loud transformer hum, difficult adjusting to my ear

Usage 90% music 10% movies
The PS-1000 I bought developed a hum that I could hear over the source music at low levels within the first week of ownership. I also spent an inordinate amount of time the first couple of days working on getting it to sound good to my ear in my family room(which is the speaker acid test). Just seemed like it got sloppy/muddy on some Stanley Clarke and Lil' Charlie and the NightCats tunes and couldn't tweak it to my liking. Could definitely get it to play loud though. Not necessarily a good thing. After several emails to Paradigm tech support and a second call to the audio shop where I purchased the unit, regarding the hum, they suggested I return it to check it out further. I should say at this point that I did not do extensive sub research, I more or less briefly listened to the PDR-10 vs. the PS-1000 running thru Denon 2800 with Titans and chose the PS-1000. A mistake I almost paid for dearly. Upon powering up the sub at the shop, it was obvious to the guy I'd been dealing with (I bought a pair of Titan V.2's 2 weeks prior to the sub)that this unit was defective. During the next 2 1/2 hours between customers I got educated on sub design, types, internal crossovers and their interaction with the sats crossovers(receiver controlled).
Then I proceeded to relisten to the PDR-10 vs. the PS-1000 vs. MB Quart 10". To my ears (a little better educated) the MB left the Paradigms in another time zone! I was prepared to eat the difference on an even up swap- PS-1000 for MB Quart 10"(can't remember mod #). My man at the shop suggested that if I liked the MB 10" I might want to swap even up for the MB Quart D1200 Si. Seeing how this is a PS-1000 review I'll show some respect/restraint and just say I'm soooo glad to be diggin this MB Quart D1200 Si. And the shop (www.SoundsDeluxe.com & Steve and Dan) will be getting all my future audio/video business.

Tight response. Way more power than I need.

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I have not had this sub very long but I have been very impressed with it so far. I purchased a whole surround set (all paradigm) and have been so happy with my purchase. I almost purchased the PS1200 instead. I am very glad that I did not. This sub has more than enough boom for me. I currently have it turned down to 50%

Tons of output. Good bass extension for a 10" woofer. Excellent feature set.

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This is an outstanding value. I've had this sub for about 6 years now, and it is still pumping out the bass. It has been incredibly reliable. It has an excellent auto-on feature, and every possible adjustment/input/output that you could need to integrate this woofer into just about any system that I can think of.

I've had it hooked up three different ways in three different incarnations of my entertainment system. Originally I purchased the sub to use in a sat/sub system. I hooked the full range signal from the mains into the PS1000's line-level input, then fed the high-pass signal back to the amp (my receiver has pre-out/main in loop so you can tap straight into the amp section on the mains). I had the crossover set to about 125 Hz, and everything worked perfectly. Later on, I got floorstanding mains, and I switched to playing the fronts full-range with the subwoofer's crossover turned down to around 85 Hz. Again, worked perfectly and sounded great. Now I've upgraded to Dolby Digital/DTS, and the sub is filling the LFE role nicely. This thing just won't quit. It has truly grown with my system, and has never missed a beat. Even though there are bigger subs out there with more extension, I am giving this 5 stars because I can't see how any other 10-inch sub could live up to the flawless performance I've gotten out of mine for the past 6 years.

Just the fact that Paradigm still makes and sells this unit after so many years should tell you something about the success of product. It is successful for good reason.

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Velodyne FSR-12

Plays very loud, has the ability to shake rooms,

Too slow for music, very,very picky about placement."( The sub reveals it's location too much)"

The paradigm ps-1000 is a good sub for the retail price which is $450. It plays loud and deep, and the bass is usable down to 25hz. However the bass tends to be a little sloppy. What I mean is, it tends to bloat and boom a little, and it's not tight and fast. Finding the right placement for the sub is very difficult in rooms with small front main speakers, beacuse the sub tends to reveal it's location where ever it's placed with small speakers. You should'nt have a problem finding the location of the bass if you have two ps-1000's with small speakers. With 2 ps-1000's, you can even out the sound by placing the 2 subs in different locations, so the bass within the room sounds more smooth, and non localizable. If you have large main speakers, you should not worry too much about localizing the sub with them. If the ps-1000 was a little tighter, and less localizable with small speakers, I would love this sub. The sub is ok for movies, if you have 2, but with music it's another story... I would look into the m&k subs if you crave tight fast bass like me. But if your on a budget try the ps-1000 out, and don't forget that you get what you pay for, plus the bigger the sub, the deeper and louder the sub will go.

