Price and power

None.

Alright ... First off, I'm an audio enthusiast, not an audiophile. I like very good sound at affordable prices.

I love this subwoofer. It creates great discete bass presence. My old sub "walked" all over the rear surround speakers, and I never knew it until I bought the SW15. My friends were bragging on the great audio experience of Armageddon, and I thought it was just so-so. Not now. The directional experience of the rear speakers is now as plain as day without the frequency interference created by the older, inferior subwoofer.

I got this sub at Costco for under $200. I saw it on 800.com for $379. It's a very good buy (at Costco, that is).

Note: If your amplifier has a single line to the subwoofer, be sure to get the Y-adapter for your RCA cable because the sub needs a double connector to sound okay. I found that our the hard way, and it makes ALL the difference.

As for the criticism about thump clarity, my response is that I depend on the 12" woofers in my floor speakers to create that. And when Godzilla pounds around in 5.1, the glasses on my coffee table shake. And when Tom Hanks storms the beach at Normandy, the mortar shells sound like they're going off in my living room. Even Nine Inch Nails sounds beautiful.

As for the cheap construction argument, I have to disagree. Sitting on the floor in my living roon, in the corner, all by itself, its construction holds up just fine for me.

For someone like me, this subwoofer is worth every single penny.

Similar Products Used:

AIWA 80-watt 8"

I just purchased a AudioSource 15" 200Watt Sub. I love the thing. it rocks the whole house. it was kinda boomy at first but i pushed it away from the wall and that fixed it. I purchased it from Costco for $199.00 that is an excellent deal for a sub. soon the Klipsch Quintets will be used for the mains and surrounds. I mean i haven't really auditioned that many subs but it is a very very big improvement from what i had before (A passive 12"). Below is the specs for the sub.
Amp Power............................200Watts RMS

Freq. Response ......................25Hz to 250Hz

Signal to noise ratio ...............>90Db

Driver ..............................15" Reinforced

Sub Crossover Frequency .............40Hz to 180Hz

Functions ...........................Power(On,Auto,Off) Phase(0 degrees, 180 degrees) Input level, Crossover frequency

Inputs ..............................Hi Level (Speaker In), Line (RCA In)

Outputs .............................Hi Level (Speaker) Out Line (RCA) Out

Wing Gee

Price

Performance

After seeing the reviews here, I picked one of these up at Costco for $179.00. I just returned it today.

First, I tried it with a pair of Aura LSW-828M loudspeakers. It actually made them sound worse. Much worse. (The Aura speakers, by the way, are FANTASTIC and I paid only $199/pair.)

Second, I tried it with a pair of Advent Marbl speakers (also from Costco). It improved the sound noticably, mostly because the Marbl's are mostly all treble.

I also tried it with a pair of Definitive tower speakers. No matter what I did, subwoofer sounded mushy, with no crisp "thump".

I tried the 10 o'clock settings. No joy. It tried every possible placement. No joy. I had a friend come over and we calibrated the crossover and volume settings with a sound meter (we drew curves of loudness at different frequencies, then tried to flatten the curve). Still no joy.

The best I got this unit to sound was (go ahead an laugh) when I pointed it directly at the floor, with the wires sticking up. Then, at least I could feel the bass, but it sure looked stupid.

Similar Products Used:

none

Bass volume, depth

50-60 Hz boom

Price included shipping from uBid - what a deal! Actually, I purchased this unit to fill a bass void in a church sanctuary that seats 250, so it's a large room. I was worried that it wouldn't be loud enough. Ha! I had to turn the level down to about 9 o'clock to keep from overpowering the large stage Yamaha's.

We rented an audio analyzer (1/3 octave, 31 band) and used a 31 band eq to flatten the sound. The analyzer revealed that the sub trails off significantly at about 30 Hz, so we used the eq to compensate. The sub has a hot spot at around 50-60 Hz - which might be why the one reviewer suggested setting the crossover low. As with others, I enhanced the damping material by covering the walls with 1" polyester fiber, using a little glue to keep it in place. It does sound less boomy with the modification and I highly recommend it. You can even go to Joann Fabrics and use cheap batting material.

I was able to test it at home for one evening, and it was definitely louder than my 10" B.I.C. sub, and even a bit cleaner and tighter. Used the Avia test DVD, the test CD that came with the sub, and "The Fifth Element" to put it through it's paces. WOW! You could definitely blow the doors off with this one! If you don't mind the large cabinet and want big, loud, confident bass you can't beat the price. Even though it's not the tightest audiophile sub sound I've ever heard, it provides so much more than the typical sub - I give it two fives.

