Accurate and musical sound reproduction, plenty of power, goes low, a very good value.

Sub's performance becomes boomy during high volume

This sub was bought as a replacement to a cheap 6.5 inch sony sub (which happened to be remarkebly good). What attracted me to this LFE was the price point at under $200, the power of the amp and the fact that Yamaha said it could go down to 20hz. I have mixed feelings about this sub. For the msot part this sub performs well in all situations during music and movies. I sometimes feel like the bass sounds a little fake while listening to movies and is just a moaning roar with little definition which could just be the movie soundtrack. For music, which is what I mostly use it for, the performance is very good. The bass that it produces is musical and is not just one noted like some cheap subs. It also has adequit amounts of power and head room for what I use it for. It can competentanly reproduce very low frequencies although I think that Yamaha exagerated the responce numbers. For the most part the bass seems controlled and apropriate. At high volumes the sound becomes quite boomy and the woofer seems to overpower the small cabinet. It also does not shake the room to the extent of other subs I have heard. The looks of this sub are very ordanary resembling a black cube. In all this is a good sub for most music and movies, but does not work as well during high volumes.

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Toshiba DVD Yamaha Receiver Sony Speakers

Excellent value, superb sounds, lots of bass, features far above its price, very Versitul wiring options so it can be used in almost every aplacation

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This subwoofer is amazing!!! For under $220 you can have a subwoofer that compares to products two and three times its price shipped to you. I recomend this product to anyone who is looking for a subwoofer whether it is for stereo or surround sound aplacations. I was amazed by how low the sub could go for only a 10" woofer. You will be blown away by crystal clear, super low bass.

Excellent value, superb sounds, pleasing bass, features far above its price point

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Either online or via good bargain-hunting in a retail store, you can bring home a 250w, well-built, superb-sounding, 10" Yamaha YST-SW315, downfiring subwoofer for around $200! And I assure you that this sub will stand up to, and even knock down, many, many other subwoofers in the $500-750 range. This puppy is an incredible bargain! I've compared it to subs from Klipsch, Tannoy, JBL, and Sony... nothing in this price range, if anything is even available in this price range by said manufactuers, even comes close. Yamaha has truly hit a home run with this work of art. It will fill your listening environment with sounds, bass, and LFE equivalent to subs in price brackets far above the unbelievable $200 you'll spend on this wonderful toy. Run, don't walk, to sample and purchase this sub, before Yamaha discontinues it because they priced it too low and people are afraid to buy something this inexpensive, even though the quality and the performance are CERTAINLY there!

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Klipsch, JBL, Tannoy, Sony, and other Yamaha subwoofers

Nice finish, trouble-free operation, decent, not lumpy one-note bass.

May not go too low to 20hz, but that's fine with me since I mostly enjoy music -- and by music I do not mean ear-drum piercing levels.

This sub is all about finesse. If you want a sub that really shakes the foundation of your house or prompts your neighbor to call the police, look elsewhere. This Yamaha blends well with my Mordaunt Short 501s (front) and MS center speaker and floorstanding Kenwood used as surround speakers. Grunts sometimes when gain level is set too high, but what subwoofer does not when abused?

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that crappy aiwa subwoofer

tight bass at lower to moderate listening levels.

This sub fell apart on itself on dynamic peaks and when the volume got cranking which tells me that the amp has a lack of dynamic capability and the woofer has a lack of air moving ability which does not work well with a servo system(makes the system stop its output before it should). a really bad example of a servo controled sub(probably not the servo system, more likely what I mentioned above).

First off I will say that Yamaha equipment is my first choice for electronics for the price due to the fact that they give you better features and sonics for the money than anything else going right know(I have their receiver and center channel and love both of them). So when it came time to look for subs Yamaha and Paradigm came to mind. First i went to hear the Paradigm sub and was very impressed with the sound of the ps series but it did not seem to go as low as you would think for the size of the thing and I have never been very satisfied with band pass enclosures which the Paradigm uses. So I decided to find something similar but possibly with a little smaller enclosure and at about the same price. I went to my local Best Buy to see what they had and they had three subs that interested me. The JBL E250P, The Klipsh(do not remeber the model but 12" floor firing), and the Yamaha 315. The only reason the 315 was a thought is because Yamaha does not make a 12" model so I decided to see what their 10" servo unit would do. Before hearing them I was drawn to the Yamaha for the smaller size, the servo control, and the fact that I have had Yamaha equipment in the past with no problems what so ever. the salesman could tell that i was interested in the Yamaha so he let me hear it first. I allways test speakers and subs with music first because if they can not reproduce music well then they will not be a part of my system seeing that most of my time with my system is spent listening to music not theater. When the saleman put the music on the Yamaha it was at a casual listening level and I did notice that the sub was adding to the music I was listening to(A lite jazz music that the salesman had there). The bass was tight and had a good weight to it with out sounding overly done. I will say again that I was really impressed by the use of servo drive in such an inexpensive sub, This technology is ussually left more the more expensive Velodynes and after studying what the servo system can do for a sub the fact that this sub had it impressed me. The other two subs that the salesman took me to were the Klipsch and the JBL, both were 250 12" models that were a tad bigger than the Yamaha in size and after hearing both of them it was determined that they were bigger for a reason. They both had even more output than the Yamaha. But I still had not made up my mind yet because I had not heard any of these subs at higher volume levels which are a must for good home theater impact. I do not want to start watching a movie and have to keep my finger on the volume on my remote to make sure to turn things down to keep my sub from distorting. I want a sub that can hold up to what ever I throw at it and stand there like a soldier fresh to the war. All three of these subs had a good level of output at moderate levels but when the salesman gave the gas to the reciever I noticed that the Klipsch held up for awhile but started to sound loose and uncontroled at higher levels(probably due to the fact that the onboard amp did not have the reserve power or dynamic headroom as audiophiles call it to put out enough more power to drive the woofer at these levels and also the driver itself could not have been built well enough to handle these dynamics). next I heard the Yamaha and imediately noticed that when the salesman turned things up this little sub got to a certain point of output and just simply quit putting out any more. basically the sub staid at the same volume and let the mains,center,and rears get louder which turned the system into a very thin sounding theater. It really surprised me that a sub with a 250 watt amp with active servo drive pushing a 10" woofer in a pretty well built enclosure wound not put out any more than this sub could. It makes me wonder if the fact that the built in amp might not have the dynamics to drive this 10" woofer to these levels and the servo drive comes in and stops the volume output before the amp clips or the woofer might not have the ability and the servo stops it from overdriving, either way the sub did not inpress me at all at its output capability. The only thing about the Yamaha I did like besides its small footprint is its lower volume tightness. Now when the salesman showed me the JBL E250P he told me that this sub was the best sub in the store according to the salesman that worked there and that it was the only one that they would not be afraid to through anyhting at because it could take it. When I heard this sub it became real clear which sub had a better amp(the JBL) for the fact that the built in class d amp has a dynamic headroom of about 3 db(mean it can double its output power on dynamics) at 500 watts coming from a 250rms amp will make a difference in output and tightness. When the salesman cranked it up it could take it then some. I took home the E250P and have been very happy with my purchase. As for the Yamaha, Love Yamaha equipment but they could have done better with this one!!

