New SVS SB1000 & PB1000 Subwoofers!! - Page 16

i am waiting for an email reply from the online store i want to order my sub. IF everything is goes smooth, i will be able to get the sub at a really good price, and hopefully, i will have it by next Friday.

i am so excited!

Sweet!!!

I can't wait for your impressions!!

Athanasios

Just thought I would add my 2c on the SB1000.

Some friends of my aunt and uncle hired me to upgrade the media room in the house they had just bought. They wanted something small and unobtrusive. I had always heard great things about SVS and the SB1000 looked like it might fill their needs.

I ordered the sub and had it shipped to me at work. Taking it out of the box and seeing just how small it is started to make me wonder if I had made a mistake. I took it home and hooked it to my system. I'm running dual BIC PL200's. I simply took one PL200 off it's SubDude, placed the SVS down and turned off the other PL200.

Was quite impressed at how well it filled my living room with tight, clean bass. I didn't re-run Audyssey XT32 since I didn't want to mess up my current configuration.

Once at the customers house I placed the SB1000 on its SubDude, ran Audyssey MultiEQ XT and crossed their speakers over at 80hz. Their room is just over 1500cf and it was much more impressive in their environment. Even they were very impressed at the amount and quality of the bass such a small sub put out. Their previous house had a dedicated HT and they said the bass was nowhere near as good as what they were hearing out of the little SB1000.

While it didn't produce punch you in the gut bass it did add the depth to the low end in soundtracks most people would be happy with.

Now I've got the itch to swap out my PL200's for a pair of PB12-NSD's....

Just do it!!!

Nice story. It's things like this I have read over and over about SVS that got me to look into their products.

And hearing a pair of PB12 Plus's at A Theater meet.

Athanasios

Just an update... Ed is going to send me an SB1000, so I'll have both of them to look at. I'm thinking about doing a simultaneously review of sorts so I can see where their individual strengths are.

Nice!! How long before you get the SB1000?

It be nice to hear you thoughts and impression of the differences.


Athanasios

I would imagine it will be at least a week. I'm going to start putting the PB1000 through it's paces in the next few days, so that when the SB1000 comes I'll have a little bit of a head start. It's going to be interesting to see how I accomplish this; I've never done a "dual" review before, so this is a new challenge for me. To be honest, I don't recall seeing any review like that in the past so it's pretty uncharted territory. It won't be head-to-head shootout though, I'm going after more of a compare/contrast angle. They both have a different target audience, and that will be taken into account.

Got my pb-1000 today it's great! Audyssey has set it to +2.5 and the vol knob is at 12 o'clock. Is this okay?

My space is just shy of 4000 but honestly it shakes me and everything else in our den just fine. I listen @ -10db or so for movies.

What a pleasant experience and purchase as well from SVS. A fan!

Jim, do you calibrate your subs before testing them? If so, i would like to read how you did it, in your review

For the subjective portion it's Audyssey mostly.

I try to emulate what the majority of people do, instead of finely tuning everything with measurement equipment for an hour. I started this doing budget subs, pretty much as the "average" person would. Even though I've begun reviewing some far more expensive equipment I've tried to maintain that perspective. It's nice to read about how a Ferrari feels at 175MPH after one of their engineers tuned it, but realistically that won't matter to the vast majority of people - they'll want to know how it rides and handles doing 80 or 90 instead. Every day use essentially.
Edited by JimWilson - 2/1/13 at 6:21am

If you've only had the PB1000 running for a few hours you'll probably end up turning it back from +2.5 to +1 or something. Once it breaks in more then likely you'll find that the bass becomes richer and the output will increase, allowing you to pull back on the trim somewhat.

Thank you Jim. You are right I found myself pulling it back to +1.5 this A.M.

I use an ref offset of 10 for TV and 0 for movies...Works perfectly. Presently have the pb paired with the little take classics (yeah I know) but am on the verge of upgrading my 5.0

Excellent news, Jim!! I'm really looking forward to that!

And if you compare the sound of those with an SB12nsd sub, that would be an added bonus!

Thanks!

pfff, i am dealing with morons. it looks like i will not have my PB-1000 delivered by next week

Let's not get too excited - I already have Ed sending me a pair of subs. I think three might be pushing it...

Hi all! I am hoping to get some insight from all of your experience regarding the PB-1000. I am currently running a Marantz sr5007, and I just puchased the SVS. It is replacing an old Mirage ps-8 (100 watt).

My dilemma is, I am wondering where the "Ooomph" is. I was expecting some serious "thump thump", and there is none.

For my set up, I removed the old, put the new in and I can't hear or fell any bass coming in. Now, I talked to the guys at SVS, they helped me troubleshoot to make sure I had it hooked up correctly, which I do. But honestly, the mirage outperforms this SVS.

And I feel like for the size of this sub and the amp (300 watt), it should be blowing me away. It's not. It is pretty anemic. So what am I doing wrong?

And I wish I could do 2 subs like I have read in these posts, but logistically and financially that wont happen.

