Cheap and good

Yes a little boomy sounding, but nothing terrible

My dad just got this sub. This is a very nice sub considering price, don't put it in a corner if you have a small room, away form the wall a little is better too. Make sure the crossover is low enough, and you will be in $200 sub bliss. This "little" monster will go loud, and it will over run a house if need be.

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MTX 12", Atlantic Technology 352 12" sub

Performance per dollar; size; forward venting; easily imporved perfromance with minor modification.

Some unruliness (boominess and slowness); sort of ugly.

What a surprise to find a product that delivers so well at (let's face it) a rediculously low price. After moving into a new house with a large family room and open floor plan, I searched long and hard for the right sub(s). I stumbled across the SW15 at Costco and thought "Audiosource? Not me." But for $200 it gets a take home for a trial. Yes, I heard some unruly boominess, but I also heard the potential and rich heart of this sub. Even in the huge volume I have to fill, this sub was doing a commendable job. I checked out the reviews here and began to experiment and tinker. Drawing from the earlier reviews, I removed the driver and, after removing the factory fiberfill, I stuffed the enclosure with fiberglass insulation. It did change the effeciency, requiring a recalibration of level, but much to my surprise it indeed did tame the boominess. This room has some audible EQ issues that affect this sub's ability to provide flat frequency response across its range. First step, buy another SW15. The overlap will help fill the gaps. After a full spectrum analysis and room EQ to home THX standards is accomplished, these subs will soar in HT performance.

I mentioned size and forward venting as strengths because they are a size that can easily be built-in or concealed in cabinetry and not restrict the vents. Since this sub is not going to win any beauty contests, this was perfect for my installation (spousal factor).

The only sub that I had found that seemed as though it would fit my needs was the Velodyne CT-150. But at less than a third of the price and its terrific performance, the SW15 is a great choice if not a no-brainer. I elected to go with two SW15s to reduce room mode problems, and to relieve some of the load that a single amp may feel in such a large room.

Unless you are an exceptionally critical listener, or you don't wish to spend a little time and effort to give this sub a chance, you will have a hard time finding a better performing sub for home theater that is more satisfying, fun, and affordable.

The SW15 subs perform with concealed, baffled JBL HLS610 LCR speakers and JBL Synthesis S1A surrounds in a Harman Kardon/Denon/Audio Control THX system.

It is cheap, I suppose. Great for people who buy hifi at costco.

Not very good. Boomy. Slow. Kind of fruity.

This sub is not too good, so I figure the only reason it has such good reviews is because people who buy subs from costco probably don't know deep bass from their dog farting. I pity the fools. I am giving this one star on the grounds that people should think and not just consume because the GOVERNMENT tells them to. Trans-national multi conglomerates are ruining everything hometheater used to stand for, now it is something gay and oppressive.

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Better ones

Price and sound

CD disk supplied not helpful

I purchased this unit this month and am very satisified with the performance.I can't understand the few recent negitive reviews I read.

The setup should be as follows:

1. Set the volume to 12 o'clock

2. Set the crossover to 10 o'clock

3. Keep the unit up front near your main speakers about 2 feet away from any wall.

The ony time this unit was boomy was when I either set the cross over or the volume too high.

The units sound blended in nicely with my main speakers and if you didn't see the unit you would think the low bass was coming from my main speakers.

The speaker sounded good with both music and HT.

A 15" subwoofer with 200 watt amp for $200.00 is great and it sounds good too.

Great Price

None yet that I have seen

I saw this at Costco before Christmas and wanted to get it. After Christmas the price had dropped to $179.99! I hooked this up to my new Sony DTS stereo with Monster Interlink cables, moved the Poly fill out of the ports, and set it up with both controls at about the 10 o'clock position.(Thanks to the tips I got from this site!) Movies sound great! So far so does my music. My main set of speakers are old Infinity Qb. The subwoofer fills out the low end real well, with no boominess, but plenty of wall shaking. Will be trying to set the crossover with the CD when I get some time. Since the Main speakers already produce good bass, the crossover should probably be a little lower than the 80hz it's at now. Definitely a good buy, considering the prices I've seen for other 15" subs. The auto position is working fine on mine, even at very low volumes.

