Three P's: Power, Price, Performance

I've seen better-looking subs.

I started to build my HT, bought Infinity RS5 for fronts and decided to get a sub. So I went to Costco and bought both subs they were selling at the time just to compare them - The 10 inch KLH ASW-10 ($99) and this AudioSource SW-15 ($179). Simply connecting them and cranknig up the volume left me very dissapointed. The bass was there, but I felt that RS5-s sound better alone. Then I found this wonderful calibration CD that goes with SW-15. It immediately revealed the crossover frequencies overlap (Infinity RS5 goes as low as 35 Hz). So I crossed over at 80 Hz, adjusted the volume level and was totally blown away by the realisic and powerful bass presence. Unfortunately KLH sub was no match for the SW-15. It can't go as low as SW-15 and it makes all the difference in the world. If you have decent front speakers and you are only missing the infralow frequencies, this sub will deliver. Also note that I have a pretty big room - 28 by 15 feet with high ceiling (at least 20 feet) with two door-size openings into another huge family room-kitchen area. The boominess and muddiness of SW-15 people complain about is usually a result of poor calibration or small room. Overlap the crossover frequencies on the sub and on the amplifier by as litle as 10 Hz and there you have it - muddy sound. Put this sub into a corner of a small room and all the wool socks in the world stuffed in the ports will not get rid of boominess. It's a 15 inch sub, for crying out loud. If you live in an apartment, KLH ASW-10 may be a better choice for you.

Similar Products Used:

KLH ASW-10

Price!!! Sound!!

Cabinet

Just anither review on how much of a steal this sub is. After reading the reviews on this site I thought I would give this sub a try. After purchasing from Costco (only a few left in Orange County) I brought this monster home and plugged it in. Right from the beginning there were no problems at all. As in a few other reviews I experienced no humming or problems with the auto on feature at all. The sub performed awsome. After playing with the settings a little I wasn't quite able to get all the "boominess" out so I followed what everyone else did. I went to Radio Shack and bought some Fiberglass fill (4.99). After putting this in the cabinet the boom was gone and the bass was tight and loud. Compared to my friends high-end Polk Audio sub this thing wins hands down.

Great product.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood, JBL, Boston

Value, performance, support

Being withdrawn from the market!

Listened and listened and listened to all the subs above and realised that to get a good sub, you had to pay for it. So, I started saving for the M&K MX125 Mk2 (This really is a fantastic sub). But I didn't have $1K spare. Might have been able to stretch to the CT150, but I listened to it and it was just all BOOM, and no bass. I last owned a Velodyne VA810X and this had much more bass. What a disappointment the new Velodyne was. Plus - nobody will discount. The Paradigm was good, but was around $600 ......4 times the price of the Audiosource.

So, I thought, how much harm could I do with trying the SW15? I could return it to Costco in a flash if it really was as bad as some of the earlier reviews had said it was. So, I went down to Costco with my money. None left. %$#@!!!!! BUT, there was one on display for $149. It had some scrathes on the underside and a slightly worn grill, but who cares. I ended up getting it for $129 plus tax. Bought it sound unheard.

Took it home, ripped out the driver and looked inside. Nothing - all air. So, I went to Radio Shack (upon advice from previous reviews) and bought two packs or fiberglass speaker fill for $4.77 a pack! Placed it inside. BTW, I left the original packing in there as well.

I hooked it up with the white Monster Cable interconnect sub cable to my Sony STRDA777ES. All I can say is
WOW-O-WOW-O-WOW!!!!

This baby rocks big time! I just can't believe how good it is - and for the price!!! Woah!! I WANTED it to sound bad to justify the fact that you just can't get anything good for $129 (or $179 at flor price)! Yes, I am a bigtime skeptic. All I can say is, go out and grab one if you still can. This is THE subwoofer deal of the century!!!!

Advice for this sub. The wires from the amp in the sub to the driver are pretty thin. You might want to replace these with 10 or 12 gauge speaker cable. Also, don't place it in a corner, but place it against a wall in between your main front effects speakers. I also had no hum from the amp, and the auto-on/off works perfectly. Would be nice if it had a remote as it is a bit hard to adjust in the dark from behind.

I only need to run this sub at 4-4.5/10 volume for Digital 5.1 movies and 2.5-3/10 for music. Sub output on my receiver is set to 0db. The scene in the lobby (Matrix).......this sub can actually keep up and doesn't turn to mush! It is not boomy like the Velodyne or weak like the JBL. It is just tight, deep, clinical bass. Saving Private Ryan is downright scary with this sub!

I rang AS customer service and asked them how they could build such a good sub for the little money they charge (I don't think he knew how much I paid for mine!). He said that many people ask him that!!!! Also, they are sending me a new grill, and the calibration CD at no charge! That's service for you!

I am not even contemplating buying a M&K sub now. This is all the sub I ever need. Although I might consider the new Audiosource SW15D digital sub with 300 watt amp when it comes out at the end of this year.

Don't listen to the bad reviews if you can help it. Give this sub a go (but use the insulation and good interconnect cable before you evaluate this sub). You really get MUCH more than you paid for with this sub. Plus, it looks pretty darn good too!

ENJOY if you can still find one!

PS - if you are interested, pick up the DVD 'Super Speedway' from dvdexpress.com. It is an awesome movie about Indycar racing filmed in IMAX format starring Michael and Mario Andretti - with awesome incar footage. If you like cars, watching this movie with the SW15 will make your jaw drop! You gotta see it and hear it to believe it!