Any thoughts or suggestions or experiences would be appreciated, thanks!

The PB-1000 should significantly outperform (i.e., crush) the PS-8. A few thoughts:
- Unless the current location is the only place you can put the sub, do a sub crawl to see if there are locations that offer a better response at the listening position.
- Make sure the crossover on the sub is maxed out or defeated. Turn the gain on the sub to 12:00. Run Audyssey.
- If the sub's level is set too high in the AVR's speaker set-up menu, raise the gain by "an hour" (i.e., go to 1:00) on the sub and re-run Audyssey. Repeat until the sub's level in the AVR menu is at (or right around) zero.
- Tweak the sub level in the AVR menu if/as desired.

My review for my first experience with SVS and the PB-1000

Delivery:
I put my order in on Monday the 7th, It was shipped on the 8th, It was at my door on the 9th. Given I live in Michigan and its only maybe 5 hours to the SVS facility, I was still very impressed to have my subwoofer delivered only 2 days after ordering. To save the details it looked well handled, wasn’t damaged at all, and it even came with a note personalized to me.

Customer Service:
The SVS customer service was top notch for me. I emailed them a few times prior to purchase asking for their recommendations given my room size and speaker setup. I even asked if they would recommend the SB-12 (a more expensive model) over the PB-1000 for my situation, and they said I would probably be better off with the PB-12 given my needs. They didn’t try to up sell me at all, which shows me they really wanted me to be happy, not just spend money. Once the sub arrived I had a quick setup question, so I emailed them, less than 15 minutes later they responded, fully answering my question. I was very happy with how I was treated and I feel if I have any further questions about their products I can get reliable, honest information from them.

Performance:
Now for what everyone want to know. How does it sound? First let me start by saying this, I am a novice home theater guy, and this is by far the most expensive piece to my setup (I’ll list my room and speaker specs at the end of the post). To give you an idea, the sub I upgraded from was a Mirage LF100. So given that I’ve never heard anything in its price range or higher, I will attempt to describe my experience with it.

Right away I ran audyssey with the sub volume at 12 o’clock as recommend. I played a few songs and the difference was clear. This sub was already putting out more than my previous sub ever had, even at lower volumes. I could hear new lows that I never got with the LF100 (albeit that isn’t saying much haha). I will say that after this very quick and rushed setup I felt a little underwhelmed, as I had very high expectations for this sub. I wasn’t concerned though as I felt once I rearranged a few things and played around with some of the settings it would sound much better.

So after a bit of tuning and also turning the volume dial to about 2 o’clock I played the same songs again. And let me just say the difference was incredible. The whole room was filled with deep rich bass. I couch feel the couch shake. It was very impressive. I will say though, I hear many of you asking about “could ya feel it hit you in the chest?” and my answer is no not really. I wouldn’t describe the bass that comes out as boomy where you literally get hit by a pressure wave. Now as I said the couch did rumble and a few things hanging on the wall felt it too. It was definitely loud, crisp, clean, and deep, which was exactly what I was looking for.

Now this is where I was most impressed. This sub really shines when watching movies. Last night I watched “how to train your dragon” with my girlfriend, and man was the bass great! The dragon’s wings flapping felt like they were right next to me. On top of that I watched Transformers to test how it handled explosions, and it performed great! I never noticed any unwanted/distorted noise, even at loud volumes. So with the addition of this sub, my movie watching experience dramatically improved even more so than my music listening (although for music I primarily listen to rock type music so there isn’t as many super low bass moments).

Overall: (5 stars out of 5)
My experience with this sub has been very satisfying, and I feel it was worth every penny spent. I also know that with SVS’s great customer care I can upgrade to the PB-12 next year and get full money of my PB-1000 put towards it with their 1 year trade up policy (which I plan on utilizing). In short I would say this sub performs best for movies, but still very very good for music (the few Bass Mekanik songs I did listen to were very impressive). I think SVS may have made a long time customer out of me, as I’m positive that now that I’ve experienced “real” bass, I will be on the never ended quest to get the “best” bass. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who is thinking about exploring higher end subs, I think this product will give you a great idea of what you can expect and definitely won’t leave you disappointed if you are upgrading from a budget system like myself

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I’d be willing to try a few different things out if people are interested, but keep in mind I’m a novice when it comes to home theater and if you have technical questions I may or may not be able to answer them.

Room specs: Approximately 12’X15’ with 8’ ceilings
Receiver: Denon AVR 1611
Fronts: 3 Way Bass Reflex Speaker System Black Model 312
Center: Mirage Omnisat
Surrounds: Mirage Omni 50

I'm listening to a PB1000 as I type this, so perhaps I can add some insight to what eljay has already provided you.

Try the gain on the sub at 2 o'clock. I've personally found 12 o'clock to be a bit anemic too. My bass trim is set for 0dB in my AV receiver. If the sub is facing you make sure the phase dial is set to 0. Most of the time that's how you'll want it. How big is your room? I don't see any mention of that. Also, how many hours have you run it? The PB1000 needs at least 12-15 to loosen up and start coming into it's own.

