Purchased this unit after witnessing high prices for other name brand subs. Have found the unit to have decent sound but a little boomy. This thing is picky about room placement. The auto-on circuit sucks bad. The tuner has to be turned up fairly loud before the sub turns on. I just leave it on all the time so it doesn't cut out during low volume play. The music response seems a little slow sometimes. I closed off one of the ports and added some fiberfill to the back of the enclosure and it seems to have tightened up a little. But for the price I paid this thing rocks. $199 at Costco or order online at costco.com.

For $199? you can't go wrong. Its almost like you have to buy it if you see it for this price. I saw it at Costco about 4 months ago and was skeptical about a $199 sub. After I bought an Energy sub that cost almost 8.5 times retial (ES18XL) I was kinda dissapointed to see a 15" 200 Watt Subwoofer for such a low price. After awhile of thinking, I went ahead and bought it. I put it in the same room as my Energy. After having them both on, I could tell why the Energy cost more. I played certain sences from my DVD player and tested its performance in HT. Energy vs. Audiosource separately (hehe) suprisingly, although I noticed a difference, it was pretty obvious that Audiosource was pretty much keeping up, although it tended to be very boomy at times. The Energy sounded more natural, as if i could not tell where the bass was comming from. As for the Audiosource, after making some placement adjustments, and playing with the crossover and volume controls, i got it to pretty much how i wanted it to play. This is a great sub for the price, If you see if for this price or lower, i recommend buying it. Geeshh! i could have bought almost 8 of these subs for the price of the Energy! Makes you wonder =)
4 Stars on performance
5 Stars on overall value/performance

Hi, I bought the SW15 from Costco after I read all those good reviews posted here. After I set it up, I noticed the woofer hum noticeably. I started
to play around with the position of the power cord (especially the power
cord) and the interconnect and managed to get the hum to a minimum but still noticeable. Also the auto power on feature does not work very well; I have to turn the volume on way up to trigger the power on but after a while it would turn itself back off if I turned the volume down a little bit.

After seeing this product at Costco, I contacted the company directly for more info. They suggested I go to their web site, and to check here. Well I have got to say, I was VERY nervous about such a BIG sub, at such a low price! It is in a dedicated home theater with a THX system, I simply could not afford the matching sub, and I felt I would give this a whirl. It performed well beyond my expectations. First off, it was a bit boomy, so I removed the speaker and packed the enclosure with 20 ounces of poly-fill. They sell this for $2.99 at craft stores. Well as a result, the sub tightened up, and the boominess is gone!Thanks to the previous writers who suggested this, it really made a difference, and I do not notice any difference in freq. response at all.
One note: I do not have any problems with the auto on circut, it comes on at low volumes and stays on until about 15 minutes after system shut down. I can live with this.

2nd note: Although not mentioned in the enclosed paperwork, the company offers a Subwoofer test CD, I called them and they sent it out. I got it in 3 days and used it to set the crossover setting, and volume adjustments. I used a Radio Shack ANALOG sound level meter, not the digital one. I set the sub to be just slightly louder than the other speakers, I like to feel the room shake, but not dominate over the other speakers. When using the sound level meter, I pointed it STRAIGHT UP, not AT the speakers or sub directly.

I give this unit 5 stars, and if I can ever afford a top shelf model, this one will still remain in the family.

Good response for very few $$

This unit is big and heavy, and tends to be boomy. The unit I had started to make a buzzing noise (Power supply?) after about 2 months that continued to get louder. I unplugged all cables except the power and the noise continues. The auto on does not work well at all, you have to have the volume extremely loud before it powers on.

The product is at an excellent price for the sound you get. However due to the problems I experienced I do not recommend it and I have returned the one I had. Costco gave the refund without any hassle.

Similar Products Used:

Polk PSW 650, Optimus 12.