Similar Products Used:

M&K MX125 Mk2, Paradigm 2200, JBL 15", Velodyne CT120 and CT150, B&W

Price/performance ratio

Huge, can be boomy, pretty ugly

I decided to check this baby out, given the price, the many good reviews and Costco's liberal return policy. Having given it a good test drive, I think it's a keeper.

Obviously, power is not an issue, as this thing has a 15" woofer with a 200 watt amp. It will rattle the foundation of your house at half volume (I have it set at about 1/4 volume). Given that, placement of this monster is absolutely critical--it will sound awful if you stick it in a corner, with enough boom to make you think it's breaking the sound barrier. But move it away from the wall, and it tightens right up, and as suggested, speaker fill will also provide a noticeable improvement in performance. It does an excellent job on movies, and I was very, very supprised at how well it handled music. Fired up the MATRIX DVD, and put the lobby scene on, and it really surprised me how well it handles the fast techno track. The John Bohnam drum solo on MOBY DICK is spectacular, with not a hint of boominess.

The customer service is so good it's shocking in this day and age. I bought a display model, since it was all my local Costco had left, and all documentation, a couple of the feet, as well as half of the spring clips in the back were missing. I called customer service, and they sent me documentation, the calibration CD (The calibration CD is quite helpful and really points out the holes in the frequency response), and told me the spring clips couldn't just be replaced, they had to replace the entire assembly, which they would be happy to do at no charge if I sent them my sub. I use direct line-in, so I didn't need the spring clips fixed, but I was amazed that they were willing to fix for free a part that I told them was broken when I bought it.

How they make any money on this sub is beyond me, but I'll let the folks at AudioSource worry about it. I am a very happy camper, with what I think is the best sub value on the market.

Shakes The walls

Boomey, No Punch

I got this sub for 190$ total after my BU-150 went dead,It does not have the impact in explosions that the Infinity had and it doesn't go as low. It doesn't put out as much impact and boom as my old sub in music either ( especially the Jurrasic Park ST; Track 3; raptor attack )

It still was worth every penny because it makes my DD 5.1 real bassey,but it just doesn't have the same punch. And neither of them had satisfieing tightness.

I had to turn the cone towards the floor ( can't be good for the sub ) in order to get the boomeyness out, and it worked, but i still have no real punch like in Air Force One DVD for example

My advice is that if you mostly use your HT for DVD movies and 5.1 , save up for a better woofer, just throw more money at the item and you boom will be fullfilled, its worth the wait

Like another poster said, you get what you pay for if not more

Goodluck!

Similar Products Used:

Infintiy BU-150
Sherwood SP-180

lot`s off bass for the buck`s

n/a

well i took previous posts to task and lined my sub with radio shack fiberglass,used my staple gun and attached it to all the interior walls ,dont cover the amp as it gets warm during heavy useage.Well man did this tighten it up. It`s lost all the boomyness.For 179.00 I dont know how they make any money on this , sure it`s just a stamped woofer,can be had at parts.com for 59.00, box 59.00,amp they rate it at 200watts , prob at 4 ohms @1%thd call it 80Watts @8 ohms rms.so the amp costs retail 100.00. WOW this is a deal at costco,it does take a bit of experimentation to get the location correct,dont give up, you can make this sound very good with a little effort,and at this price it`s worth it.

COSTCO return policy

Everything

I picked one of these up a couple of weeks ago at a local COSTCO, despite thte fact that the demo unit sounded kind of muffled.

I installed it in my HT room, moved it around to different laces and even opened it up and stuffed it with fiber glass wool. Bottomline - unless you have a system that has absolutely zero bass (e.g. a satellite system) you will be disappointed. DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE IN THE OTHER REVIEWS - This is not a miracle speaker, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

This thing is muddy as hell, and has no punch whatsoever. When I stuffed it with fiber glass wool it became less boomey, but now the amp was totally maxed out.

The only thing that this woofer reproduces well is a humming sound (e.g. when you are inside a car, as in some movies) anything else is a disaster.

Thank Costco for their liberal return policy.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity BU-2

PRICE,LOOKS,REVIEWS HERE

DONT KNOW YET

JUST LETING YOU KNOW THESE ASW-15 CAN STILL BE FOUND.BOUGHT 2 TODAY AT COSTOCO IN RICH VA AT HULL ST STORE FOR 129 EACH.THEY STILL HAD DEMO MODEL,MAY HAVE MORE IN BACK.BOUGHT SOLEY ON REVIEWS HERE AND COSTO SATISIFACTION GARR.WILL GIVE BETTER REVIEW IN A WEEK OR 2
P.S.
BOUGHT 4 NEW OPTIMUS 88 FOR 29 EA AND MATCHING CENTER FOR 50 AT R SHACK,SHOULD BE HARD SPKR SYS TO BEAT FOR $450 INC TAX. ;)
LATER GATERS

Similar Products Used:

NONE

Deep tight base

None so far

I was so impressed by what this sub added to my system that I bought another one. I have a large room, and with one in the front and one in the rear the sound is awesome. Of course with two they don't have to be turned up past the 10:00 position. My main speakers are Yamaha ns-a1738's which
have 15" woofers. You might think that there would be to much base with this arrangement but there isn't. The 1738's supply the normal base and the sw-15 supplys the very low end. Very satisfied.

Similar Products Used:

None at price

powerfull, decent looking

none for the price

It's used mostly for home theater, and does an excellent job for that. It does sound decent for music it just takes some time to tweak levels to fit in with your system. My home theater is kinda odd but consists of NAD seperates, an Adcom GSA 700, Toshiba DVD, Klipsch Forte 2's, c1, quintets, and this sub. The audiosource sub fits in well.