This is a great subwoofer.
Explosions rumble through your chest and shake the house, and musical beats are clean and undistorted.

The sub will maintain a good level of rumbling down to 28 Hz, and is still quite audible at 25Hz.

I can't say whether it's the best sub for the money out there, as I haven't heard them all, but for $600 you will not be disappointed.

You will not be disappointed.

Room Shaking Power

Best Suited for Movie Listening

I have had a complete Cambridge(CSW) Ensemble System for 4 years (Ensemble + Powered Sub). I used the sub primarily for movies. For music I used the (3 way) Ensemble by it self.

The sub has served me well, in fact I did not realize its
weakness until a week ago when I upgraded my system.

I purchased the M&K S-125 Left, Center and Right speakers.
The S-125 contains a tweeter and two mids. Therefore
it requires a sub to become a full range system.

I figured that I could use my Cambridge sub. NOPE! The M&Ks with the CSW sub sounded horrible. I played with the sub's filter and volume but could not get the system to sound right in 2 channel stereo (Movies sounded OK).

When playing music, it sounded like the CSW sub was sloppy.
When a bass note was hit the sub seemed to rattle on for longer than it should. The music would continue on while my sub sat there shaking. Also, it sounded like there was a gap between the bass of the sub and the mid-range of the M&Ks.

I went back to the store where I bought the M&Ks and explainded the problem. They loaned me the M&K V75 MKII powered sub. This sub made a huge difference. The M&Ks came to life. The High, Mid and Low all blend together and sound terrific. For movies I don't get the floor rumbling bass that I did with the CSW sub but the sound is so much better.

All of which leads me to believe that the CSW sub was disigned primarily for movies. When I did use it for music I only turned it up a hair.

When comparing the two it is no contest. The M&K purrs while the CSW rattles like rocks in a box.

CSW (4 years ago) $700
M&K (Now) $700

Value Rating Basis - If you can get one cheap.
Overall Rating Basis - For movies only

Similar Products Used:

M&K V75 MKII

I have had the CSW Powered Sub in my system for two years. I use it for home theater (Dolby Digital and Pro-Logic) and music listening. All I can say about this sub is that is overwhelmingly powerful (I set it a 2 out of ~10) and sounds good. I sometimes listen to it with the other speakers off and I can find nothing to fault about the bass sound. I have measured its low end with an SPL meter and it goes down to about 28 Hz. One thing about powered subs that must be taken into account is room acoustics. If your room accoustics aren't good your sub can sound terrible. See the review in Home Theater magazine about this sub - they thought it was an excellent value. It is big and unattractive, however, so I give it 4 stars.

Power, low frequency response, setup options

Size, tricky to setup correctly.

Good sub. Especially for the money. I got mine for $400 at a CSW retail store sale. After spending a bit of time placing it and tweaking its settings, I am very satisfied with this sub's performance. Shakes the hell out of my living room windows and built-ins. I believe it works best with a clean, quality signal from a high end receiver. Setup is key to maximizing your enjoyment of this sub. Spend some time with it and you'll love it. There are probably better subs out there, but not at this price.