Similar Products Used:

BIC D1010R

Deep Bass, 200 Watt AMP, Raw Power

None so far

Bought this beauty from Ubid.com after see the prices other have wrote it with.. and what a great price I was able to get this for.. $159 BUCKS!!!!!! YES BELIEVE it, I'm just starting too.. and I wasn't dissapointed with the performance.. great deep bass, it goes very very well with my Cerwin Vega E-712's.. its just plain awesome...

Similar Products Used:

Old Cerwin Vega 12" Subwoofer

Price!!! Output!!!

Size, Can't get real low

Depending on your listening style and the other speakers in your system this can be a great buy or a waste of money. You need to listen to it with your own equipment to make the call. If you want lots of output but don't care about tightness or clarity this is the sub for you. I mean above about 45Hz this thing is as subtle as a baseball bat to the chops, after that the output falls off very quickly. I tried to add the polyfill as others have identified, did not seem to tighten it up much at all. Compared to the Sony SA-WM40 that has received good reviews on this site, the Audiosource is the clear winner. The JBL-PB12 however is the next step up from the SW-15 in terms of quality, and clearly a better choice. Bottom line if you want lots of HT output to scare the neighbors and dont care about lack of clarity and limited lower end, this is worth a look.

Similar Products Used:

Sony SA-WM40, JBL-PB12

Good Value, great sound

Could use some polyfill

Steve, you are right about it being a good deal. The problem I had with mine was operator error. I bought mine from Cosco for 179.99 plus shipping. I also picked up some Polyfill from Ames for a few bucks. My sub cuts on fine when the sound starts, so I leave it on AUTO. Sorry about the other review I posted. I'm happy with mine.

Low distortion, high level, goes very deep.

None.

I bought my SW Fifteen at Amazon at $229 (shipping was only $12). It arrived 8 days form the day I placed the order. So far so good. The thing was very heavy and quite large. I decided to place it as suggested, at least about 3 feet from the side and rear walls.
My main speakers are a pair of Klipsch La Scala’s which are extremely efficient and can play very loud with very low distortion but are somewhat restricted in the very low end, so the ideal match would be a subwoofer which could play equally loud and that could go deeper into the low end. After reading the consumer reviews on the Audiosource SW Fifteen I decided to give it a try.
After a lot of tweaking with the crossover and the level setting I got the most balanced sound at about 45 hz for the crossover and about 1 o’clock for the level control. Because I wanted to use it for home theater as well as music I went with the high level connection.
I had an Audio Pro SW-50 subwoofer for about 8 years until very recently I decided to give it to my kid brother. This subwoofer was very revolutionary in its time and I paid about $900 for it.
There is just no comparison. The SW Fifteen is absolutely fantastic. There are opinions about it being boomy, maybe because the crossover is set too high. I think it is better suited for systems with bass capable main speakers. In my case, with the setting at about 45 Hz, it sounds better than anything I have ever heard (including the velodyne’s and the M&K’s).
The included test CD is helpful up to a point because the test tones have center frequencies to far apart. I found the Stereophile’s test CD to be better for fine-tuning the subwoofer blend with the main speakers.
After the tweaking I played one of my favorite movies on DVD, Crimson Tide (chapter 18 has some fierce explosions). My room was shaken. Quite an experience. In the included test CD, tracks 10 to 14, the bass is extremely well defined and extends quite deep.
How can Audiosource develop such a marvel for less than $250 (street price) is a mistery. The bottom line is that it is one of the best subwoofers I have ever heard regardless of price. Recommended without reservations.

Similar Products Used:

Audio Pro B2-50.

Nice bottom end

Cabinet could be made thicker.

WhenI first got this from----COSTCO(where else) I thought it was boomey but after doing some packing and using an Ultra Link sub cable she tightend up a lot. Placement is highly critical depending upon room design and materials. And then using the basic information from:
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~robinson/Sub-woofer-Information.htm

Helped me pin the placement down took a few days but finally have dialed in. Live out in a rural area the nearest neighbor is oh about 1/3 to 1/4 mile away and they have said they could feel the bass. Love it. Can't be beat for price and overall response. Have used oscilloscope and senhieser mics to find lowest fequency it could hit. So far has been a HDCD with pipe organ. She hit about 17.75 cps. I can feel my breastbone virbrate.

for the money its great

a little muddy and slow

put in the stuffing and enjoy the bass