The Smoken Review of the XV30
Hello Ladies and Gents, sorry it has been so long since I last posted any impressions on the forums. But I've been going through a lot with work and other personal things. But I am finally here to give my impressions and review on the XV30. Now for a disclaimer, I am no way an expert on subs. I do not have any measuring devices or SPL meters or anything the like just my trusty ear. Now according to the Navy I've had perfect hearing for 11 years straight now, so I do trust my ear LOL. So most of my review is nothing but In My Opinion. Now I am a hard guy to please when it comes to something that cost a lot of money. To me if I'm going to spend a good amount, it damn well better impress me. With that being said, lets get on with it.
Ordering & Customer Service – PSA Customer Service is unmatched. Tom always goes out of his way to help you as the consumer in any way possible. After numerous emails Tom suggested to me the XS30, but not having the funds to pay for it upfront I had to wait. Then my wife ordered the XS30 for me as a secret using the Paypal Bill Me Later service, but after some detective work I figured it out. You know when you were a little kid and wanted to know what your parents got you for Christmas, snooping around in their closets trying to find the stash. Yeah that was me, but only online.
Now some of you know that I actually returned the XS30 for the XV30. Later I'll explain why but for now I'm going over the customer service. The experience on returning the XS30 was probably the easiest and stress free thing I had ever done. This is how it went down. After talking with Tom some more I decided I wanted to return it for the XV30, he says no problem well send a box with straps in it to secure the XS30 shipping box back to the pallet. I was like umm, Tom I don't think I have that pallet anymore. The carrier service actually took it back with them, I didn't know I was suppose to keep it. No problem, Tom said just find any regular pallet and that should work. Too easy, went to a local farmer store and asked if they had any pallets I could have. The guy took me to the back and a mountain of pallets were sitting there. Awesome I said. Grabbed one and off I was. Meanwhile as I was waiting for the box of straps I was talking to Tom and asked him what the turnaround might be for the XV30. He gave me the lowdown of maybe a week after I ship out the XS30 because they'll have to wait for the XS30 then they'll send the new XV30 back to me. I was kind of bummed because I wanted the XV30 for the Superbowl party I was having. Fast forward and I emailed Tom saying I got the XS30 ready to go. He said he'll email me back on some more info on regards of the carrier service. He kind of sounded busy in the email. Thinking no problem, I know this guy has to be a pretty busy for the outstanding customer service he supplies. He emails me back this message.
“Hi Ryan,
Here's the update:
1)The new XV30 shipped today. PRO number 4009xxxxx
http://www.rlcarriers.com/shiptrace.asp
2)Our intention is to have RL pick up the XS30 from you when they drop off the new XV30 (should be 2 or 3 days to you from Ohio). Is that acceptable?”
Wait what? I said to myself. Is that acceptable....hes asking me if thats acceptable? I was actually speechless. Instead of waiting to receive my XS30 he shipped out the XV30 ahead of schedule and just do a swap when the carrier gets here. This is unheard of! Never in my life have I seen such customer service! Tom, I'd take a bullet for you.
I also want to add that the carrier truck drivers are extremely nice and helpful says my wife. Thats an A+ in my book.
Build Quality – After taking off the top portion of the box revealing the sub underneath, all I could do was laugh. It is MONSTROUS! My friend who helped me said it best “I love the overkill factor” seriously it is a beast. I love it! I had to unbox it in the garage then carry it through the house then upstairs to my home theater. Weighing in at 158lbs you can see where I'm going with this. My friend and I took a couple breaks on the way up the stairs. But I do have to say this thing is SOLID! There was no bowing or anything when lifting it up by the platform. Everything on this sub is solid. Also the port in the back, LOL, I could stick my arm inside it! Its that massive! Everything about this sub is overkill, and thats why I love it!
The finish is great, in my low lighting of a room you can't see really any sheen to it. Also its tucked in the corner so when I have the projector going you don't see any reflections. Moving around on the carpet actually seemed not that hard at all. I haven't looked but I don't think there any rubber feet on the bottom. When I had the XS30 it was a pain to move on the carpet because of the rubber feet. But the XV30 seemed to slide really easy on the carpet. Granted your still pushing nearly 160lbs but it was still easier than the 111lbs XS30.
Sound – Ok, now on to the meat and potatoes of the XV30. I set this puppy up in the corner, ran YPAO (I don't think it really helps other than getting the distance to the LP) then I set the gain on the back of the sub to about 2 o'clock and the gain on the AVR to +3db. Then on to my favorite scenes and movies.
