Although I settled on the B&W ASW 3000, I auditioned the ASW 2000 and 1000 too.The B&W ASW 2000 is an outstanding subwoofer that features lows that are not only booming and loud, they are full and clear, filling the room with an sense of whatever it is that is being depicted on the DVD or Laserdisc you're watching. When playing it, you FEEL the lows as well as hear them, and that is what separates the B&W ASW Series of subs f4rom others on the market.

The 2 other subs I considered before buying the ASW 3000 were an M&K THX model with about 400 or 450 watts ( I cant't remember the exact model #), and the Paradigm, about 300 watts. They were good too, but the B&W gives one a better sense of fullness.

I went with the ASW 3000 only because of the 300 watts output that fills my 20 X 25 room with 14 foot ceilings better than the 175 of the ASW 2000. Depending on room size, I recommend the ASW 2000 for anyone!

Rock My World:
I hooked up this sub to my system and what a difference. I had been using a Energy sub ESP150 and I thought it was good, This takes me to the next level
althought the sub was the only part of my speaker system that was not B&W.
I new I should change it to match the characters of the DM604, CC6 and DS6. I was using my system without a sub for a couple of weeks as I had sold the Energy
and awaited for the arrival of the ASW2000, and found my system to be somewhat unexciting Now I'm back in Business putting new life into my system. Now I know it needs a 200 hours of burn in time to show full potential, But trust me plenty of power and it'll play loud and very accurate

I like this sub, but the internal crossovers (fixed hp, var lp) are not suited for critical listening.
You should have some adequate external bass management available (30Hz-50Hz high-passing to the mains, low-passing to the sub) - even then the lower end imaging may be distracting.

Fortunately the ACT-3v2bm and some other processors/receivers will relieve the sub from that task.

"G"-

Great minds think alike. We have almost the exact same setup. Here is my stuff:

Denon AVR5700
Denon DVD5000
Sony DSS
Nakamichi Dragon Cassette
Sony 20ES Minidisc Deck
Mitsubishi Hi-Fi VCR
Sony 36inch XBR
B&W Nautilus 803 Fronts
B&W Nautilus 805 Rear
B&W Nautilus HTM Center
B&W ASW4000


I agree with you about movie play with the ASW sub. At 450Watts, the ASW4000 has a lot of power. It is not that the 4000 is better than the 2000. On the contrary, they are both in the same upper echelon of quality. The only difference is the 4000 puts out louder qualitywhile the 2000 is a little more researved in its quality output.

Don't you love B&W?

I'd like to det a job at B&W so I can get discounts on their stuff!

Nice low end.

Complex passages turn slightly muddy. Has trouble keeping up with "fast" speakers.

I have been looking for a good sub for music to match my B&W Nautilus 803's. The 803's are greeat speakers, I have never had a complaint about them at all, but I was told by many people that a sub would add to my enjoyment. After doing in-store auditions, I felt that those people were correct. There is a WHOLE lot of musical information down there! Unfortunately, this sub just doesn't work well with these speakers in my room.

This sub is a very good sounding sub for most listening, able to add some definition and punch on the low end of music. My main problem is that, as was posted by someone else below, it is not suitable for critical listening. On some rock and roll or modern pop they do well enough, but when the music gets complicated, like listening to jazz, classical or even some rock, they get a little muddy. Notes tend to run together and it begins to feel as if the sub is "falling behind" the music.

In HT however, this baby is GREAT. Watching the Matrix or True Lies will never be the same for me without a sub. If you are looking for an HT sub then I heartily recommend giving the 2000 a listen.

I give them 5 stars for value and 4 1/2 overall (since there is no half star, I will round up). Most people would be VERY happy with this sub, but if your speakers are "fast" and able to acurately represent complex music then you might be dissapointed by the ASW 2000.

Excellent HT sub, good-looking(for a sub) and well built for a reasonable price.

