SVS PB10-ISD Subwoofer Test & Review (1 Viewer)

[Edward J M]

quote:Would you say that two of PB10-ISD's can handle any movie or music fed to them, that they have enough haedroom for every dinamic peak in a small to moderate sized room at/near reference level? I'm asking because i'm considering buying two of those in the not so distant future and want to know if they are good enough to meet my demands.

That would be highly dependent on actual room size, the distance to the listening position, and room acoustics. True Reference Level playback demands upward of 117 dB bass peaks at the listening position, and even a bit more if you are running the sub a bit hot (pretty common).

In my room (3.5 meters from the sub), I was hitting 104-106 dB (on average) bass peaks, as read on a c-weighted meter set to Fast. Dual PB10-ISD would up that to 110-112 dB (again c-weighted). Adding in a bit more to compensate for the c-weighted meter gets me in the 114-116 dB region. This is also corroborated by the in-room FR sweep in the review; I hit 110 dB before the sub limited out, and dual PB10-ISD would get me to 116 dB. So I would be just squeaking into Reference Level territory. Also keep in mind simply moving the subwoofers closer can dramatically improve headroom since SPL varies inversely with the square of the distance.

You're talking to a guy who runs a PB12-Ultra/2 in a mid-size room; I highly value clean headroom. If I was going to replace that subwoofer, I'd do it with four PB10-ISD and get roughly the same dynamic headroom (about 122 dB at the seat), and also even lower distortion.

Regards,

Ed

 

[Boris_V]

@Edward J M:

quote:That would be highly dependent on actual room size, the distance to the listening position, and room acoustics.

First of all, thanks for your quick reply.

Now, my room is fairly small, just about 17.5 square meters (~3.4m * ~5.2m) and only one half of that is being used for the HT (the couch is standing in the center of the room), so i'm sitting quite close to the speakers, the distance to the woofers would be only about 1.5m to 2m.

Same question as above.

 

[Edward J M]

quote:Now, my room is fairly small, just about 17.5 square meters (~3.4m * ~5.2m) and only one half of that is being used for the HT (the couch is standing in the center of the room), so i'm sitting quite close to the speakers, the distance to the woofers would be only about 1.5m to 2m.

If they were co-located in a 1300 ft3 room and placed only 6 feet away from the listening position - yes, I think you'd comfortably be in Reference Level territory. Feel free to confirm with TV over at SVS; he's got tons of in-room estimates for different models.

 

[Zack_R]

quote:You said that the PB12-ISD/2 offers more headroom/can play louder (how big's the difference?), if so i see no point in buying two of PB10-ISD if you can have one PB12-ISD/2 for just a tad more, do you?

Another point of difference between these two is extension. The PB12-ISD can be tuned to run a little deeper but at the expense of higher spl.

 

[Boris_V]

Ok, thanks again.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I've been playing with the PB10-ISD for the past week. Wow...nice sub! While it can certainly do things well beyond anything I've ever heard near its price with soundtracks, it's quite "fast" enough to "keep up" with bass found on music sources. Now, no monopole sub I've heard can do what my dipole Adire DPL-12's can do as far as perceived "speed", but this one's outstanding (and trounces the dipole in output!), certainly the antithesis of "slow" or "sloppy". (FWIW for reference, the last commercial sub I owned was a HSU 1220HO/500w amp combo). This is just the $400 one, from what I understand from all the reviews from non-anonymous reviewers, these qualities permeate the line. Just some quick impressions...I'll post some more thoughts later...

 

[Edward J M]

quote:Wow...nice sub! While it can certainly do things well beyond anything I've ever heard near its price with soundtracks, it's quite "fast" enough to "keep up" with bass found on music sources. Now, no monopole sub I've heard can do what my dipole Adire DPL-12's can do as far as perceived "speed", but this one's outstanding (and trounces the dipole in output!), certainly the antithesis of "slow" or "sloppy".

Hi Jack:

Glad you got a chance to post some initial thoughts on the PB10-ISD. You are considered by many to be the informed voice of logic and reason with all things related to subwoofers.

It's nice to see you corroborate my impressions of the PB10-ISD as setting new standards in both SQ and clean output in the $400 class.