Total Recall: The sweeps at the beginning of the movie sound freaking outstanding! Starts off high and rolls down the frequencies. Sounds so crisp and beefy at the same time. Like a giant was grabbing my room within his hands and shaking it softly then immediately hard. Another scene I was testing out was during the Fall near the end of the movie. There is a lot of mid to high bass during this portion so I wanted to see if the XV30 matched the XS30 in this department. Sure enough it did. There is this one part right before Quaid places the charges on the machine there is a LOUD thump when he walks into this area avoiding the patrols. If your not expecting it (like I wasn't) it WILL scare the holy hell out of you. It is LOUD! Now during the Fall as the machine is traveling through the tunnel, the amount of mid bass slam factor going on is nuts. My back literally feels like I just got out of a vibrating chair from the mall. I am not exaggerating either.
How To Train Your Dragon: There are 2 chapters that I always go to when I'm calibrating my subs. Chapters 9 and 15. Chapter 9 is when Hiccup is first riding Toothless with his complete getup and cheat sheet. Right off the bat you can almost feel the wind blowing through Hiccup's hair from the XV30. Its subtle but yet you can feel it and I love that. Another reason why I choose this scene is when Hiccup's cheat sheet goes flying he has no choice but to use his instinct to fly through the rocks with the help of Toothless. This portion I use because if you have a great sub and great speakers you can feel the subsonic waves coming from different directions instead of just feeling it come from the corner. The last rock that Hiccup fly’s over goes underneath him, and the rumble that you get from the sub ACTUALLY feels like your going over it. Its almost like a 4D effect. The other chapter is Chapter 15, when the Queen Dragon bursts out of the mountain. This part is full of that room shaking bass, the low freq kind. When I had the XS30 I was actually some what disappointed in this scene. I didn't feel that room shaking bass that I have felt before. I tried different settings on the XS30, different positions and such...nothing, didn't feel it like I was used to. This was one small reason why I returned the XS30. Now its the XV30's turn. WOW! The XV30 shakes the room in spades and keeps on delivering and never slowing down. Thats one thing I noticed about the XV30, you can keep pushing it and it will just keep getting louder and not lose its headroom. I noticed the XS30 would lose its low freq headroom slightly the more you push it. The XV30 just stops getting louder but keeps its composer. The battle scene between Toothless and the Queen was freaking intense!!! When you have your speakers in perfect harmony with your sub, magic happens. When they are both on the same level of volume, its really something to experience. Like I said its almost like a 4D effect, magic happens in front of you, its almost like you can reach out and touch the sounds in front of you. The explosion scene aka the Queen crashing. This is where my HSU VTF3 MK4 bottomed out every time. Not the XV30, nope. It laughs at the scene and keeps going!
War of the Worlds & Xmen First Class: I'm putting both of these movies in the same paragraph. Why? Let me tell you. Two scenes did something to my room that has never happened before and actually made me lose my breath. The pod scene and the Magneto levitating the dead Sebastian out of the submarine scene. First the pod scene, was unreal! My HSU VTF3 MK4 could not handle this scene at the volume I wanted it to be at. The XV30 just kept going, my wife was screaming at me from downstairs to turn it down. Thats when you know you got something good! The amount of bass pouring out of the sub during this scene is amazing. Everything was shaking like crazy, my projector was shaking! The screen was getting blurry because of it, and the projector is BOLTED to the ceiling! That is one small similar part of what happens later, in the movie Xmen First Class during the scene I mentioned...something happened. That scene has soooo much deep intense low freq bass, my lens shift in the projector SHIFTED down! Now imagine watching something on the screen and suddenly the image drops! I seriously thought my projector fell to the floor. No, thank god, the lens shift on the Epson shook so much it moved, causing the image on the screen to drop about 6 inches. Every scene in this movie that has Magneto using his powers is a treat with this sub! Another time this happened when I was listening to the song “Maximum Excursion” by Bass Mekanik.
Tron: I actually felt sick trying to watch this movie at -10db on the AVR. So much bass going on my insides were hurting LOL.
IMAX Hubble: The space shuttle launch scene. I was getting froggy so I bumped up my AVR volume to -8db. Never I have even dared to reach that level with a sub on this scene. The count down begins, I'm smiling but yet nervous at the same time. Then the water jets kick on, butterflies are swirling in my stomach. One, ignition.......HOLY KELLY CLARKSON HANG THE **** ON!!! Just the initial ignition of the space shuttle sent chills down my spine. I have never experienced anything like this before. EVER! I don't even remember feeling anything like this in a IMAX. Granted I never saw this clip in an IMAX but WOW. Seriously, this sub scares the crap out of me! I've never seen the space shuttle launch in person but this has to be pretty close LOL. The floors, the walls, the sofa, the projector was shaking uncontrollably. I have never felt anything shake that bad in my room before. It was surreal! I need to make sure I have a sub woofer clause in my House Insurance.
