of it happen!).
Of course, thats not the kind of bass I am after for a home theater, so usually I have the volume turned down quite a bit.
For me, I wanted realistic bass. I wanted bass that added depth to my sound stage and also gave everything i played a new sense of realism. I did NOT want a generic radio shack sub which adds bass to everyone's voice, because you know in real life James Earl Jones does not actually shake your walls when he talks. So i read hundreds of reviews, hell maybe thousands, and I finally decided on the Shiva. When i got it I mounted it in my temporary box with my temporary 45 watt amplifier and turned on my dvd of Saving Private Ryan.
For the first 10 minutes of the movie i was speechless. I couldn't beleive how much a quality sub added to the movie. I mean, here I was with a POS amp and a box half falling apart and the sound was still crisp, and nice.
Well, 4 months later i am still using the crappy box, but i "upgraded" to a semi crappy 180 watt amplifier. I am VERY pleased with my Shiva, and I plan on soon purchasing an Apex Senior amplifier (www.apexjr.com) which is rated at 380 watts rms. so after i get thwat i will repost.
My current setup only consists of two speakers, but they are pretty good one, and I must say this sub matched them to a tee. I have a pair of Audax Home Theater fronts designed by Joe D'Appolito and put in his famous MTM configuration (Plans at www.audax.com). I built these all myself and I am still working on the surrounds and the center. All told i spent about 1000 bucks on everything in the audio part of my home theater, including my kenwood dolby digital receiever, and I think i got the best sound possible for under 1000 dollars, but then again, i could be biased.
I reccomend this sub to ANYONE with a home theater setup. Like i said, for 115 bucks the price/performance ratio CANNOT be beat.

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Mostly top of the Line Car Subs, like JL Audio, Cerwin Vega, and even Audiobahn (which, by the way, is an excellent car audio brand - beats JL hands down)