great sounding bass for the price

lack of crossover control and auto on/off

I purchased the ASW 500 at a local stereo shop after returning a Klipsch KSW 10. What a difference the extra $50 made! Bass sounds really tight over a variety of music styles, and dvds have never sounded better. I looked at the Mirage FRx10 and the Klipsch KSW 12, and definitely preferred the 500. Unfortunately, the lack of crossover control and an auto on/off switch, prevent it from being perfect.

Similar Products Used:

Mirage FRx10, Klipsch KSW 10

None yet

Great sound, crystal clear. Not too boomy, matches up with my 300 series speakers and rear rock solids.

I am hardpressed to criticise this model. It shakes the hell out of my house and in fact I have to lower the bass settings on my Harmon Kardon Receiver. It does tend to get a little muddy but after a 100 or so hours it has really mellowed out. Can be a little punchy at times depending on what I am listning to - For the money $400! you can't go wrong and it is a B&W!!!!

I checked out the ASW500 at my local dealer after not being very happy with my current subwoofer (Accoustic Research). I thought the ASW500 would be a good fit with my 602 front / 601s2 rears and CC6s2 B&W center and hopefully give me better bass.
In looking to replace my current subwoofer, I wanted a subwoofer that would give out a respectable hard bass punch for bass oriented music and especially home theater. I found the ASW500 to be very poor in this regard. B&W really sacrificed a lot to get this speaker in such a small package.

I next tested the ASW1000 - this is what a subwoofer should sound like! Great bass and punch. I recommend staying away from the ASW500, and if the ASW1000 is out of your price range or size constraints, you are better off to go with another brand!

I personally will be getting the ASW1000 as soon as I make space for it!

Very musical, compact, not an HT model, much better than specifications

no LFE input, no Auto On switching, x-over frequency not adjustable

This is a follow up to my ealier posting after additional experience.

I still love this thing. I bought the Infinity RABOS sub-woofer set up kit (for $60 it's a must have) and that is essential for setting up sub-woofers. You cannot do it right by ear. I use the ASW-500 with my NAD C350, Paradigm X-30 electronic crossover, Sony CDP-XA1ES, and a pair of B&W 602.2's. The X-30 is a difficult load to drive, but the C350 preamp handles it easily. The X-30's 80 Hz high pass output drives the NAD main amp, which drives the 602's. THe X-30's sub out drives the ASW-500. I found that by setting the X-30's low pass frequency control to maximum (>150 Hz)it gets the X-30 "out of the way" and lets the sub's low pass filter do it's job. To assist in the x-over I stuffed the 602's with polyester fiber, but left the port open. Made the 602's much smoother and more detailed, and less "bright" sounding. The sub is centered between the 602's.

Set up this way, I have not touched the subwoofer level control since I set it up. It's just "right", with a perfect blend to the 602's. Bass extends to about 25 Hz (+/- 1.5 dB 25 to 100 Hz) with excellent bass detail, no boom, no rumble, and surprising power. I was told by the B&W rep. that Rotel designed the sub amp, and that it has LOTS and LOTS of dynamic headroom, comparable to most 200 watt rated amps. I believe it.

This sub is not voiced for HT sound effects. It's voiced for music. I am extremely pleased!!!

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Velodyne CT-100 (2 versions), Infinity Entra, JBL PS-10, Definitive

muscial, bw quality on the cheap

discontinued

got this sub new for 335 on closeout in the box, but
through a windfall decided to get the 2500 (wouldnt you?)
this little sub was quite good and at 335 fantastic. the
dealer let me keep it untill my 2500 came in. the new model is 350$ with a nice woodgrain and more power. But if you can find one at a good price for a modest ht grab it. the only thing in this range is stuff like cerwin vega , yamaha, etc. no crossover control but you really dont need it

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asw2500, elcheapo yammy sub

cheapo, but with all the B&W's class and sound.

cross-over/filter

I own a wonderful pair of B&W CDM-1se since 3 years ago, with Musical Fidelity equipment, system which I really love, but with certain styles (techno, downtempo, etc...), I felt a lack of bass and slam, so I went for the ASW-500, since I didn't want to spend too much on a sub; I listened to 3 or 4 models (saddly no REL distributor in Mexico)and of course this one won my vote.
Once i set it up in my place, low-end got better, but since using line conectors to my power amps, by-pass speakers' lowest octave, the over-all sound didn't please me that much, but I found a trick to get it better, instead of connecting the amps to the sub, just connect the latter as another source, this is not too confortable, since you have to tune manually the sub's volume, almost every time you change a record, but this way you use your main speaker whole spectrum and just add a bit of low, low end to the whole image, I found that placing volume at 2:00 o'clock position is enough to bring a sweet sound (not wall trembling, that's for home-theaters), then I add in the chain an X-TONE bass/treble control, so I can get a lot more from this minimalistic but well tunned sub.

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KEF sub

Good for music. I haven't try to use for HT yet.

The on/off switch.

I like low sound from this sub. I set up with my B&W 302. It gives me eager to listen my set before go to bed.

I like jazz and rock music. With pioneer cd player and nad amplifier, this speakers and sub give me really really satisfy to again and again listen my collection.

Very Musical, little or no fiddling around to set up. I use my system strictly for music.

very limited controls (no low pass freq control), no LFE input, not so good for HT

I have B&W 602 S2 speakers and was having a terrible time finding a moderately priced sub which blended well with them. Finally got away from the HT boom boxes and tried the B&W. Had it set up to about 95% in about 15 minutes using speaker level inputs.

Works very well with B&W 601, 602, 303 models. Should work about as well with similar Paradigm and PSB models as well.

Very musical. Skin tones on drums are clearly audible. Ditto the harmonic structure on plucked and bowed bass viol and organ. Bass extends to about 32 Hz which covers the audible fundamentals for the symphonic bass drum, most organs, piano, bass viol, etc, etc.

While it will certainly enhance the low end for HT, that is not it's strength. It's greatest strength is forming a superior sub-sat system with small and mid sized 2 way (woofer/tweeter) speakers. For not much more than a Bose AM-5 system, you can put together a system that absolutely kills the Bose in every respect.

There is no auto on circuitry in this thing, but I don't consider that a serious flaw. At idle (no signal) the amp draws so little power that it is insignificant. But if you leave it on, make sure it's plugged into a surge protector. Also, it plays pretty loud for a 70 Watt amp. Seems to have good dynamic headroom.

It's light, it's expensive, and it works really well.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Entra, Velodyne CT-100 (version 1 & 2), Def Tech ProSub 100TL, JBL PB-10

B&W cheap, small, been engineered well, conical feet, tight package

No off switch electrics and the lack of crossover

Well im totally thrilled with this Sub. I seen and heard overs before. Its not top of the line but it doesnt try to be. It does 32hz to 80hz and has considerable punch for a small room. Lack of a crossover really itnt a big deal. THX has put 80hz as maximum and this is fixed at that. Put with matching speakers and this thing rocks. Sound is perfect as you would expect from B&W and the volume control is highly useful. Highly recommend this sub. Its an active sub 70W output and 10in and being up to 80hz the sound it makes is nondirectional but you can daisy chain more subs anyway. This thing rocks as does B&W!!!

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none