price, looks, performance, email response time

no phone number for support

GOT BASS? If you want to hear Sony Loews Theater bass rumbling..two words..GET SVS!
Definitely lives up to the hype <-- hard to come by these days
Passes the WAF w/ nice cylindrical design.. I hate the boxy look
Tom & Ron go above and beyond their call of duty @ the HT forum

Used RS SPL meter to calibrate HT to 75db, sub at 81db (+6)
Rears +4, Center +6, mains, rears set to small

HT Gear: Nakamichi AV-10 rcvr, DVD-10S dvd, MB-10 cd
Kimber Cable, Magnepan 2.5r fronts, Magnepan 1.4 rears, Magnepan MGCC1 center

My 1st sub, the JBL was OK..got the job done but kind of boomy.
My 2nd sub, the HSU, didn't give the thump I was looking for. It was only 150w w/ an 8" driver
My 3rd sub, SVS, is KICK ASS. I have to relisten to all my CDs and watch my DVDS all over again

Similar Products Used:

JBL PSW-D112, HSU VTF-2

The SOUND! Fills the room with NO boominess. You can actually hear -- and FEEL -- the clean bass.

Waiting for UPS to get it here... GOD, four days never took so long...

I had the M&K 750THX setup, five 750's and the V-1250THX sub. I have a big room and the 1250 never seemed to fill it. Yeah, I moved it. Again and again.
So, with SVS's cool 45 day trial, I sold my M&K and bought the SVS -- basically off the reviews on this and other forums. I am not sure the wife is as happy as me, but the son and his friends love it!
Aside from the visual appeal -- so what if it's big! It's beautiful, too -- the bass makes the whole house jump. Made the son's car alarm go off. Made my neighbors come over and find out what was happening. And that's not EVEN cranked up... :-)

My stuff:
Mitsu 65907
Mitsu HD400 (HDTV DirectTV receiver)
Denon 3801
Sony 660 DVD -- soon to be a Panny 61
(5) M&K 750THX
SVS 20-39PC

Similar Products Used:

M&K V-1250THX, Polk 250

Accurate, smooth, low (very low), and tight bass.

Carpeting creeps up the tubes at times. Size.

I have a pretty large room with open space into the kitchen and the foyer. I've auditioned the PSB, Velodyne, and Sunfire at home for about 3 days and none of them seemed to fill the room quite well. The Velodyne HGS15 came close but not quite especially for more than twice the price of one SVS. Living room size is about 25'x20'x9' and extends to a kitchen that is about the same size. It would have taken at least two of these subs to get a decent amount of bass.

I decided to try this sub based on reviews here and on hometheaterforum.com. I'm glad I did. This is probably the best sounding sub in the ~$2K price range. I initially wanted to order 2 of these babies but since I was on a trial basis, opted for one. One 20-39PC sub is enough to shake the walls that other subs weren't able to. Bass is very accurate and quick. Very clean indeed.

Best bang for the buck!

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned PSB 3i, Velodyne HGS15, Sunfire True Sub MKII, Klipsch KSW15

Great sounding bass, excellent customer support

only in my stomach!

