I'm a realtor and work with new homes. Being an audiophile sometimes allows me the fun job of shopping a sytem for others and I've sent a lot of business to retailers around my area. It also gives me huge benfits with my own system.
Recently it was time to upgrade my sub so I went and shopped around under $1000
and as we should all know by now, test it out at home before you commit to any equipment! I went to go pick up subs to try out at home and luckily only one of the retailers made me pay for the sub to take it homeso I ended up with:

Definitive 1500 the more expensive of the two 15's
Energy ES 12 XL
B&W ASW1000
sunfire
paradigm 12
Klipsch 12

There was no comparison. the paradigm and the Energy were the closest competition but no where near the output.
As for the rest, Well that big speaker and big amp of the definitive wer a laughing stock to the smaller speaker and amp of the 1000. That sunfire with 2700 watts well it was cute bouncing all over the floor and would have made a good chew toy for my bulldog but for sound, I'd have rather had a pringles can.
the klipsch well was actually not too bad but i'd have rather spent my dough on the B&W.

matches well with other B&W components

120W amp too weak to drive 12" sub

Using this sub with the following setup:

BW 604S2 main speakers
DENON AVR-4800
Toshiba SD9200 DVD player
BW CC6 center
BW DS6 surrounds
BW ASW1000 sub

THe sub complements the other speakers pretty well and is fairly tight and accurate. I wished the amp would be more powerful for the price and the bass would be a little tighter. There is a bit of a rumble sometimes but not much to be very concerned about.

THe sub is also larger than usual, but it definately has a musical quality to it which is a trademark of B&W products.

As with any B&W product this sub is extremely sensitive to the quality of the input signal so use good high quality cabling.

Overall this is a good product for the price.

Similar Products Used:

NHT

Output level, Bass

Large footprint

Just connected the ASW1000 to my main DVD setup.
Yamaha RXV-995
B&W P5 Mains
JBL CL505 centre
Mission 760i rears
Toshiba SD2109 DVD
Leaving the cross-over at maximum, the Yamaha has a LFE output. Volume on the ASW was left at 9 o'clock. At these settings in a room of 15 feet x 30 feet you could feel the bass in every chair. Very little boom but of course the chair closest to the sub was best.
In this setup, I won't need to upgrade for a few years.

I set up my home theater about 8 years ago with a pair of B&W 640 mains (comparable to the new 604s). The main negative of the 640s is the lack of low-end bass. I had always planned to purchase a subwoofer to complement them, but never found one that had the tight, accurate sound I wanted. At that time I auditioned a number of subs including some more expensive Velodynes, and I never found one that had the performance I wanted for anything close to what I was willing to pay.
I'm pleased to report that B&W have finally come to the rescue themselves with their second-generation line of subs. They match up very well with their speaker line, in the sense that they are very musical subs with an emphasis on accurate reproduction. No large drivers here to wallow around. Just good clean bass. And yet you can crank the volume up for movies and get plenty of bass for special effects. Even at half-volume, the heavy bass in "Dark City" rattled the windows in a very large room.

The enclosures are monstrous. Even the 1000 is a big unit which I had difficulty lifting by myself. It's about the size of a low end table. This is a no-holds-barred unit, with no compromises made for space and weight considerations. I like that. I want to look at my equipment, not hide it behind a couch.

I'm not an expert on speaker design, but from what I understand, you need a large cabinet to accurately reproduce the large wavelengths of bass. And you want a heavy cabinet so that it doesn't move around, reducing its accuracy. Before you even plug it in, you know it succeeds on both counts.

And after you plug it in, it succeeds well for both audio and home theater. I've listened to everything from Led Zep (love that Bonham) to Mozart. The bass is tight and accurate when it needs to be, but can rock it out as well. For home theater, it's added a whole new dimension. "Starship Troopers" had a whole different impact with a sub, and you just can't appreciate the sinister music in "Dark City" without a sub. I had to turn the sub volume down for that one, it was TOO jarring.

I was so impressed with the 1000, I went out and bought a 2000 for my audio room. But that's a story for another review.

Quality and value

Size is a bit too big

I purchased a complete set of equipment (Denon AVR1800, B&W DM302, 305,CC3, ASW 1000 and Toshiba SD4109x)

My comments here are related to ASW 1000… In stead of the 10” sub (ASW 500) I opted for the ASW 1000 which gives me plenty of power. The sub overshadows the front speaker most of the time. I have to turn down the sub to listen to music. I have one problem with the sub – it goes to sleep with a pop sound once in a while if the volume is low. I have to turn the volume up to bring it back. I am not sure if this is because of incorrect connection to the receiver or if there is some problem. I will ask the installer to come and take a look at it next week. The size of the unit turn out to be much bigger than I remember in the store. Make sure you have the space for it!

This is a great value for the quality of sound. I would recommend this anyone!