Best bang for the buck!

none so far

I did a lot of reading on this site before buying the SW15.I ordered the sub from Costco,took a week to get here.But it was worth the wait. I have lived with sub for about 3 months now, and I gotta say it just keeps getting better. When I first hooked it up, I too got a annoying hum, this was fixed by pluging the 3 way powercord into one of those 2 way adaptors, then into my surge suppresser(tada problem fixed) as far as the "fiberfill stuffing" if these people thought this helped fine, I found no need for it. My listening room is 12'X 17', with hardwood floors, 8'ceiling,so if it was gonna boom it should, but it does not. I have not tried to over anyalize this product. I just plugged it in set the crossover on 70hz, the gain on 12 o'clock. and let it rip! I have not been disappointed. In fact I will buying myself another one for Xmas. I use all NHT speakers, 2.1s for mains, 1.1s for surround ans 1.1c for center. Pioneer Dolby Digital reciever and Pioneer Dvd.

Similar Products Used:

JBL PSW1200, Advent 10 inch

price

quality

a good do-it-yourself kit

Thanks everybody posting to this forum. It really makes decisions easier.

I got SW 15 as I recently purchased a DD receiver and wanted to experience the sixth (subwoofer) channel. SW15 got good reviews in this forum and was relatively cheap.

Out of the box the thing sounds terrible. It has no accuracy whatever. So I took it apart and lined the cabinet with speakerfill, as advised by previous posters. That made a lot of difference. I think you can probably tighten it up some more by stuffing the cabinet completely full with fiberglass.

I set the system up using the enclosed CD. It is relatively easy. I tried classical, jazz and DVD movies. I compared the sound with 1. SW on, crossover on SW @ 100 HZ, crossover on the amp @ 100Hz (meaning nothing below 100 Hz going to main speakers, but is routed to the SW) or 2. SW off, all frequencies routed to the main speakers. I did notice a difference. My speakers were far more accurate in bass reproduction than the sub. The sub always had some distortion.

So... the sub is going back to Costco. I guess if you have really poor speakers, you could benefit from it. Otherwise,spend the money on CD's/DVD's

Speakers: 6-yr old Paradigm Performance series 9se MK II (Purchased for $400 new).

Amp: Harman Kardon AVR 65 (will review separately)

Similar Products Used:

none

power

the sound is NOT natural and too boomy...

Well, the best thing that I purchased recently is the SONY STR-DB930 receiver, thanks to this forum. The WORST thing that I purchased recently is THIS subwoofer (AudioSource SW-15), also "thanks" to this forum.

I don't know why so many people liked this subwoofer, maybe our standard on "good sound" is totally different (I'm a more classical/jazz music guy). The sound of this subwoofer is simply not natural at all and SO boomy.. I mean REALLY REALLY boomy. It doesn't fit with my current system (SONY DB930, Babby Maggie SMGa) at all. Plus, this subwoofer is so HUGE that it just not a good component for my small apartment.

So, if you are a student living in a small apartment and looking for a good bargain on a subwoofer, DO NOT choose this one. You will thank me later. I didn't know that this subwoofer is so huge like a small "hotel refrigirator"... you get the picture...

Similar Products Used:

N/A

Price Shakes the room

Boomy Boomy Boomy

This sub needs a bigger box. No amount of speaker fill will take the Boominess out. A 15" sub for $200 is the best deal but not the best sound. I used this sub for HT.The sub is not fast enough to keepup with a shotgun firing 10 times. Instead of Boom Boom Boom you hear Boooooooooom. If all you can put out is $200.00 pick up a pack of speaker fill from radio shack and some 3M adhiesive spray and line the walls except for the wall with the sub on it. Do not just shove polyfiber in the box. Nothing should be within 3"
of the port.This will take away the rattles but not the boominess.

goes pretty low

could sound a bit warmer (for my taste)

I got this sub at Costco about half a year ago for $199. In my opinion, it's a good subwoofer for the money. I can't name any other 15" sub that can be had for less than $200. It sounds nice, but I would prefer a bit warmer sound for my liking. It goes fairly low (25 Hz, after that the sound gets quieter). The only minor problem with it is that it won't turn on automatically until I crank up the sounds to 30 (the receiver goes up to 90).