This is my first subwoofer. Not knowing much about them I trusted the online reviews and ordered the 20-39pc (b-stock). I'm not sure why it's a b-stock but it did come with a slight dent in the top grill. It's so small it doesn't bother me and I could probably fix it if it did. Anyway it sounds great, which is the main thing. It also looks good sitting in the corner where I placed it. For as big as it is, it doesn't look overbearing or out of place at all. It looks just right. And my wife likes the look. First a couple comments about blending my sub with my system in general. They might be useful to other prospective buyers. One of the reasons I went with the pc version was the built in amp is very versatile. Adjustable crossover, phase control, etc. I thought I might need these features in order to get a good blend with my bass lovin' Klipsch Forte speakers. I was wrong. Once I got past the idea of trying to preserve the bass my Klipsch's were putting out and let my Marantz sr-18ex handle the bass management, everything sounds great and I'm not even using the crossover or phase control. I simply set all my speakers to small (including my Fortes...GULP!) and let the Marantz send the bass to the sub as it saw fit (80 hz crossover). I would imagine any THX certified receiver would do a similar job since they're all set to the same standard as far as bass management is concerned. Home theater was much better as expected, but the big surprise for me was stereo mode: the music sounds great! The bass sounds deeper, richer and tighter, not to mention much fuller coming from the sub than it did from my Klipschs. And it does all this without drawing attention to itself, that is, it sounds natural and still blends in well with the rest of the music. So if anyone is out there banging their head against the wall trying to balance their bass while using large speakers on the large setting, give the small setting a try and let the receiver do the work. You may be pleasantly surprised. That is of coarse assuming you have an SVS sub. Use any others at your own risk! :-) Ok, so I give the SVS a big thumbs up for quality of sound, but how about quantity? My listening room is large. It opens into the kitchen and has 10 ft ceilings, so the actual area size is 15x30x10. Tom V. from SVS suggested I consider 2 20-39's or the Ultra if I want to fill the area with reference level bass. Now I don't know what reference level is supposed to sound like, but here is my experience. I set the sub up and calibrated the level with a sound meter, and popped in Top Gun. I turned the master volume up a little louder than I normally would just to try it out. I love the music in the opening credits, and with the sub it sounded just awesome. I used to love the way the deep bass sounded, but this time it also shook my whole body. And when that first jet lit up it's engines and took off I just smiled with delight. This is fun! The sub did not distort or misbehave at all. At first I thought it was buzzing, but I was wrong. It was the walls, the windows, and several other items in the room that were making noise! And when I was done I realized it had shaken a grill cover off one of my ceiling speakers and loosened the other one. In addition I noticed my stomach was just a little queasy, the way it feels after I've ridden the Krakken a few times in a row. Queasy but smilin'! Awhile later I popped in U571 and tried out the depth charge scene. WOW!! I'm gonna wreck my house if I'm not careful! After further playing around I discovered I was near but not at the sub's limits (but by then I was beyond my room's limits). Bottom line: Great sub at a great price. One is enough unless you have a huge area to fill and very strong walls and stomach. And don't be afraid to try the "small" setting even for large speakers- your SVS will likely be better.

Similar Products Used:

none

powerful, tight, clean bass exactly as advertised

Can't audition prior to purchase

The subwoofer was the last piece added to my system because it happened to be the most expensive. I spent about two years shopping for subwoofers and read every review I could get my hands on. Of course, there's no substitute for hearing a speaker yourself and I auditioned plenty of subs over that period of time. I was not happy that I couldn't audition the sub that I actually chose to buy, but as you'll soon hear my doubts have been entirely erased.
I have used this sub now for over a month. I wanted to wait to write this review until I 1)had a great idea of what the sub sounded like, and 2) had the opportunity to run the typical tests on it (Radio Shack SPL meter and Avia DVD). I'm glad that I waited for several reasons. After tinkering with this sub I realized that the best piece of advice I've received is to run this sub "hot". In other words, crank the sub's amp pretty high and turn the LFE signal from the receiver way down. This made a huge difference and really tightened things up. Also, I have had time to mess with the sub's phase knob and tune the sub to my system.
I don't even know where to start. The rest of my system consists of B&W speakers (DM305's in the front, CC3 center, and DM302's in the rear) with a Yamaha HTR-5150 receiver and a Pioneer DV-333 DVD player. Not an audiophile's dream system, but one I was quite happy with except for the bass department. I think that the B&W's do a great job of sounding clear in the higher frequencies and I did NOT want to sabotage the whole system with a boomy sub that wasn't capable of reproducing music with excellent clarity. At the same time, I wanted my house to fall down when the subwoofer was doing the home theater bit. Basically, my expectations for whatever sub I bought were very high.
I wasn't very impressed with subs costing from $500-$700. I found a couple that sounded tight enough but were anemic when it came to bone-crunching bass. I also found a couple (like the definitive) that performed slightly better in the HT department but just weren't tight enough for my musical taste. Thank God I decided to check this forum before committing to anything. The near-flawless record of the SVS line and the customer service made me pretty comfortable with sticking my neck out, and it sure sounded like I had a lot to gain from trying out an SVS. These thoughts turned out to be well founded.
This sub is put together very well. It is constructed of solid materials and looks pretty good in the corner. Actually, I prefer the cylindrical shape because it takes up less room. Hookup is pretty easy even if you know nothing about subs.
Performance is better than I had ever hoped, and like I said earlier- my expectations were pretty high. I would definitely have sent this thing back if I weren't 110% satisfied, and there is no way I'm ever buying a sub from another company. I feel like I own a $5,000 sub. It produces the tightest bass I heard in the last few years of shopping and it does so without coming close to straining. As far as power is concerned, this sub is more like a piece of artillery than a speaker. It's powerful enough to convince anyone that a freight train is currently in the living room. When it comes to home theater and ridiculous bass, this sub is without equal. I have to agree with an earlier reviewer when I say that I don't know how people run two of these things (unless they live in a gymnasium). My entire house shakes on its foundation when I play movies. The bass is subtle and powerful at the same time- not boomy in the least, and it hits you in the chest like a hammer. Basically, this sub is everything I had hoped and 100% more.
On the technical side, I don't even know how low this thing goes. The company shows a graph where the sub drops off a little under 20Hz. I guess I believe them since they are obviously very honest people. However, the lowest tone I can find on Avia is 20.39 Hz and my sub is still kicking ass at that level. I am positive that I never heard bass this low and powerful from any other sub out there in this price range or even from those costing significantly more.
The customer service is everything that I figured it would be after reading reviews. I emailed them one Friday night and had an answer by Saturday morning. What the hell is that? I don't answer my OWN mail late on Friday night.
I am trying to think of anything I might have left out. I will tell you this much: I put a lot of time into this decision and I was determined not to settle for less than the absolute best. I have found better than that in this sub. It not only fits into my system but takes it to a level that I never anticipated. You would do very well to take the risk and trust me and the other satisfied SVS customers. The subs that you are looking at in the stores can't hold a candle to this beauty. It's a 5-star performer without question, and it's true value is more like seven stars out of five. Thanks to the guys at SVS for making my home theater system better than it ever should have been.