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Pradigm(liked the sound but too big and do not like bandpass enclosure idiosecrecies, Klipsch(sounded fine but dynamics did not match the better subs). have heard Velodyne higher end subs and several other high end subs like the Sunfire true and the higher end B&W subs but I did not want to mortgage a sub for my system. I am more into the affordable high end equipment. The JBL E250P have a very good mix of theater output, musical capability, and enough dynamic output to keep up with much higher priced subs. Love the Aquaplas cone as well(very well built)

strongest bass, won't be run over or distorted.

nothing at all

very nice subwoofer, i compared this and the other subwoofer in bestbuy. and i found this was the best, strongest bass, won't distort, others will. and because the bass it gives out is too deep, i always have to turn it at least half of the volume or frequency for that. otherwise, I'll be going crazy with this subwoofer. You may try this and you'll experience the same!

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infinity 50 jbl esc350 infinity il10

Good to below 30 Hz. Inexpensive.

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I decided to add a subwoofer as part of my recent buildup of home theater. I started at the low end with the Athena AS-P300 for $199. It was almost worthless in my opinion. Turn up the volume and you get a lot of 'chugging' characteristic of inexpensive subwoofers. Next I tried a Velodyne CHT-8 8" powered sub from Circuit City on sale for $269. Nice, but I didn't feel it went to 20 Hz at all using test tones. Music and DVDs were nice, but I wanted more for the $$. Next up was the Yamaha YST/SW315 from which was a major improvement over the Velodyne 8". This one is a keeper in my book. And the price was less to boot! Strong clear bass as 30 Hz and upward. It produced a lower volume rumbling at 20 Hz. At least the output wasn't zero like the Velodyne.

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Velodyne CHT-8 Athena AS-P300

very clean bass response.

Volume knob has proven to be a bit quirky. Not much change between 0-1/2 and from 1/2-full a big change. Oh well, not a big deal.

Wow, just bought a pretty nice system. I didn't have much cash left for the sub so I got the sw315. For the price this is a damn steal. Very nice bass response, tight and clean. Certainly not a velodyne, but more than enough for most applications.

I used to have a Mirage 12" subwoofer, but it broke a few years ago. I finally just got around to getting a replacement subwoofer. I did not want to spend a lot of money, but wanted the best sound I could get for cheap (under $150 USD). I do not play music really loud, and like classical/instrumental/light jazz. Of course, this is for a home theater too. I tried to get a Sony SA-WM40 (due to all the wonderfull reviews I read), but they are gone now and very hard to find. The Sony SA-WM500, its replacement, might have worked, but I have tight space restrictions, and that subwoofer would not have fit. So, I went to Best Buy and got a Sony SA-WM200 for $99, but it sounded very boomy and muddy, and it just thumped. I thought that maybe a low-end subwoofer is just going to sound like that and almost kept it, but decided to up my budget a bit and try the Yamaha YST-SW315. Twice the price, but worth a try. Wow, what a difference! This subwoofer is not boomy/muddy at all, and the notes are very tight. It is very musical compared to the Sony, and I think even sounds better than my pricy Mirage did. I highly recommend this subwoofer for anyone on a budget. You can buy one cheaper, but it will not be worth it. You get what you pay for (and you dont need a bank loan).

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Mirage 12" powered subwoofer (circa 1995) Sony SA-WM200

CLean Deep Rich Bass Unheard Of In this Price Range

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I have tested out my copy of Mask Of Zorro and Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers. I love the music in both movies, and especially when Banderas and Zeta Jones dance, its so much fun, the YST-SW315 added new life to this scene where I felt and heard rich stong bass, but never went for the volume or cringed at any sign of boominess. The Two Toweres was amazing, especially when Grima Wormtongue sees Sauroman's army of Ur-Khai it just brought this chill to my body. The theatrical edition left me thirsting even more for the Extended cut with DTS:ES.

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Yamah YST-SW305 and JBL PB12