I am using it only for home theater in conjunction with Snell mains and B&W rears and center. Certainly it does not sound like a $500 subwoofer, going much deeper with more authority than it should. I don't think, though, that
the PS-1000 works well with music. It is a little slow and lacks refinement
in this context.

Solid, smooth response down to low levels

Pretty big for a 10 inch sub. Bass a bit slow for music (More on that later)

I've been using this subwoofer in combination with Paradigm Mini-Monitor fronts, CC-350 center, ADP-350 surrounds, and driven by an Integra DTR-7 for over six months now, and I must say that it's an incredible value. The bass response is smooth all the way down to around 30 hz, where it cuts off quickly, and the levels can really shake the room. I use my system primarily for home theater and this sub is really suited to it. For music, however, the suspension design of this sub makes it respond a little slowly. This can be corrected, to an extent, with a good sub cable. I originally used a Monster Cable Interlink 201 sub cable to connect this sub, but I switched to the Monster Cable Z-Bass 100 when it came out. The cable really tightened the bass from this sub, and has made listening to music on my setup quite pleasant. I highly recommend this sub, and this cable, to everyone looking for a good value in home theater equipment.

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PS-1200

Super bass for the money, great for HT
Super bass for the money, great for HT

Not the best for music, volume on the rear of unit

A great piece of equipment for Home Theatre; low, low room rumbling bass for earth shaking S/FX. I have two large tower Polk Audio RTA-11t's that are pretty loud themselves, but my poor Denon AVC-1000 was having a difficult time driving dvd soundtracks. Adding the sub I was able to cross-over at 100Hz, letting the PS1000 handle all the bass and now it's excellent for movies. I've since upgraded the Denon to a Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX for Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, but I can run it very cool with the Pardigm doing most of the work.

I turn it down for music, but I don't listen to music a lot in my "home theatre room" (aka the basement) as I have a stereo-only system upstairs.

For the price ($329 US) I am absolutely delighted with this unit - if you are looking for a reasonably priced sub to add some punch to movie soundtracks, I would give the PS1000 a listen!

See my 9/16/98 review below...

If you can spend alittle more and are looking for a sub. with a much smaller footprint and better performance, see Athena Technologies' P3 as a viable alternative.

Fairly high spl

Do boomy

This sub has worked very well for me. It works best with movies. It gets a few points for flexibilty with line level inputs and speaker level inputs, phase control shifter, and variable crossover. I have never had a problem with it. Now that it is correctly placed in my room it sounds wonderful. I have successfully tweaked it to my liking with both music and movies. The volume should be placed at approximately 25% with music and about 50% with movies.

I have had this sub bottom out with one movie - Fight club. The volume must be turned down to around 25% for this movie due to the high demand for low frequency extension.

I bought this a few years ago and it was a display model. What a price?

Paradigm, powered sub

not the best for music

I think that this is the best sub I have ever heard, it is true though that it is better for home theatre but thats all I care about anyways. As for the volume control on the back I went to the Paradigm dealer and bought the sub control unit that you can place remotely without having to bend over all the time to adjust it. It helps wonders. As for the sound from this beast, it kicks, hope you dont have neighbor type of sound. I paid quite a bit for mine though, about 700$ CAD, and at the time it was the new thing, now you can pick them up quite cheap. Anyways, compared to my other non-powered sub, there is no comparison, I might as well not even have it, you cant here it anyway, with the paradigm here, I love it.

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