SVS 1000 Pro Series Subwoofer Review

[shadyJ]

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SVS has recently revamped their entry-level subwoofers, the 1000 series, and the result is the 1000 Pro subwoofers. The 1000 Pro subwoofers is a major product revision for SVS since it makes such a significant change in what is likely to be a point of entry for people getting into SVS products. For many people, the 1000 Pros are going to the first subwoofer for those who aspire to own an SVS subwoofer, so it is important to make a good impression. The question then becomes, just how good are the 1000 Pro subwoofers? That’s what we will attempt to answer in today’s review since we have the SB-1000 Pro and PB-1000 Pro in-house. What do these subs bring to the table at their respective price points? Read our full review of SVS's 1000 Pro subs to find out…

READ: SVS 1000 Pro Series Subwoofers Review

 

[Gmoney]

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SVS has recently revamped their entry-level subwoofers, the 1000 series, and the result is the 1000 Pro subwoofers. The 1000 Pro subwoofers is a major product revision for SVS since it makes such a significant change in what is likely to be a point of entry for people getting into SVS products. For many people, the 1000 Pros are going to the first subwoofer for those who aspire to own an SVS subwoofer, so it is important to make a good impression. The question then becomes, just how good are the 1000 Pro subwoofers? That’s what we will attempt to answer in today’s review since we have the SB-1000 Pro and PB-1000 Pro in-house. What do these subs bring to the table at their respective price points? Read our full review of SVS's 1000 Pro subs to find out…

READ: SVS 1000 Pro Series Subwoofers Review

As usual another great review James. You mention that "not many would be using Bluetooth" My Son will, he and I had a deep discussion over those two Subs. He's interested in two of the PB-1000's, me one only because of my room size. I ran across those two on a website other than SVS, At the price point of what the two offer are real good value's. "Sledge" MOFET amp used with the 5 years warranty seems like a no-brainer.

 

[amita]

Great review. One question I am curious about is how the PB-1000 Pro compares with the SB-2000 Pro. Both are pretty flat down to 20Hz, and in light of the price difference, would the PB-1000 Pro actually be the better buy? Or is it going to be lacking compared to the 2000 in terms of higher distortion?

 

[bladerunner6]

Great review. One question I am curious about is how the PB-1000 Pro compares with the SB-2000 Pro. Both are pretty flat down to 20Hz, and in light of the price difference, would the PB-1000 Pro actually be the better buy? Or is it going to be lacking compared to the 2000 in terms of higher distortion?

I would find this informative also.
Thanks.

 

[Eppie]

Yes, great review. I was wondering the same thing as amita but thinking about the SB-2000 Pro for my room because some of the graphs I've seen indicate that it can dig as deep as the PB-1000 Pro but in a 14.5" cube (PB-1000 Pro is approx. 19Hx15Wx19D without grill). That could be true in my case since I have a small room and that can extend the bass by 2 or 3 Hz. I know James didn't have a 2000 for review, but maybe could try and extrapolate the results?

 

[shadyJ]

Great review. One question I am curious about is how the PB-1000 Pro compares with the SB-2000 Pro. Both are pretty flat down to 20Hz, and in light of the price difference, would the PB-1000 Pro actually be the better buy? Or is it going to be lacking compared to the 2000 in terms of higher distortion?

Distortion isn't really a big deal until you push the subs hard. Here, the 2000 Pro series will have more headroom before they hit their limits. Based on the PB-2000 Pro's performance, it also looks like SVS would limit the SB-2000 Pro so that it doesn't run into any significant quantity of distortion. I would say if you are going to push the sub hard, go with the 2000 Pro, but if you aren't expecting to push the sub hard that often, go with the PB-1000 Pro.

 

[Seenhear]

James, as has been said many times, great review.
I know it was four years ago that you reviewed the HSU VTF-2 mk5, but I would love to see a comparison between that sub and the svs pb-1000 pro. The two seem nearly identical on paper: similar pricing, similar size, similar design, similar test results....
How do you think they compare and which would you choose at this price for which reason (e.g. HT/music/like to drive loud or not/etc).
Also if you can recall or have the notes from testing the HSU, how would it compare to the pb-1000 pro with respect to the distortion you described and the comments in this thread?

