most bang for the buck!

Cheap paint smells

Product:
This is an excellent subwoofer. 15" 350watt rms digital amp w/ video contour button.

Music:
It definately goes low and gives classical music good low support bass. It actually is pretty decent for jazz music also. I was surprised by the relatively quick response and tightness of the subwoofer. (Although it is not equivalent to a servo sub of a 10 or 12 in quickness and tightness, it still handles the job admirably.) I have the sub low passed at about 95hz with my Energy Pro22 mains high passed at 90hz via the receiver. I would have liked the Energy's high passed at 70hz at 12db/octave and the subs low passed 75hz or 80hz at 24db/octave. Pop and jazz music's punchiness is located mostly in the upper low bass and bottom mid bass -about 65hz-120hz. A lot of hip-hop and some classical (especially organs) can go fairly deep below 35hz. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any equipment, reasonably priced, that gives you the options of adjusting crossover frequencys and the slopes.

Movies:
With the video contour button button in - it is excellent for home theater applications. You can really feel the bass! The video contour button really adds a lot of reverberation and rumble to the sound making crashes, explosions, and dinosour stomps louder and more powerful. Incredible theater like experience. Only problem is that it rattles the windows and some glass and other nik-nacks on the mantle of the fireplace. If only I had enough $$$ to build a home with a dedicated media room that is nicely air tight without rattles.

Application:
My family/home theater room is approximately 20ft by 14ft so it might seem a 15" sub is overkill. I went with a bigger sub because of the tall cathedral ceilings, and there are no real walls that enclose the family room apart from the kitchen on one side and the living room/formal dining room on another side. The openess of the area is actually about 2.5 times the size of the family room. In fact, I thought about getting an 18" sub because of the size, but Thank God I didn't since sometimes I feel the 15" is overkill.

Other subs considered:
The subs listed above are other subs that I have listened to and thought about purchasing. There were 3 other subs that I considered purchasing, but was not able to hear them first - paradigm, energy, and hsu research. As you can see, my selections run the gammet from the audiophile quality to the local radio shack equipment. The list above is actually the order of my own personal preference. The first 2 subs on the list, the velo and klispch, along with the JBL I would rate 5 stars. Then there is a big drop off with the MTX at 4 stars, The infinity and polks would get 3 stars and thereafter the rest are 2 or 1 stars. I really wasn't expecting the JBL to fall in the upper part, but am pleasantly surprised. (I am sure that the three I didn't listen to -paradigm, energy, and hsu- would fall within the upper category of 5 stars also.)

I believe the JBL is fairly equivalent to the Klipsh ksw15. I chose the JBL because it is more flexible allowing you to tailor the sound of the sub a little by making it a little boomier for home theater by pressing in the Video COntour button and a little tighter for music by depressing it. The Klipsch has good sound quality too; though it sometimes has a tendency to be a little too boomy for certain type of music, but excellent for home theater use. In fact, I almost purchased the Klipsch online from Vanns for $495 plus shipping (Uncle's had a better price of $475 delivered but I personally just didn't trust them as much as Vanns - see www.audiosurvey.com)

Most bang for the buck - decision made!
I was actually going to wait to hear the paradigms and energys, but those dealers are rare and far from where I live. The paradigm pw-2500 costs around $950 with the local dealers here not willing to discound at all. The energyes-12xl is $799 and only a 12". The Hsu is suppose to be awesome, but also costs about $800 with a 12" plus no opportunity to listen to them before purchasing. At one point, I was considering the Velodyne 18" (servo-controlled) that is being sold exclusively by OneCall for approx. $1000. If my budget allowed me to spend $1000 without feeling guilty I would have probably went with the 18" servo Velodyne from OneCall. If I was to purchase the sub local at retail prices for about $700, it would have been a toss up between the Klisch, JBL and the Velodyne, but I would have finally went with the Velodyne CT-150 because it sounded slightly better then the Klipsch and JBL (part of the better sound quality might have been because the Velo was in a truly enclosed sound room), but the real reason would be to say that I own a Velodyne! My second choice would be the JBL and then the Klipsch a close third.

Since I was able to find a substantially lower price for the Klipsch at $499 online and the difference in sound quality didn't justify going over my budget to purchase the Velo or the JBL at $700/each locally, I was set to order the Klipsch. I lucked because I found the JBL at Best Buys for $359 - display model. I know stores like Best Buys are not audiophile stores, but I do not have the budge to be an audiophile either.