Blue Man Group How to be a Megastar: This is my go to demo for music, because it has so many musical instruments and mostly percussion going on all at once. The opening scene is what I use the most, the song “Above”. The curtain drops and the music just GOES, the kick drum is just pounding. My wife said the house sounded like it had a heartbeat during this scene since she was downstairs. Then the fun part. One of the Blue Man starts banging on this GIANT drum. You would think with all the bass going on from the bass guitar and the kick drum you wouldn't be able to hear much from the giant drum. WOW once again, this things digs even DEEPER and fills the room with the deep bass with every hit along with all the other notes going on. How can this thing do that? The bass is tight and CLEAN! Just simply amazing.
Why I Swapped - To be honest I'm not a fan of the single hz bass. Yeah its like having bragging rights but what is the point if you can't play it at loud levels. I like the room shaking bass, that's why I returned the XS30 for the XV30. The XS30 could hit single digits and feel like it could pressurize the room better but it wasn't at very loud levels. The XV30 is louder in the low freq around 15-30hz and that's where the room shakes but of course the XV30 doesn't hardly hit anything in the single digits. I didn't see a point in having the single hz capabilities since not allot of sources use that frequency but allot of sources do use that frequency that shakes the room and those are the more rememberable IMO. Now the mid to higher bass the XS30 is louder but only by about 2db, really not that big of a difference....not a night and day difference. But it was a night and day difference between the 2 in the 15hz - 30hz range. I also wanted that peace of mind, that I have the biggest baddest girl on the block. Don't get me wrong though the XS30 is a great sub, like Tom said to me "it does what it does for half the size and cheaper cost". But if she was a girl then she's not my type, she's a hot girl but XV30 is more of my type.
Final Thoughts - You know when I first emailed Tom I asked for a sub that demanded respect. Like the sound of thunder, when it hits it reminds you of your childhood when you hid underneath the blankets. Something that shot fear into you, something that shook your very soul. Ladies and Gentlemen that is the XV30. This sub scares the **** out of me. It demands respect. Tom you delivered, job well done!
Hello Ladies and Gents, sorry it has been so long since I last posted any impressions on the forums. But I've been going through a lot with work and other personal things. But I am finally here to give my impressions and review on the XV30. Now for a disclaimer, I am no way an expert on subs. I do not have any measuring devices or SPL meters or anything the like just my trusty ear. Now according to the Navy I've had perfect hearing for 11 years straight now, so I do trust my ear LOL. So most of my review is nothing but In My Opinion. Now I am a hard guy to please when it comes to something that cost a lot of money. To me if I'm going to spend a good amount, it damn well better impress me. With that being said, lets get on with it.
Ordering & Customer Service – PSA Customer Service is unmatched. Tom always goes out of his way to help you as the consumer in any way possible. After numerous emails Tom suggested to me the XS30, but not having the funds to pay for it upfront I had to wait. Then my wife ordered the XS30 for me as a secret using the Paypal Bill Me Later service, but after some detective work I figured it out. You know when you were a little kid and wanted to know what your parents got you for Christmas, snooping around in their closets trying to find the stash. Yeah that was me, but only online.
Now some of you know that I actually returned the XS30 for the XV30. Later I'll explain why but for now I'm going over the customer service. The experience on returning the XS30 was probably the easiest and stress free thing I had ever done. This is how it went down. After talking with Tom some more I decided I wanted to return it for the XV30, he says no problem well send a box with straps in it to secure the XS30 shipping box back to the pallet. I was like umm, Tom I don't think I have that pallet anymore. The carrier service actually took it back with them, I didn't know I was suppose to keep it. No problem, Tom said just find any regular pallet and that should work. Too easy, went to a local farmer store and asked if they had any pallets I could have. The guy took me to the back and a mountain of pallets were sitting there. Awesome I said. Grabbed one and off I was. Meanwhile as I was waiting for the box of straps I was talking to Tom and asked him what the turnaround might be for the XV30. He gave me the lowdown of maybe a week after I ship out the XS30 because they'll have to wait for the XS30 then they'll send the new XV30 back to me. I was kind of bummed because I wanted the XV30 for the Superbowl party I was having. Fast forward and I emailed Tom saying I got the XS30 ready to go. He said he'll email me back on some more info on regards of the carrier service. He kind of sounded busy in the email. Thinking no problem, I know this guy has to be a pretty busy for the outstanding customer service he supplies. He emails me back this message.