One other thought... is this your first real subwoofer? The reason I ask is because most inexpensive subs will tend to emphasize the frequency response in the 40Hz-70Hz range, which is often called the "wow factor" because a lot of what people think is deep bass will be contained within that range. Truth is that's mid-bass, but people start to associate that embellishment to "good" bass. It's not. The SVS subwoofers generally shoot for a flat frequency response, so what you hear is what you're really supposed to hear; nothing more, nothing less. I'm not certain if that's what's happening in your case, but it is something else to consider.

JIm is right on the 2 O'clock position. It is where mine is set up as well.

I got to that position by placing the sub in the center of my room away from any walls etc. I placed my Sound meter about 1 foot away from it. I played the white noise test tones
for the sub at 0 on my AVP and raised the volume on the sub till I reached 75 db equal to the rest of my speakers with the volume of the AVP in the same location
when i set those up. I got a much better sound doing it that way. I still need to use REW read my room response tho.

So there is lots of work to get the correct sound for your room with any sub.

Athanasios

I purchased one PB1000 about 2.5 weeks ago. I went with that over the PB12-NSD due to size constraints. It performed quite well when I was testing it with movies and music that I decided to get another one. I was replacing a B&W sub and the SVS has worked well. One thing I have noticed, however, is a minor low knocking-type sound on certain music. It sounds like someone bumping a microphone or readjusting a shirt mic (to the beat of course). I'm not certain, if this is due to the room placement of the two subs or simply that the depth of the speakers is transmitting this info that was always there but previously undetectable.

I'm using the subs with a 5.1 Gallo CL-3 setup and they blend well together. My room is approximately 2800 cubic feet and the subs are on carpet over padding over concrete. I'm enjoying these subs a lot, so any insight into the mic-bumping/adjusting sound would be appreciated.

The knocking sound is no longer there. I've put the sub on the platform and it's been eliminated. I suppose it was from the surroundings.
Edited by VicTorious1 - 2/11/13 at 9:42pm

Sub placement won't cause a knocking. If it sounds like some type of mechanical noise -- like contact between two things -- I'd give SVS a call. If you're somehow reaching xmech on that driver it won't be long for this world.

+1
Edited by KurtCocain - 2/2/13 at 12:56pm

Is SB1000 suitable for metal music? Mainly how it survive fast double bassdrums etc? I'm plan to buy cheap/compact but as good as possible subwoofer and SB1000 is one
of those options. I listen mainly heavy/metal(from 70's to modern metal, from classic hard rock/hair metal to black/doom/death, almost anything) but also modern blues, 50's/60's music and some techno stuff(industrial, EBM).

I don't use my present Audiopro sw very much now, I've speaker system(Finnish "Chorus"-speakers,2x Compact 682 and 3x Compact 662) which sounds ok w/out sw too.
My apartment is also quite small so there's no need for powerful sub, can't even play very loud.

One thing is that I don't need/or like huge bass levels, I prefer more tight, sharp sound than booming low levels.

I can't say for sure, because my SB1000 hasn't arrived yet, but my guess is it would be able to handle that type of music. The PB1000 I have seems pretty good already, and I would imagine the SB1000 is even better.

Thanks for the feedback! I will try and be patient with this and play around a little bit more. My room size is about 13 x 17, vaulted ceilings, opens to the kitchen and dining room. My base line is that my old sub, the mirage would rattle the plates in my kitchen when I cranked it. The SVS is no where close, so maybe it does just need to loosen up a bit. My other concern is that when I ran Audessy (sp?) on the old, it put the sub at -12db. The SVS came in at -6db. I am just thinking that a 300watt 10 inch sub should have more output than a 8 inch 100 watt.
I keep hearing (reading) about how the SVS plays at a Flat frequency response. Can someone put that into laymans terms? I do appreciate all your insight on this. I guess my expectation is that this should be rattling my house, give great impact and depth on music, and sound like an absolute war zone with movies and call of duty. Just tell me this is true and I'll keep working on it.

terrspin, try to calibrate your sub with the Audyssey having the sub at 0db. which means that if u have it now at 2 o'clock the sub, turn it to 12... check if it shows 0db. if it does, then turn the volume on the sub back to 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock. and you might want to change the bass on ur AV to +2. let me know how it handles after that. and of course, let the sub run in a bit

i have just made my order. The site that i ordered my sub, kinda pissed me off, but in the end i hope everything will be fine.

if i am really unlucky, i will get it by the end of next week.

if anyone is interested into buying a pb-1000 sub from europe, pm me (AFTER I INFORM YOU, THAT I HAVE RECEIVED MINE!... i will not share any information, until i receive mine), and i will let you know how you could get it cheaper than 500 euros...
to be more precise .... less than 450 + shipping costs....

Can't wait till you start to play with it Palikari !

And 450 sounds like a decent price for the EU.

Take some pics of it in your set up too!

Athanasios

Less then in the US? Very nice.