Not quite as good for music as HT;

I tried and liked the ASW1000, but, given the opportunity, of course I couldn't resist upgrading to the 2000.
This is a great HT sub and works well with my Nautilus 805's. If you have a small room this sub will probably be more than you need. And I'd venture to say that this sub will easily fulfill most people's home theater needs in a reasonable sized room. The one thing it doesn't have for home theater that would be nice is a switch to defeat the low-pass filter. Not a big deal, but it's a pain to readjust the crossover every time you switch from movie to music.
I have to agree with the others who have posted and said that this sub can be a bit muddy and slow with musical material, but I've found that most of the initial problems I had were resolved by testing to find optimal placement. This sub can't go cleanly down to 20Hz like some bigger, more expensive subs, but I still would call it an excellent value, especially considering the quality of what it does provide and the expense you have to go to to get the extreme low end where there is very little to be heard anyway. It took time to set it up, but the 805's and the ASW2000 work well together. Overall, this sub does both Home Theater and music very well and, for the moment, I'm very happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

B&W ASW1000

Just ordered the ASW 2000 from Amazon.com for $800 (list is $1000). They don't carry the entire B&W line, but have about ten speakers. I'll post a complete review after I've played with it for a few months. Does anyone know of other mail order or Internet channels for ordering B&W speakers for less than full retail? My local dealers won't budge.

The ASW2000 is a well-built sub, great for recreating the LFE from movie soundtracks. After breaking it in for a couple of weeks with lots of different low bass soundtracks, it will start to be a decent musical sub as well.
For movie soundtracks, this sub is great. I never felt it was taxed or thought I was hearing it any other way than the director wanted it. It blends perfectly with the picture on the screen. Give it a movie like Starship Troopers and it'll make sure anything not bolted down is shaking, rattling or rolling. Beautiful, considering I keep the sub's volume control down low.

While my main requirement for the sub was to recreate movie sounds well, I didn't want a sub which couldn't create the tight bass required when I play classical music. While this sub couldn't quite do tight bass well enough to follow along with a pianist playing Rachmaninov or keep up with the bass section of an orchestra, ending up sounding just a bit too bassy and delayed, at this price range, I can't complain. It is still better than adequate. It's great if your music of choice is rock, pop, or rap.

Overall, I really, really like this sub. It has ample reserves of power, and it sounds great. Recommended.

im really surprised with what i herd, these speakers have it all they are 1 of my personal favorites im thinking about buying some myself

I own both the 1000 and the 2000 (see my review of the 1000 for reference). Based on the performance of the 1000 in my home theater room, I purchased the 2000 for my high-end (to me) audio room. My main speakers are B&W CDM7SEs. I purchased the 2000 for $500 at a place going out of business. I figured at that price, I couldn't go wrong. If it didn't work out, I could always move it to the theater room and either have two subs there or sell the 1000. It turns out that won't be necessary. I won't be letting either one go.
The salesman (not working on commission at this point) actually recommended against buying a sub for a high-end listening room, saying it "distracts" from the music. For most subs, I would agree. I wouldn't want a wallowy, inaccurate sub that couldn't accurately reproduce the music. But I think the idea should be to faithfully reproduce the music as it would sound if you were listening to a live performance. And a live performance includes ALL parts of the audible listening range, not just those above 46 Hz (the floor of the CDM7SEs). Ideally, your speakers should be able to reproduce a perfectly flat frequency response throughout the audible frequency range. And that's what I was trying to achieve with this subwoofer.

I think it succeeds brilliantly. Rather than distracting from the music, the sub enhances it. The main speakers don't need to be turned up as high to achieve the same bass "punch", so the main speakers and amplifier are not taxed as much. Theoretically, I could run the wires through the subs to eliminate the low range load from the main speakers, thus freeing them up to more faithfully reproduce middle bass. This would help in achieving that flat response curve, though possibly with the introduction of some extra noise. I haven't tried that route yet, however.

I haven't even broken this sub in yet, and I can already tell that it is a very worthwhile addition to a high-end listening room. If anything, it has probably more power than I need. I set the sub volume to about 1/2, and at the levels I listen it's not taxed at all. I'm considering switching subs and placing the 2000 in the home theater room and the 1000 in the audio room, because the home theater sub gets more of a workout and might benefit from more power. Any opinions on that?

I haven't been living with this system for very long, so it's possible that over time I will begin to see some shortcomings. But right out of the box, without doing any dialing-in whatsoever, this sub fits right in with an excellent pair of speakers.