Sound, styling

Big and heavy

Paid $1150 AUD for this sub last weekend after also auditioning the CT-120. Great bass output for a 12 inch sub. This thing is heavy, you'll need two people to move it. As a result I've only tested the sub in my second listening room, using it with Tannoy M1 speakers and listening to CD's. It gives Michael Jackson's 'Bad' album a new dimension, as it does with Prince's 'Diamonds and Pearls'. Only need the volume at 9 o'clock and X-Over at 70 Hz. Played DVD's 'Speed' using the bus/plane explosion scene, 'Matrix' helicopter scene and 'True Lies' Harrier scene. All demo's shook the walls. The CT-120 wasn't bad but didn't seem tight enough. Advantage of that sub though is it's not as wide as the B&W and might fit better if room is an issue.
Will write another review in a few weeks when I test it fully in a 5.1 environment using it with B&W P5 speakers and a Yamaha 995.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne CT-120

Efficiency, accuracy, power

Bulk

I'd listened to AR, Infinity, JBL, and other "big" brand subs, as well as those from more respected makers like Klipsch and NHT. I actually bought the Polk PSW650 (dual side-firing 10" drivers, 165-watt rated amp, $650) from Crutchfield, taking advantage of the 30-day return policy. I thought that it might be a better value than the B&W ASW1000, and they didn't sound disimilar when I listened to them at different stores. I listened to it at home for a couple of days, and rather liked it. But I wanted a better comparison to the B&W, so I took the Polk over to to StereoTypes (a local high-end store and B&W dealer) and listened to the two subs together.

Wow. After listening to a bunch of music and DVDs on both -- Portishead's "Only You" was my major test track -- I could hardly believe my ears. The B&W was much tighter and more musical, and actually seemed to have a significantly lower bass presence, though the two subs are rated within 3 Hz at +/- 3dB. The Polk's amp is rated at 165 watts, and the B&W's at only 120, but this just goes to show how principled B&W is when it comes to ratings. I fiddled with the levels (at the same x-over frequency) to get both subs playing at the same volume, and found that about 20% on the B&W sounded as loud as 75% on the Polk.

In my very live home listening room, even 20% is overkill. The B&W kicks a**. I paid $650 for it, the same as Crutchfield's (usually cheap) price on the Polk -- but the B&W sounds several hundred dollars more expensive. I don't know how a relatively small manufacturer like B&W can make this sub so cheaply. If this is the price point you're looking at, by the B&W. If you want to spend a little less, give it a listen anyway. It's a steal.

Similar Products Used:

Polk PSW650

Power, output level & clarity

Rather large in size and weight

Room is about 25 x 11. Clear rich powerful bass when watching DVD movies. It's only at 1/3 full volume. I don't think it can't get any better than this. Enough said.

Played some rap CD's with very low bass. The B&W1000 handled it with ease with no distortion. Jazz, no problem. Pop/rock music, no sweat.

For the money, this subwoofer is second fiddle to none.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm

WILD BASS!!!!!!

NONE!!!!!!

If you like wild clean and stomach punching bass this is for you! With it’s nearly supernatural powers in the sub-area, it looks more like a bass torture instrument than a subwoofer for home cinema use!

If you look closer at this subwoofer you will see that it is extremely well build, and you can fell it when it is in action. Also the wait 30 kilos, sh..! My back!

The internal amplifier is on 120 watt, and it has full control over the driver, even when the driver is jumping around 1” out of the cabinet. The legendary deep bass you know from the cinema is not hard to find with this B&W ASW-1000 and you can easily adjust it to the room acoustics you have, via the control on it’s back.

When everything is set, and you have put the DVD-film in the player you are ready to FEEL the world in a hole knew and shaking way!

My friends who come over and hears this subwoofer, says exactly the same as Agent Schmidt from The Matrix, when Neo is about to blast him with his machine gun, NO!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

DALI SWA-12

Nice and heavy - good doorstop.

everything: cone bottoms out at low frequencies, gain control too sensitive
veneer is peeling, frequency response in first octave very poor

I bought this sub based upon the recommendations and high reviews it got on this sight. Boy, what a mistake. This is by far the worst purchase I have made for my sound system. Having been a purely two channel person for many years, this is my first foray into 5.1 channel home theater. My troubles started soon after I got the unit home. Upon removing it from the box, one of the feet fell off and another was loose. After re-attachment, I proceeded to hook it up to the rest of my system (Sunfire Theater Grand II preamp/processor, Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature power amplifier, Pioneer Elite DVD player, Sony XBR TV). The first thing I noticed was that the RCA input jack was too big. My cable would not go on. After trying an assortment of cables, I finally resorted to using a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the tabs on the RCA connector to get it on. After powering everything up, I proceeded to put in a movie (Mission Impossible). That's when a fuse blew in the sub. Replaced the fuse. On with the movie. To put mildly, the bass from this unit was very poor. I re-played some scenes from the movie without this sub and noticed very little difference (granted, my left and right speakers are full towers with 12 inch woofers). Adjustment of the gain control didn;t help matters much either. It was way too sensitive. At a respectable volume, the amplifier couldn't supply the requisite power and the cone kept bottoming out. The sound quality was mediocre at best. I diverted all the low frequency information to the sub channel (away from the towers) to get an accurate audition of the sub. I liked the bass from my towers much more. This unit sounded like it was struggling to reproduce the lower frequencies and it lacked the impact that I would expect from a unit costing $700. Overall, a very bad choice.