FWIW, Jack is currently reviewing the same PB10-ISD that I reviewed; I shipped it to him last week.

Looking forward to more detailed posts from you as time permits.

Regards,
Ed

 

[Jack Gilvey]

quote:Glad you got a chance to post some initial thoughts on the PB10-ISD. You are considered by many to be the informed voice of logic and reason with all things related to subwoofers.

Yeah, well, those "many" eventually catch on...

quote:It's nice to see you corroborate my impressions of the PB10-ISD as setting new standards in both SQ and clean output in the $400 class.

Yup...consider them corroborated. Still enjoying it...I'll try to get more detailed, but there's not much to add to your review. This is the only SVS I've heard, I can only imagione what the big ones do.

 

[steve nn]

This is just the $400 one, from what I understand from all the reviews from non-anonymous reviewers, these qualities permeate the line. Just some quick impressions...I'll post some more thoughts later...

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Looking forward to your thoughts and size room Jack. Admittedly I never would have thought the PB10-ISD could perform as it does in my 2880^ leaky HT so subsequently I found Ed's (no hype no bs) review dead-on.

 

[Edward J M]

quote:Admittedly I never would have thought the PB10-ISD could perform as it does in my 2880^ leaky HT so subsequently I found Ed's (no hype no bs) review dead-on.

There were a lot of doubters in the beginning. Patience is a virtue, and the best thing for all involved was to simply wait until additional reviews, independent tests, and owner reports started rolling in.



Craig Chase tested his PB10-ISD and was within 1 dB of my posted data in both FR and THD. Subjectively, he thinks it's one hella sub for the $$ and I agree.

 

[steve nn]

Yes I recall Craig bringing that fact up but I thought it was in reference to the PB12-Ultra/2----Maestro? Could you post the link Ed?



>>>There were a lot of doubters in the beginning. Patience is a virtue, and the best thing for all involved was to simply wait until additional reviews, independent tests, and owner reports started rolling in.

 

[Edward J M]

It's an AVS thread; I'm not sure of the exact one and it might have been closed because of newsgroup style mudslinging (what's new). Best to ask Craig directly.

 

[Yung]

Here is a link to the thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=6

 

[steve nn]

Thanks Yung. There's a clear case of a Thread going south

 

[Yung]

No problem Steve. It happens to pretty much any SVS related thread over at AVS.

 

[Jon Oliva]

Correction: It happens to *every* thread at AVS...:frowning:

 

[steve nn]

It happens to pretty much any SVS related thread over at AVS.
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Yes I have had 6-7 posts deleted over there. It seems to be fine if NT posts what-ever he likes but the same doesn't even hold remotely true for other members.:rolleyes

 

[terence]

NT should stand for Night Troll! If this guy is not one and they can't see something is truly wrong over there, and its sad. This guy has it in for SVS and has proven it in countless threads, and has helped close any positive/productive threads due to his rants.

 

[SVS-Ron]

Guys,

As the OEM in question I sure appreciate the pain/frustration a well-documented troll like "NightRain" (or whatever his name is now) can cause but ADMIN at AVS have a hard job.

No sense in conmplaining about it here (as theraputic as it might seem in the short run). Use the "Report this post" function and cordially explain how you feel about trolls at AVS (and there are indeed a few well known ones). Action there is based on the voices that reach the moderators from my experience. Like any of us, they respond to reasoned arguments, though they might well see over-zealous SVS supporters as "part of the problem" over there too ("feeding the trolls" as it were). So it's probably worthwhile to be sensitive to that perception.

There are a lot of good people over there, it's just a couple bad apples that ruin otherwise adult conversation.

Ron

 

[MuneebM]

Excellent review Ed! Now you've got me considering one...

I have an HSU STF-2 and was planning to upgrade to an HSU STF-3 in the near future as they are more accessible up here in Canada than SVS (I hope you're reading this Ron/Tom and thinking about your northern HT enthusiasts!). How much better than my current STF-2 is the PB10-ISD? Would it be a smarter upgrade in terms of bang-for-the-buck over an HSU STF-3? Does it or can it outperform an STF-3? Thanks in advance for all the advice.

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