AMAZING BASS regardless of price

Boomy with no modifications.

Wow this is one incredible sub!!! I did all the mods that were posted in a previous review. I added the spikes, the dampening sheets, and LOTS of polyfill. This has tightened up the bass and made it incredible. This is definetly one of the best subs 500 and under. If you are interested, I put up a moded version of the sub on ebay. Here is the address http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1374260989 If you want a moded version email me and might be able to hook you up. God bless jmg02@tamu.edu

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SVS PCi 20-39 (So I know what great bass sounds like).

Great price.

Quality Lacking

I just bought this sub at amazon.com having read most of the reviews I will know what to do if it is boomy but for the price it is well worth tweaking it later. part of the problem may be that the sub needs to be broken in. also the subwoofer should be 6 db lower than any other speaker in your HT system. keeping the volume down and blending it with your main speakers should make it sould pretty good. a well set up subwoofer should add empasis to your system not overpower the listeners. Anyway I just want to say that you shouldn't kick the horse that your riding. Have fun with your purchase

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Hsu Subwoofer

Excellent performance

Relatively minor: 1. Sometimes there is an electrical buzz, especially after the unit has been on for a while. Almost always, simply switching the unit off for 5 seconds clears this up. 2. I wasn't crazy about the "auto-on" mode, so I just leave it on.

I read the reviews here over a year ago and got one cheap at Costco (I don't think they carry them anymore). This speaker delivers. Running the test pink-noise from my Onkyo 5.1 receiver through the subwoofer channel at high volume makes it sound like the house is on fire!

Price! Great bass, very loud, tight, and awesome earth shaking ability. You also get to do all kinds of fun modifications to it, it's a great project with absolutally amazing results. PRICE!!!

Weakness only occur when no mods are done, there was port noice and very noticable boominess before enhancements.

I'll keep this short because there's already so many great reviews of this beast. I was able to pick the the SW15 from ubid.com for $79 plus $59.45 in shipping, which all together is a great deal. I decided to go all out on the mods and make it the best sounding sub I could get for around $200. I picked up everything from partsexpress.com like in bdsnod0's great review. I started with six vinyl sound damping sheets (part#268-030) and placed them on the top and bottom and then fitted them to the sides and used what was left for the back near the amplifier. I then covered the top, bottom, and corners with polyfill (#260-317) the best I could with only buying one bag. I had to go out and buy a staple gun to attach the polyfill to the sides, you could glue it I guess but the staples worked really well. The sub has a split box design (kind of) with two sidewalls that come out in the middle of the inside. Take a look here-> www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_01.jpg www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_02.jpg www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_03.jpg which make it hard to work in there a bit but is good for acoustics. I also decided to spike the sub (#240-715) because I wanted it to sound its best and didn't want it to shake my cheaply made pre-fab apartment building apart. Here's the feet once they were on. www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_04.jpg On a side note this thing is pretty big, I think it's fine though if you have the space, it's worth it. I took a picture of the woofer next to my size 12 shoe for those who want to get a feel for how big this thing is. www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_05.jpg I also took a picture of the woofers magnet in case you were wondering and wanted a look. www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_06.jpg Not too impressive but it more than does the job and you could always upgrade it if you wanted. With mods, there's no question that this is one of the best home theater subs out there, period. I was a little skeptical when I heard it unmodded and for $130 I had limited expectations. But afterwards I was litterally blown away by the bass, it's so loud and so good. I love a lot of bass and it puts out so much you start to sweat :) Here's the finished result, looks the same as before but now it competes with $500 subs. www.msu.edu/~hubbell5/sw15/sw15_07.jpg I would strongly recomend this sub to anyone and everyone.

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Infinity, Acoustic Research

Price, sound after modfication

Size, build quality

I found a good deal and bought the subwoofer online. When it was delivered, I was quite disappointed. The size is large (cann't feel the size when buying online) and the sound was loose. I read the reviews posted on this web page and decided to do the same modification. Went to Radio Shacks and bought two acoustic insulation sheets (cost $1.99 each). Took out the speaker and insulated the complete inside surface. Afterwards, it sounds like a totally different speaker. It is certainly a very worthwhile exercise. Comparing with my existing JBL 12", the new woofer marginally outperforms. What a deal considering the JBL costs more than twice the price I paid for. Cannot change the size, so have to hide it somewhere. I must say that I am not too impressed by the build quality of AudioSource. I bought two in-wall speakers before and do not feel they perform as per its own spec.