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BSR 15" Passive SubWoofer

Not sure

RCA subwoofer Y connection gave NO sound; Hi-level gave poor quality sound. Lacked trouble shooting for this problem.

I was disappointed when I hooked it up using the RCA Y from
my 500 watt Dolby surround reciever and got NO sound. Only when I connected to the Hi-level input did I get any sound. And that was with the volumn all the way up. Certainly didnot vibrate anything. Thinking of returning it if I can't figure out a solution. If YOU have any idea about how to fix this please email me.

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none

15" Sub without the price

Hideous monstrosity, boomy

Just had this thing delivered yesterday. My initial thought was "Where the heck am I going to put this?" It is extremely difficult to hide in a small room. Keep in mind that I have only used this sub for one day. This being so, I haven't had the opportunity to thoroughly test the unit. So far, however, the performance has been rather pleasing. My first test was for video. Yesterday/last night I watched "The Matrix" on DVD and "The Rock" of SVHS. Wow! I did not expect the results I received. I have read many reviews saying that this unit is rather boomy, unless stuffed with polyfill. I haven't had the chance to do this, but I may not have to. For my fronts, I have Infinity RS8s. Each of these towers has a powered 8" woofer capable of producing 32Hz. Therefore, I only needed this sub for that little extra "oomph". After finding the right crossover frequency, I have found that I only need to set the output level on the SW15 @ 1/5 - 1/4 of the way up. It has been able to keep up with the rest of my system and has given me the rumble/vibration that I was seeking. In a previous posting, I read that one reviewer felt that this sub was not able to perform accurately. If I remember correctly, he used rapid shotgun blasts as an example. In the posting, he stated that instead of "boom-boom-boom-boom", he noticed "boooooooom". For my example, I will use the lobby scene from "The Matrix". I was able to hear/feel every beat from the techno music, as well as every blast/boom/thud from the scene. For music, the output level has also been acceptable. If turned up any louder (sub out), the unit can be boomy and inaccurate (just plain ugly). I may use polyfill later, but it suits my needs for now. If I had smaller bookshelf speakers, I may not be as pleased. For my needs, however, the SW15 appears to be the perfect complement. For my purposes: 5 out of 5.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Infinity

I wanted a sub-woofer that wouldn't blow my budget, but still keep up with the wickedly-fast transit attack of my Magnepan MMGs. The bass kicked out by this monster was tight (for a 15"), but a little slow. However, with my Musical Fidelity X-10D, it seemed to keep right up with it! How did it do that? I'm not sure. Now, though, I'm enjoying outstanding highs and wall-shaking lows. 4 stars for overall sound, 5 stars for price/performance.

I just purchased and SW 15...In a word my review is WOW. Although I already had a sub woofer, after I attended many Home Theater Expo's I was left with total sub-woofer envy after listening to the earth shaking likes of Sunfire etc.; I realized my subwoofer was lacking the ability to really get low.
Simply the SW 15 smoothly reproduces the frequency band most speakers fail at 20 to 45hz. And, for audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts, you're simply not getting it all if you can't reproduce these frequencies. For the audiophile, it is music as it was meant to be heard. For the Home Theater enthusiasts, it will rock your world (or at least the foundation of your home). Dinosaur stomping, cataclysmic explosions, cars, jets, thunder, etc. will all have a new meaning in your home.

This sub-woofer whose MSRP is approximately $500 compares easily to those that cost $1000. If you don't hesitate and go to a Costco store (even online) you'll be able to get it for $199.95. They've made it financially irresponsible not to buy this sub-woofer!

