PSB Speakers Image SubSonic 6 Floorstanding Speakers
PSB Speakers Image SubSonic 6 Floorstanding Speakers
USER REVIEWS
[Jul 12, 2003]
Todd Kietzman
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Good overall bass response, not to boomy. The sub is a great deal for the money.
Weakness:
Port noise, Port noise and Port noise. I bought this sub just for home theater. It does an alright job, I was hoping for a little tighter bass response. For 450 dollars it does the job. On 5:1 cds it does a good job besides the port noise. The port noise is the subs biggest draw back. For as much air as it moves you think PSB would use bigger ports. I can feel the sub blow air on me over 15 feet away. |
[Nov 13, 2002]
flamingopposum
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Hard hitting, moves a lot of air without any wind noise from the ports. Handles most music well except dance music with too much bass
Weakness:
New models have poor grills (the mdf grill matched the stratus line). If you run this sub without a grill air movement may disturb you(my sub moves anything light on my coffee table which is 6 feet away from it when grill is not on) I have had this sub for quit some time now and I am very pleased with how it works. I wanted a sub that was resonable and able to provide good deep bass witout bottoming out. This sub hits good and hard and is working very well for both h/t and regular music listening. I have just moved and was considering purchasing another sub the same as this but have come to find that psb has gone to a different grill. Too bad, the mdf grill was far superior to the plastic one they now use. I have had no problems with internal amp performace and there has not been any noise coming from it. If I had to purchase another sub now I would consider the Subsonic 7 only because of the grill change. Similar Products Used: yamaha 8" powered sub, psb stratus bronze speakers |
[Nov 07, 2002]
David Craig
Casual Listener
Strength:
Can shake the room Works equally well with movies or music
Weakness:
Terrible speaker cover. I've have the SubSonic 6 for close to two years. I find there are two problems with the Sub. The first is that is comes with a plastic cover that rattles a lot during heavy movie effects. The pod race in Star Wars episode I is such an example. Explosion effects in bond films are another example. I recently consulted my dealer about the problem and they more or less admitted that it is a design problem. The port for this sub pushes out a lot of air on the speaker cover. They tried to contact PSB directly but say PSB did not return their call within 3 days. So they gave me the phone number to call directly. I phoned PSB and left a voice message with their tech support. Two weeks later PSB had not called me back. This is not good service. What I was looking for was an opportunity to give PSB some feedback. Possibly they have solved this problem? At least I was hoping they could provide me with a better cover. In the meantime, a friend of mine designed a new cover for me. The cover he made has a 1.5 inch wide frame of heavy particle board with a cloth mess covering it. There is no longer any plastic in front of the speaker or the air port. I am really pleased--now the sub does not rattle! However why couldn't PSB have shipped a cover like this in the first place? The second problem is less significant but a bit annoying. Now with my new speaker cover (or even with no cover) there are a few DVD effects that the SubSonic 6 can't seem to handle well. If this is simply a limitation of a $600 sub then I can accept that since I'm only talking about a few seconds of effects on a couple of DVD's and I've got about 150 DVD's. The culprits are: 1) The opening 5 minutes of Toy Story II has several sections that sound like the SUB is rumbling and might break. Here I'm talking about a total of about 20 seconds. 2) The most extreme effects in Top Gun sound a bit like 1) above. I'm talking about maybe 5 seconds total in the whole movie. 3) Tomb Raider. Not really a problem but the Sub does sound like it is struggling with the sequence in the tomb in which Lara is riding on the ramming board. Other the other hand all my Bond films sound great now--no problems. The pod race now sounds good. And U571 is absolutely kick ass. The conclusion is that if you are going to buy this sub try it out at the store. Bring Toy Story II to test and make sure the cover is on when they demo it. My sub was purchased in the year 2000. Maybe PSB has resolved the speaker cover problem in later models. The rest of my system consists of: Four PSB Image 2B speakers PSB Image 8C center speaker Yamaha receiver I am very very pleased with the 2B and 8C speakers. They sound very clear for all movies and all music. If you are familiar with the Yamaha receiver, it has a setting to dump bass to "BOTH" the sub and the other 5 speakers. In this mode you can set the 5 speakers to either large or small. Small setting cuts off anything under 90 Hz. I think it sends it to the SUB. I leave the setting on "large" for most movies and music but on some DVD's it sounds more natural on "small". On "large" it sounds like there is too much bass and the bass does not sound natural. Similar Products Used: None |
[Apr 28, 2002]
isopentane
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Strong, well-defined bass down to 25 Hz. Effective, easy-to-use controls and a smart power supply. Cabinet and grill matches other Image series speakers.