Great modified sound

Poor construction

Ive had this sub for going on 10 months and Ive gotten some good use out of it. I live in a dorm room and I get people complaining 4 floors below me. If you read the rest of the reviews you already know about the boominess and speaker fill and crap so i wont waste your time, i dont understand these fags posting the same review 100 times. the one thing i have to add is that mine at least was very poorly made. After having it for 6 monthes, 2 of the plugs that hold the front grill on came out, probably from rattling. This wasnt too much of a problem and i just glued them back in without a problem since. Then 2 months ago the fabric on the grill started to come off, which i fixed again by gluing. No complaints about the modified sound and its great for all purposes but im considering selling it and buying a Paradigm PDR-10 to go with my speakers. I take good care of it and kill anyone who touches it so these problems were not caused by mistreatment. It also could be that i just got the bad one in a million but other peoples reviews seem to point towards shoddy construction as well. Also its incredibly large and tough to put in an area like a dorm room, but well worth the sacrifices

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none

This sub sounds better when used with better equipment.

A little boomy, but that''''s what $3.00 worth of polyfill stapled to the sides is for.

After owning this subwoofer for over a year (17 months, actually), I''''m back for an update. Simply put, this subwoofer rocks. For the first 15 months, I had this sub connected to a JVC receiver (RX-8000VBK) with the crossover set to 80 Hz. The sound was a bit boomy. However, I upgraded to a Denon 1802 receiver a few months back and the crossover is set to 80 Hz by default on this receiver, but the bass is a whole lot less boomy than with the JVC. Next step: add the polyfill sheets that I purchased to the sides of the sub. Then, it should be worth a 6 out of a 5 rating (is that possible?).

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KLH sub, Sony SAW-M40 sub, JBL and others.

Cheap, easy and cheap mod made a big difference.

None

When I first bought this 3 years ago (I think) I bought it used for $150. It was ok but can''t complain because of the price. A year later Cosco had them for $199 so I bought another to increase the bass. Recently a friend told me about this site and how to improve the sound with only $9, improve the sound it did. Highly impressed with a $9 mod. This product would have one of the top 3 but some body named Shayo Wolf screwed up the review by posting the same post twice with low ratings. This Manufacture should get high ratings for peforming like the big boys (w/ the mods of course) with a fraction of the cost. Hummm... should I post this twice???

Do the mods,it will help you to bond with this thing.

This speaker is big...can''''t hide it anywhere.

If you want big sound, you need a big speaker. There is no substitution for size when trying to mechanically reproduce bass through an audio system. So when it came time to put together a home theater I went in search of a big subwoofer. I am very budget minded and thought I might have to build one myself. I found this one at Amazon and based on the reviews here I thought to give a try. And WOW this is one big, boomy, door-rattling (I had to add felt pads to a coat closet door!) sub. Setup was easy enough. Get a "Y" adapter if you are going to use your receivers sub output. This sub performed well enough for me, out of the box, on DVD''''s. But I found performance in 2 channel stereo distracting, as the low end was too muddy to distinguish bass instruments from one another. And this brings me to the modifications I''''ve tried to tame this big boy. I stapled 2" fiberglass to the top,back(didn''''t cover the amp) and sides(including the bracing). The improvement in coloration of bass was immediately noticeable. A couple of weeks later I stuffed the front half of the cabinet with dacron polyfill, held in place by women''''s nylon stockings that I cut up and stapled in place to hold the filling off of the driver and amp. The stockings are flexible and are easy to work around if I want to make further changes. The results of adding the filling were more pronounced than the addition fiberglass. Most of the boomyness is now gone and the sub now combines seamlessly with my mains for 2 channel listening. With regards to a previous post, I like the idea of mounting the driver with "goo" it''''s a great way to isolate the driver and floor spikes can make a big difference. But I only hesitate to do those things because when T-Rex, in Jurasic Park, starts "ah walkin''''" I love it as the floor rumbles under my feet, the kids jump in my lap and the dog heads to the back of the house:)

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First powered sub.

Plenty of power,graat sound, great value for the money.

After adding insulation, None.

I bought the SW15 subwoofer based on the coments on this page, I just received two days ago from Ubid for $144 plus shipping & tax, It sounded good but boomy, and as every body else did, I stuck 2 yards of acoustic insulation ($1.97 a yard at Radio Shack) inside the box, What a difference! Now it sound like a real Subwoofer costing a lot more.

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Technics Surround sound receiver with Yamaha speakers.