The JBL I purchased was actually a display model which they had only put out 10 days before. (I had been in there to audition the subs about 2 weeks earlier and the previous PWS-D115 was all scratched up and the cone was punched in so they had to put out another display unit.) Well, the model went on closeout and dropped down to $499 and I was going to purchase it new. They kept on telling me they would get another shipment until one manage finally told me that the model is being closedout and they would no more shipments. I traveled to 3 different Best Buys in my area and none of them had any new units. They checked the computer also and none of the stores on this coast of FLorida had any thing left except for a few stores with display models. since the display sub was relatively new, I went ahead and bought it at $359. It is really a steal at that price. I spent an extra $30 for the extended protection plan which warrants the product and additional 4 years beyond the original manufacturer's warranty. This means that I have coverage for 9 years!!! I highly recommend this sub for music and home theater. The video contour buttom allows this sub to be more flexible then most others.

(By the way, I did see the same JBL advertised for $299 from 6thAve. However, I was a very leary of them based on the store's ratings on www.audiosurvey.com.)

CAVEAT:
Although I did as much testing as I could at the local dealers, there wasn't one dealer that sold all the models which would have made comparison testing alot easier. Instead, I was stuck going from dealer to dealer testing subs under different listening room environments and relying on my audible memory. The problem is that listening room environments make a huge difference in subs. The ideal comparison would have been to be able to take all the subs home to test side by side.

Also beware of the salespeople, a lot of them don't have the knowledge. In fact, I had one salesman tell me that the Yamaha sub would go lower then any 15" sub like the Velo, Klipsch or JBL. His reasoning was that the Yamaha had 2 8" inch drivers so that 8" plus 8" equals 16" which is obviously bigger then a 15". He was so sure about it that I didn't have the heart to tell him he was wrong. I should have told him that surface area needs to be taken into account along with excursion and numerous other factors that are beyond my comprehension. At least I know how to compute the surface area of a circle Area = Pi * r^2 making the surface area of a 15" woofer much greater then the area of 2 8" woofers.

I hope I have helped you all out and good luck hunting down the right sub for you. Even more so then other audio equipment - choosing a sub is an extremely subjective choice - GOOD LUCK!

Similar Products Used:

velodyne ct-150, Klipsch ksw15,MTX ps15, infinity bu 120, Polk psw-140, AR-s112PS, cerwin vega lw-12,Yamaha yst-sw160, Optimus 200watt 12"

Great Sound

Slighly Bulky

Bought this product for about $450 on the web. Great sound output. With 350 Watts it is true music to ears. My only compliant about his product is that it is bulky compared to other comparable Subs. Highly Recommended - Worth every penny

very low, clear, deep bass

none thus far

Picked this baby up for $385 from bestpriceaudiovideo.com

In a word.. awesome. After firing up the Matrix, I had to take cover behind my bed from all the pulse pounding bass, pummeling my room. It's the perfect complement for the JBL NSP1 home theater package. For a measly $700, you can get an entire home theater package ( the NSP1, which includes four N24 speakers and a center, plus the psw-115 )which rivals the definitive technology pro 100 cinema system... and for ALOT LESS MONEY!

In my opinion, this is the absolute best sub you can get, for the price. It's worth $700-800 at least. Excellent!

Similar Products Used:

Optimus and Technics

Extremely Clear Low Ultra Bass.

Hard to hide.

I brought this DEMON from best buy for 299 dollars(Open Box only missing user-manual) I'm currently running this on the Yamaha HTR-5250(Excellant receiver by the way). I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING THIS AMAZING IN HOME THEATHER!!! This Monster of a speaker ROCKS THE HOUSE and out preforms any subwoofer in in class. No matter if im listening to the radio, jamming to cd's or watching DVD movies, it BLOWS ME AWAY!

I also purchased the FOUR year service plan that bestbuy offers($35 bucks). This cover ANYTHING that happens to the speaker...ANYTHING!! I they can't fixed it, they have to replace it!

Similar Products Used:

Bose

Power, Deep Bass, Inexpensive for its price

Huge!!!

So far, this sub performs like a bass machine should be. Not only that you can hear the good low frequency sound but you can also feel it deep in your body like you're in with the scene. I hope the amp holds up though as mentioned on this board. Overall I am way satisfied with this Sub!

Similar Products Used:

Infinity