 

[shadyJ]

James, as has been said many times, great review.
I know it was four years ago that you reviewed the HSU VTF-2 mk5, but I would love to see a comparison between that sub and the svs pb-1000 pro. The two seem nearly identical on paper: similar pricing, similar size, similar design, similar test results....
How do you think they compare and which would you choose at this price for which reason (e.g. HT/music/like to drive loud or not/etc).
Also if you can recall or have the notes from testing the HSU, how would it compare to the pb-1000 pro with respect to the distortion you described and the comments in this thread?

The VTF-2 mk5 and PB-1000 Pro are similar, yes, but they are not the same. They do have differing performance targets, and they have somewhat different strengths. Those who want to get into the nitty-gritty can compare the measurements from the reviews to see exactly how they differ. Something else to keep in mind is that for burst measurements, I used REW to measure the SVS subs and Don Keele's CEA-2010 testing software to measure the Hsu subs. These programs get very close measurements but not identical, so I would call a +/-1dB difference a wash. In other words, don't take every tenth of a decibel in those measurements as the absolute performance difference between the two subs.

As for distortion, the more complex the program material, the less audible any distortion quantity would be, if it is audible at all. At a high level, you might be able to perceive the difference in a sine wave, but in something like an explosion or an avalanche, forget it. I really couldn't tell you how the distortion quantities would mark a difference between those subs, but for most drive levels and most content types that people listen to, I wouldn't think it would be audible.

 

[Seenhear]

The VTF-2 mk5 and PB-1000 Pro are similar, yes, but they are not the same. They do have differing performance targets, and they have somewhat different strengths. Those who want to get into the nitty-gritty can compare the measurements from the reviews to see exactly how they differ. Something else to keep in mind is that for burst measurements, I used REW to measure the SVS subs and Don Keele's CEA-2010 testing software to measure the Hsu subs. These programs get very close measurements but not identical, so I would call a +/-1dB difference a wash. In other words, don't take every tenth of a decibel in those measurements as the absolute performance difference between the two subs.

As for distortion, the more complex the program material, the less audible any distortion quantity would be, if it is audible at all. At a high level, you might be able to perceive the difference in a sine wave, but in something like an explosion or an avalanche, forget it. I really couldn't tell you how the distortion quantities would mark a difference between those subs, but for most drive levels and most content types that people listen to, I wouldn't think it would be audible.

Ha, yes, I was assuming at LEAST +/-1db margin of error for comparing any two subs. I don't know if you've been able to validate your test methods of late to tighter than that, but to me even if the methods were reproduceable to less than +/-1db, I'd say that most of us in our varied and various rooms, wouldn't be able to tell the difference between two subs that are within ~1db of each other on a given spec.
This is partly why I wanted a more qualitative assessment of these two subs, because for most of the measurements, I'd call it a wash: they are essentially equivalent. So I don't know what to make of them "on paper". When you say "They do have differing performance targets, and they have somewhat different strengths" could you offer your own qualitative take on what you feel those differences are?

While SVS offers a fantastic demo period, HSU does not, so it's hard to make a choice between them. I'm sure I'd be happy with either one, but want to try to figure out which one I'd be happiest with. LOL.

As a point of reference, my new media room is just shy of 3000cuft, so on the border of medium/large. It's pretty lively with hardwood floors and not much wall treatments (none yet, will have some large pictures and big floor rug). LCR are old Paradigm Titans for now, paired to a cc170 center with a Yamaha AVR. Surrounds and height are all in-wall/ceiling from HTD. This room is mostly for movies, but do love listening to classical music too. WAF prevents multiple subs, and furniture prevents a sub larger than the vtf2mk5 (which the svs isn't).

 

[shadyJ]

This is partly why I wanted a more qualitative assessment of these two subs, because for most of the measurements, I'd call it a wash: they are essentially equivalent. So I don't know what to make of them "on paper". When you say "They do have differing performance targets, and they have somewhat different strengths" could you offer your own qualitative take on what you feel those differences are?

I would have to say the most significant performance difference between these two subs is mostly around deep bass. If you look at the burst test measurements, the PB-1000 Pro almost splits the difference between the VTF-2 mk5's port tuning configurations, at least in burst testing. However, long-term measurements suggest that the VTF-2 is more comfortable in deep bass overall, but that is not surprising since it has a larger enclosure with a deeper tuning frequency. Long-term measurements also show the PB-1000 Pro to have a bit more sustained mid-bass headroom. If you go through all the different performance measurements, the PB-1000 Pro and VTF-2 mk5 trade blows or are even. If I were you, I would compare all the performance measurements and decide what individual strengths of these subs suit your intended content the best.