Weakness:
A bit expensive at the mfr''s suggested list price, but then again, who pays the sticker price? I use the SubSonic 6 to extend the range of my system, which is based on a pair of PSB Image 6T main speakers. For $600 Cdn, I am satisfied with the result. I am using this system for music and can''t attest to the performance for movies. For a couple of months, I used the 6T''s without a sub, thinking I could get by. They''re good speakers but I missed the sense of realism that comes with very low frequency sound. By adding the SubSonic 6 and carefully setting the controls, my system is basically flat to 25 Hz and I have a more enjoyable listening experience. Unlike some reviewers, I have not experienced problems or excessive port noise. If I drive the sub hard enough to create noticeable port noise, other parts of my house and its contents are set in motion. |
[May 29, 2000]
David
Audiophile
Strength:
Enormous bass. Tight, clean, thunderous.
Weakness:
60 Cycle hum One sacrifices something for low cost. In this case, it's the possibility of hum from the amplifier of the subwoofer. I'm now on my second Subsonic 6. The first one had a low hum that when the system was not on, and it was late at night (quiet), I could hear a slight hum from 10 feet away. I exchanged the unit for another Subsonic 6 and the second one is much worse. It's now a fairly annoying hum. I'm switching back to the first one. Similar Products Used: None |
[Mar 03, 2000]
Kumar P.
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Ideal for both music and movies!!, low distortion, and clean powerful bass. I have a Cambridge Ensemble subwoofer/satellite system...was very unhappy with the Ensemble subwoofer, guess it shouldnt be called a subwoofer, and I desperately wanted to extend the bass range. After listening to PSB subzero, sub 5i and sub 6i, I decided to go for the 6i for a few reasons. Subzero was more like a woofer, and sub 5i was good. But 6i had the real punch that would rattle your window, and at the same time, it wasnt there when it is not supposed to!(The last thing I want is a sub that is jarring and gives you a headache). Zarathustra sounded excellent on this sub, and I paid about $480+tax. I've now attached this sub to my Ensemble/satellite system and it sounds great!!. If you can get this sub for less than $500, I'd say go for it!!. Similar Products Used: None. |
[Mar 09, 2001]
John P
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Loads of bass,goes pretty low. quality, sounds great to me!!
Weakness:
Putting the feet on is unlike other PSB speakers so at first I had them on wrong and they caused a horrible rattle that took me awhile to figure out! I think this is a great sub for the money. I don't have alot of experience with subs but I do like this one. I sounds good,really rocks for HT and seems to keep up with music just fine. My only complaint is listed above about installing the feet. The manual does not explain how to install them and I had to go to HomeDepot to buy the four screws to put them on correctly. Otherwise its a great sub. Similar Products Used: sony |
[Jan 22, 2002]
JEFF ADAMS
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Tight and accurate. Not too boomy.
Weakness:
When pushed hard and low strange noise comin from sub. Port noise, bottomed out on louder passages. This really is the first PSB product that has not wowed me when I played it. All of PSB product are top of the line except with this sub.It's not like this sub was bad but it was not great either, I have used the Subsonic 3 for years and have been very happy with the performance. When playing music or movies at moderate volume levels this sub did fine. It was when I pushed it and turned up the volume where it started having it's problems. On some scenes in The Fifth Element where it gets pretty low I heard the sub stressing to maintain. I thought it was going to blow so I turned down the volume on it. I think that is unacceptable for a sub. If I can't watch a movie without it bottoming out at any volume than I do not want it. Maybe I did not give it enough time to break in. I returned it for the Subsonic 7. I should be getting the 7 this week. So after a couple of weeks break in time on that I'll let you know what I think. Similar Products Used: Subsonic 5, Subsonic 3i, Def Tech, Paradigm, |
[Jul 19, 2001]
Per Bakkejord
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Punch and boom.. perfect for movies
Weakness:
Humming in standby. hard to integrate with satelites in stereo My equipment: |
[Aug 21, 2001]
Gaven
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Punch!!, Higher sound pressure than Sub 5. This is 2001 model~ the amp humming is reduced; can't really hear it unless u stick your ear close to the amp.
Weakness:
loud port noise at 85% volume (insane volume) espcially with the grill on,Should have digital input, grill's pin broke off (well S__T happens) I just got it today, I have listen to it with bunch of bass testing CDs~ it hasn't break-in yet, however so far so good. Its got lots of punch, not as instrumental as the sub 5. But it has great bass for rap, techno, pop, any now-a-day music~ don't really wanna write any detail reviews yet, however I will once the sub broke-in :) Similar Products Used: PSB Sub sonic 5 |