“Hi Ryan,
Here's the update:
1)The new XV30 shipped today. PRO number 4009xxxxx
http://www.rlcarriers.com/shiptrace.asp
2)Our intention is to have RL pick up the XS30 from you when they drop off the new XV30 (should be 2 or 3 days to you from Ohio). Is that acceptable?”
Wait what? I said to myself. Is that acceptable....hes asking me if thats acceptable? I was actually speechless. Instead of waiting to receive my XS30 he shipped out the XV30 ahead of schedule and just do a swap when the carrier gets here. This is unheard of! Never in my life have I seen such customer service! Tom, I'd take a bullet for you.
I also want to add that the carrier truck drivers are extremely nice and helpful says my wife. Thats an A+ in my book.
Build Quality – After taking off the top portion of the box revealing the sub underneath, all I could do was laugh. It is MONSTROUS! My friend who helped me said it best “I love the overkill factor” seriously it is a beast. I love it! I had to unbox it in the garage then carry it through the house then upstairs to my home theater. Weighing in at 158lbs you can see where I'm going with this. My friend and I took a couple breaks on the way up the stairs. But I do have to say this thing is SOLID! There was no bowing or anything when lifting it up by the platform. Everything on this sub is solid. Also the port in the back, LOL, I could stick my arm inside it! Its that massive! Everything about this sub is overkill, and thats why I love it!
The finish is great, in my low lighting of a room you can't see really any sheen to it. Also its tucked in the corner so when I have the projector going you don't see any reflections. Moving around on the carpet actually seemed not that hard at all. I haven't looked but I don't think there any rubber feet on the bottom. When I had the XS30 it was a pain to move on the carpet because of the rubber feet. But the XV30 seemed to slide really easy on the carpet. Granted your still pushing nearly 160lbs but it was still easier than the 111lbs XS30.
Sound – Ok, now on to the meat and potatoes of the XV30. I set this puppy up in the corner, ran YPAO (I don't think it really helps other than getting the distance to the LP) then I set the gain on the back of the sub to about 2 o'clock and the gain on the AVR to +3db. Then on to my favorite scenes and movies.
Total Recall: The sweeps at the beginning of the movie sound freaking outstanding! Starts off high and rolls down the frequencies. Sounds so crisp and beefy at the same time. Like a giant was grabbing my room within his hands and shaking it softly then immediately hard. Another scene I was testing out was during the Fall near the end of the movie. There is a lot of mid to high bass during this portion so I wanted to see if the XV30 matched the XS30 in this department. Sure enough it did. There is this one part right before Quaid places the charges on the machine there is a LOUD thump when he walks into this area avoiding the patrols. If your not expecting it (like I wasn't) it WILL scare the holy hell out of you. It is LOUD! Now during the Fall as the machine is traveling through the tunnel, the amount of mid bass slam factor going on is nuts. My back literally feels like I just got out of a vibrating chair from the mall. I am not exaggerating either.
How To Train Your Dragon: There are 2 chapters that I always go to when I'm calibrating my subs. Chapters 9 and 15. Chapter 9 is when Hiccup is first riding Toothless with his complete getup and cheat sheet. Right off the bat you can almost feel the wind blowing through Hiccup's hair from the XV30. Its subtle but yet you can feel it and I love that. Another reason why I choose this scene is when Hiccup's cheat sheet goes flying he has no choice but to use his instinct to fly through the rocks with the help of Toothless. This portion I use because if you have a great sub and great speakers you can feel the subsonic waves coming from different directions instead of just feeling it come from the corner. The last rock that Hiccup fly’s over goes underneath him, and the rumble that you get from the sub ACTUALLY feels like your going over it. Its almost like a 4D effect. The other chapter is Chapter 15, when the Queen Dragon bursts out of the mountain. This part is full of that room shaking bass, the low freq kind. When I had the XS30 I was actually some what disappointed in this scene. I didn't feel that room shaking bass that I have felt before. I tried different settings on the XS30, different positions and such...nothing, didn't feel it like I was used to. This was one small reason why I returned the XS30. Now its the XV30's turn. WOW! The XV30 shakes the room in spades and keeps on delivering and never slowing down. Thats one thing I noticed about the XV30, you can keep pushing it and it will just keep getting louder and not lose its headroom. I noticed the XS30 would lose its low freq headroom slightly the more you push it. The XV30 just stops getting louder but keeps its composer. The battle scene between Toothless and the Queen was freaking intense!!! When you have your speakers in perfect harmony with your sub, magic happens. When they are both on the same level of volume, its really something to experience. Like I said its almost like a 4D effect, magic happens in front of you, its almost like you can reach out and touch the sounds in front of you. The explosion scene aka the Queen crashing. This is where my HSU VTF3 MK4 bottomed out every time. Not the XV30, nope. It laughs at the scene and keeps going!