Similar Products Used:

auditioned B&W ASW1000, an M&K model significantly more expensive than the 20-39, the definitive 400 watt 15-incher (forgot the model number), the velodynes in this price range

Tight base

None

Best sub for under $2000...bar none. The only thing that can beat this sub would be to add a second one for another $775 to have mindblowing base. I had a Velodyne CT-150 before which was a "good" sub for the price. I only paid $175 more for this sub and it is BETTER than a Velodyne HGS series sub (which runs for around $2K!!!) Nothing more could be said about this sub that hasn't been said...purchase one and watch The Phantom Menace with it...But brace yourself and your house down...it may shake it from the foundation!

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne, Cambridge Soundworks

Very powerful bass. Very good customer support.

Support(although excellent) is online only.

Like probably everyone else here, I bought this sub sight unseen (and unheard) based soley upon the the raves of its' reviewers. I was not disappointed. My 19 yr.old daughter was sitting next to me when I demo'd the helicopter-machine gun scene from The Matrix. She looked over at me and said AWESOME. This says it all. It does need to be calibrated with the rest of your system or it can get away from you. My neighbor said it made her stomach hurt. My dog barked at it for half an hour. Something that I noticed is that you don't just hear the bass, you can actually feel it. One big explosion and you feel yourself being bombarded by sonic waves. A must for any serious home theater setup.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

Killer sub! Good flat non-boomy.

I first ordered my 20-39pc on a monday night at about 2 am. The next day at about 8 pm. I recieved a shipping notice and the day after on wednesday I recieved my sub. Very happy about that! Although that sub I recieved had something wrong with it and I had to ship it back to SVS for a new sub(wasn't so happy about that)! Although I can't really complain bacause they gave me a new sub with no hastles and I recieved my new sub within a week.

As far as the performance of this sub goes, there is not much more I can say that has not already been said here and on the HomeTheaterForum, so I will just say that I too am very happy with this sub and that it does not disapoint.

Good deep bass, Good customer support.

No phone number to talk to in person. There is no way to audition just rely on word of mouth and reviews. Size

Damn, the first time I played Matrix movie, the picture which was hung in the room fell off and broke the glass (I am happy it did not wrinkle or dent on my expensive photograph) had to mute and remove my other pic's and then continue. My wife goes your are going to bring the house down from downstairs, and I whispered yeah I would be happy. I meant that I got good clean powerfull bass at low Hz.

I would recommend this water heaters size WOOOOOOOOFERS..

My equipments:
B&W Nautilus 805
B&W Nautilus HTM1
B&W DM 601 S2's Surround Rears
B&W LM1 for Surround Backs
Dual SVS 20-39CS with Samson S700 amp
Acurus 125x5 amp
Denon AVR3802 (Receiver)
Sony SAT A4 (Satellite Receiver)
Sony CDP-C545(CD Player)
Sony DVP-NS700P

Similar Products Used:

Vel HGS12/15 and HSU TN1220, REL Strata III, B&W ASW 2500

Quality,deep, powerfull bass

None

This is the best value out there. This sub is great for both music and movies. Bass is powerfull but it doesn't overwhelm the rest of the system, beautifully blending with my speakers. It's rather large but blends in suprisingly well in the corner of my room. If you are in the market for high-end sub at modest price you can't go wrong with this one.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha sub