Yamaha subs...any good?

The only 12" Yami I found was the YST-SW1500. Are you sure your friend is not mistaking a JBL SUB-12 as the Yami. I have found the SW1500 very difficult to find and usually says discontinued. There is nothing at BB or CC that is a 12" Yami. I can tell you that Yamaha's web site sucks.

I have an older YST-SW160 that has dual 8" drivers that has lower and cleaner bass than my onkyo S780 sub. Yamaha doesn't seem to have the subwoofers that they used to now. They seem to have gone the way of HTIBs.

Here is an idea, for a low $ high performer.

Go to Parts Express order the following

1.0cu ft Box ($85 on speacial)
12in Dayton RSS315-HF
PE 500w RMS BASH Amp
Gasket Tap 3/8in width

Buy a bag of poly batting or fill locally for dirt cheap


30mins of cutting and working and you have a totally kicking sub ;-)

~Bob

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/prod...ubwoofers.html

details of the 1500. it looks decent to me ...
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/prod...ht/sw1500.html
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/prod.../ystsw1500.pdf

i actually considered this sub once before ... i think its forte is in music, and not in HT.

musical subs should be tight and there is no reason to go to 12" drivers to produce tight bass. It sounds like a HT sub to me, but then again, when has Yamaha gone the route of HT other than the last 7-9 years. If you are looking for a good ~$500 sub, I would get a Martin Logan Dynamo. That sub rocks. Great lows, tight bass, and power when you need it.

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to say something about my Yamaha subwoofers. I have a YST SW-200 which is one of the old style tall and narrow models that Yamaha use to make. I have a strong dislike of the cube subwoofers that everyone makes these days. The YST SW-200 has another feature that I really like and it is the remote control. It's so much easier to adjust the bass level while sitting in my listening position. With the remote I can adjust the crossover frequency to match the main speakers. I also like most of the controls being on the front panel where I can see them and easily make adjustment without the remote.

The YST SW-200 has (2) 7" spruce cone servo controlled woofers. Sure, it does not plumb to the depths of a large Velodyne (or other quality subs) but for my purposes it does a fine job. Having heard the large 18" servo controled Velodyne at my local HI FI shop and having owned an 18" subwoofer for 5 years I know what a proper subwoofer sounds and feels like. From the same store I bought the YST SW-200 (that was years before the HT craze) originally for 2 channel stereo. It now serves my HT system. I live in an apartment and it shakes the walls with all the low frequencies I could want. When I see another for sale on EBay I won't hesitate to bid on it.

Late last year I scored a YST SW-80 for $58 (including shipping) from EBay for my radio set up. I wouldn't call it a subwoofer as much as it's a powered woofer that adds OOMPH to listening to music off the radio. On some music that I know has very deep frequencies, it's just not there. Still I'm pleased with it's performance for my purposes.

I can't comment on the newer cube Yamaha subwoofers since I have no experience with those. I do know that I will not buy any subwoofer with the auto on feature that some subs now come with. I hear (read) too many horror stories about them not working properly.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the older Yamaha subwoofers.