War of the Worlds & Xmen First Class: I'm putting both of these movies in the same paragraph. Why? Let me tell you. Two scenes did something to my room that has never happened before and actually made me lose my breath. The pod scene and the Magneto levitating the dead Sebastian out of the submarine scene. First the pod scene, was unreal! My HSU VTF3 MK4 could not handle this scene at the volume I wanted it to be at. The XV30 just kept going, my wife was screaming at me from downstairs to turn it down. Thats when you know you got something good! The amount of bass pouring out of the sub during this scene is amazing. Everything was shaking like crazy, my projector was shaking! The screen was getting blurry because of it, and the projector is BOLTED to the ceiling! That is one small similar part of what happens later, in the movie Xmen First Class during the scene I mentioned...something happened. That scene has soooo much deep intense low freq bass, my lens shift in the projector SHIFTED down! Now imagine watching something on the screen and suddenly the image drops! I seriously thought my projector fell to the floor. No, thank god, the lens shift on the Epson shook so much it moved, causing the image on the screen to drop about 6 inches. Every scene in this movie that has Magneto using his powers is a treat with this sub! Another time this happened when I was listening to the song “Maximum Excursion” by Bass Mekanik.
Tron: I actually felt sick trying to watch this movie at -10db on the AVR. So much bass going on my insides were hurting LOL.
IMAX Hubble: The space shuttle launch scene. I was getting froggy so I bumped up my AVR volume to -8db. Never I have even dared to reach that level with a sub on this scene. The count down begins, I'm smiling but yet nervous at the same time. Then the water jets kick on, butterflies are swirling in my stomach. One, ignition.......HOLY KELLY CLARKSON HANG THE **** ON!!! Just the initial ignition of the space shuttle sent chills down my spine. I have never experienced anything like this before. EVER! I don't even remember feeling anything like this in a IMAX. Granted I never saw this clip in an IMAX but WOW. Seriously, this sub scares the crap out of me! I've never seen the space shuttle launch in person but this has to be pretty close LOL. The floors, the walls, the sofa, the projector was shaking uncontrollably. I have never felt anything shake that bad in my room before. It was surreal! I need to make sure I have a sub woofer clause in my House Insurance.
Blue Man Group How to be a Megastar: This is my go to demo for music, because it has so many musical instruments and mostly percussion going on all at once. The opening scene is what I use the most, the song “Above”. The curtain drops and the music just GOES, the kick drum is just pounding. My wife said the house sounded like it had a heartbeat during this scene since she was downstairs. Then the fun part. One of the Blue Man starts banging on this GIANT drum. You would think with all the bass going on from the bass guitar and the kick drum you wouldn't be able to hear much from the giant drum. WOW once again, this things digs even DEEPER and fills the room with the deep bass with every hit along with all the other notes going on. How can this thing do that? The bass is tight and CLEAN! Just simply amazing.
Why I Swapped - To be honest I'm not a fan of the single hz bass. Yeah its like having bragging rights but what is the point if you can't play it at loud levels. I like the room shaking bass, that's why I returned the XS30 for the XV30. The XS30 could hit single digits and feel like it could pressurize the room better but it wasn't at very loud levels. The XV30 is louder in the low freq around 15-30hz and that's where the room shakes but of course the XV30 doesn't hardly hit anything in the single digits. I didn't see a point in having the single hz capabilities since not allot of sources use that frequency but allot of sources do use that frequency that shakes the room and those are the more rememberable IMO. Now the mid to higher bass the XS30 is louder but only by about 2db, really not that big of a difference....not a night and day difference. But it was a night and day difference between the 2 in the 15hz - 30hz range. I also wanted that peace of mind, that I have the biggest baddest girl on the block. Don't get me wrong though the XS30 is a great sub, like Tom said to me "it does what it does for half the size and cheaper cost". But if she was a girl then she's not my type, she's a hot girl but XV30 is more of my type.
Final Thoughts - You know when I first emailed Tom I asked for a sub that demanded respect. Like the sound of thunder, when it hits it reminds you of your childhood when you hid underneath the blankets. Something that shot fear into you, something that shook your very soul. Ladies and Gentlemen that is the XV30. This sub scares the **** out of me. It demands respect. Tom you delivered, job well done!
Not only is it great to hear that the PSA subs really deliver the goods, but my respect for Mr. Vodhanel just keeps going up. I sincerely hope I have reason to one day replace my subs and do business with him and his company. 
)