After seeing and reading about the AudioSource SW Fifteen Subwoofer, I saved my milk-money over the course of 2 month's and bought it @ CostCo (still $199.99 + CA tax - 10-5-99). I've used subwoofer's for over 18 years (from 12" & 15" passive types, up to 10" 100w powered) and I must agree with some of the other consumer's that have compared this with $700+ sub's, . . .that this 68 lb. unit ROCKS!
After calibrating it to Dolby Digital 5.1 using Video Essentials DVD to 83 dB avg. (w/highest deflection just touching the 85 dB tick mark):
(See my Calibration Techniques website @ http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3401/PCI.html )
Radio Shack Analog SPL Meter
Dial = 80 dB
Weight = C
Speed = Slow
it took about another 15 - 20 mins. to integrate it in my 20' x 30' w/10' vaulted HT/Family room! Careful placement is required to eliminate bloating or boomy bass, so I started @ my usual location, once occupied by my Sherwood SP210W 100w 10" sub.

I started about 1' away from the back and right side corner wall, and eventually moved it to it's final placement, . . .
7" away from the back wall x 10" away from the right front side wall. I used various source materials, from Music CD's to 3 (Dragonheart; Tomorrow Never Dies - SE; Armageddon) Dolby Digital DVD's, to verify room placement and to make minor Sub/LFE Level adjustments with the Sub & my Yamaha R-V905 AV Receiver.

Final Sub adjustment: (facing the back)
Level = 11 o'clock position
Crossover = 80 Hz
Phase = 0
Power = ON (not using Auto/off - power connected to my Receiver's Switched outlet)

Performance = Outstanding!!
Compared to my 100w 10" sub, moving up to a bigger and more powerful subwoofer gave me an increasing sense of acoustic depth and envelopment. Actually, the basic extension of the system hadn't changed all that much (careful Calibration & room integration), and the overall volume levels were exactly matched vs. my 100w 10" sub. My SW Fifteen subwoofer increased the overall dynamic capability of my system, and because it extends the low-frequency bandwidth as well, I didn't have to increase the overall volume level to get the benefits. In other words, the SW Fifteen subwoofer allows my system to go both louder and deeper. - yeah!!!

The next morning, I sampled "Star Trek - First Contact" and re-verified what I heard the night before. Being familiar with the movie, I knew that some of the Enterprise impulse/warp movement, Borg Cube explosions, and Borg bombardment attach on the Missile site on earth would garner 100 dB+ SPL obtained by my 100w 10" sub (Meter = 100 / Weight = C / Speed = Fast). Without overbearing the Center Channel dialog or the front/surround channel effects, I noted/felt/heard:

101 dB / The first 2 Photon's explosion hitting the Borg Cube
106+ dB / with the Borg Cube final explosion (peaked the meter)
100 - 102 dB / Borg Sphere and Enterprise entering the time vortex
106 dB / 1 Explosion on earth's Missile site compound where the man takes a dive off the roof!

Impressive sub-sonic impact, coupled with clear, full-frequency balanced with my JBL HT speakers! Yes, one of the first things I noticed was, what I was missing with my 100w 10" sub, . . . the aftershock and decay that the SW Fifteen easily delivers! I felt the oomph and decay when the DD-5.1 DVD material called for it and it also blended nicely with my Rippington's or Yellow Jacket Music CD's.

When carefully installed and calibrated, there is no intrusion on the upper ranges of your system and it will, . . .shake your structure, the earth, and leave an aftershock, which is "Most Glorious".

To quote "Tom Nousaine" in Sept. 1997 Stereo Review - "No aftershock, no decay, means no lows. Contrary to popular myth, there is no such thing as a "fast" subwoofer." (unquote)

The AudioSource SW Fifteen can be classified as a big subwoofer, all 68 lbs. of it. Capable of pulling you into the sound and the story by moving the floor under your chair, and giving you the natural decay that comes with powerful low-frequency information.

Rated: 5 STARS!!
Highly recommended!