It's like shopping for a PC component; some CPU or GPU might have a better score in a generic benchmark, but what if you are looking for something that is better for your particular set of programs? In that case, you want to dig a bit deeper to see what is more optimal for you.

 

[Danzilla31]

Great article Shady

They really want all out on improving every line below the 4000

I'm wondering if They will ever improve on there ultra and 4000 lines. There's a lot out there that will compete with them even surpass them in the $2000 to $2500 dollar market

 

[shadyJ]

Great article Shady

They really want all out on improving every line below the 4000

I'm wondering if They will ever improve on there ultra and 4000 lines. There's a lot out there that will compete with them even surpass them in the $2000 to $2500 dollar market

While SVS does offer a lot of bang for the buck, they aren't really trying to win SPL drag races. SVS already brings a lot to the table, and a couple dB shy of being the loudest sub in their price range isn't really hurting them. I am sure they will revamp their higher-end lines eventually, but I don't think it will come from pressure to have more output than competitors.

 

[Mark E. Long]

While SVS does offer a lot of bang for the buck, they aren't really trying to win SPL drag races. SVS already brings a lot to the table, and a couple dB shy of being the loudest sub in their price range isn't really hurting them. I am sure they will revamp their higher-end lines eventually, but I don't think it will come from pressure to have more output than competitors.

These seem like a really good deal on an entry level sub . I’ve been toying with replacing my 20 odd some year old JBL psw-1200 subs at the price point for two they seem to have a lot to offer would these be considered an good upgrade to what I have ? These do dig deeper than what I have now I don’t need to shake my neighbor just my home but with clean authority. These have a nice feature set too and way more power than what I have now .

 

[shadyJ]

These seem like a really good deal on an entry level sub . I’ve been toying with replacing my 20 odd some year old JBL psw-1200 subs at the price point for two they seem to have a lot to offer would these be considered an good upgrade to what I have ? These do dig deeper than what I have now I don’t need to shake my neighbor just my home but with clean authority. These have a nice feature set too and way more power than what I have now .

I'm pretty sure the SVS PB-1000 Pros would make a very substantial upgrade over your old JBL subs.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I'm pretty sure the SVS PB-1000 Pros would make a very substantial upgrade over your old JBL subs.

Agreed.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I live about an hour south of SVS here in Ohio I wonder if they have a room to demo there gear . I’ve recently started haveing problems with one of the jbl subs intermittently randomly cutting out . It’s time to look at these a little harder .

 

[fandango1966]

Great review. One question I am curious about is how the PB-1000 Pro compares with the SB-2000 Pro. Both are pretty flat down to 20Hz, and in light of the price difference, would the PB-1000 Pro actually be the better buy? Or is it going to be lacking compared to the 2000 in terms of higher distortion?

I'm also interested in a comparison! I need to decide between this PB1000pro and a PC-yes PC2000Pro which is about the same as a PB-2000pro. My room is about 2,500cubic feet and i can't play my movies too loud...I used to have a PC-12NSD. Would a PC-2000 pro be a substantial upgrade over a PB1000 pro? I care more about low bass extension but I can't really "weaken" my house foundations! Some people here talk about subwoofers going as low as 12HZ!! wow...not for me but 18HZ would be nice! Just saying. Thanks for the review!

 

[falkin42]

I guess my question is how this compares to a Speedwoofer or Rythmik L12. I just want a smaller, cheaper unit. My room is fairly small for now but opens to other rooms. I understand room gain would help the sealed subs go deeper based on SVS' website.

 

[fudoken]

Hi, there is a mistake in the review.

Audioholics PB-2000 CEA 2010 (2 meter RMS)

20Hz 103.8 dB
25Hz 107.6 dB
31.5Hz 109.6 dB
40Hz 110.1 dB
50Hz 110.5 dB
63Hz 111.5 dB

(2M Peak are +3dB)

So, your PB1000 PRO measurements is not 2M RMS. It´s 2M peak (-6dB than 1M peak)

PB2000 (500W RMS/1100W) is better than PB1000 PRO.

 

[Ponzio]

As an owner of 3 older SVS sub's, my only quibble with some of the newer models is the cloth vs. the old metal grill(s). Looks chintzy.

Spec/cost-wise though it looks like they've upped their game.

Way-to-go SVS!