Deciding between HSU VTF-15H vs Rythmik AudioFV15HP

[Awoken4Life]

I'm looking for a powered sub to replace my dead sub. I have been reading through the forums and have noticed that the face of home theater has changed since I last ventured for product. The brick and mortar stores are being phased out by the ID outfits. I'm being drowned in brands/ specs and finding more relevant models daily and am worried of missing out on a product to consider by not being familiar with all the ID brands I don't know of. My budget is in the +/- $1000 range. I have the following components:

5 - Tannoy Precision 8 (set up in L/C/R/LR/RR)
1 - Denon AVR X-2000
1 - Playstation 3 for games/DVDs/BlueRays (soon to be replaced by a Playstation 4)
1 - Direct TV HR23700 cable box
1 - SurroundCast wireless rear surround transmitter

I currently have one Tannoy TS12 sub which is about 10yrs old! It has stopped working so I want to replace it. It is a 12" downward firing sub. I do have active kids so downward firing sub is appealing just from the "protect my investment" frame of mind. I liked the fullness of that sub and it also had LFE controls onboard. My range of music is upbeat classical, EDM, old school, trance, Pink Floyd, dance, top 40, latin dance, latin rock and more but that should give you a range of sonics.

Room description:
* my room is 16.5'x21' playing long ways
* I have a tiled floor
* there are lots of windows
* one of the long walls opens to the kitchen with a long counter and a hallway on either side
* the ceiling is raked on the short side from 18' down to 8' with an opening to a room above

Usage description:
80% movies
15% gaming
5% music

Volume level:
I like loud volumes for some viewing but don't want to sacrifice quality at low volumes either.

I also need to run wireless to the sub and place in the back corner of the room. That adds to the cost of the Rythmik. I have talked to reached out to Rythmik and spoke to Brian. I reached out to HSU on their forum but had no response yet. I'm trying to make sure I get the best economical choice but not sacrifice on my listening experience. I also considered the HSU ULS15 since it comes with wireless but am being advised to stick to ported since we are so movie heavy in our experience. I have also been warned about the wireless but see that others have done it with success. Would my receiver compensate for any delays? I have asked HSU about their specs on the wireless but have not heard back yet. I don't want to lose the lower freqs for the movies. I posted in other forums so am looking for more input but don't want to delay in more of my own indecision. Any other options I may be missing on with good response? :/
Thanks!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I would not get hung on wireless feature, you could always get from 3rd party if so required
This sub is very capable, great value and downfiring - POWER SOUND AUDIO — XV15 Home Audio Subwoofer
PSA is new small ID company founded by two top ex-SVS engineers

 

[its phillip]

I would choose the FV15HP

 

[Soccerkid830]

Can't speak for the HSU, but the FV15HP is one amazing sub. I have two of them, only one hooked up at the moment due to my living situation and it definitely adds some oomph to music and movies when powered on.

I think people will vote one way or the other, but you can't go wrong with either of them. Rythmik only makes a black oak and a piano black, while HSU allows for a rosewood finish if looks sway you at all. But at Salk Sound, a box can be made in a variety of finishes for the Rythmik. This is of course going to bump the price up a bit though.

Not sure if you're space limited at all, but keep in mind that both the HSU and Rythmik will be MUCH larger than the Tannoy you had. I use mine as an end table actually.

 

[ImcLoud]

I would go with the HSU, support and the product and pricing are amazing... I have heard the vtf15 and the 15hp, and I'm going to have to say I prefer the HSU but you wont do bad with either one... Both will make most happy, let the customer support make the decision for you call hsu and ask a few questions then call and ask about the rythmic, see whos cs you prefer...

 

[rnatalli]

I would go with the Rythmik, but you can't go wrong with either sub really.

 

[slipperybidness]

I have the F15HP (the sealed version of the FV15HP). It is a beast. One thing on the Rythmik, the amp is very robust and flexible. There are a lot of switches and settings on it. Could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your comfort level.

 

[Soccerkid830]

I would go with the HSU, support and the product and pricing are amazing... I have heard the vtf15 and the 15hp, and I'm going to have to say I prefer the HSU but you wont do bad with either one... Both will make most happy, let the customer support make the decision for you call hsu and ask a few questions then call and ask about the rythmic, see whos cs you prefer...

In regards to customer service... Not trying to say HSU is bad, because I honestly do not know, or sound like a fanboy of Rythmik...

The first time I hooked up one of my FV15HP's, the driver blew. Not really sure how/why, but I called up Rythmik's technical service support and got ahold of Brian who had me test a few things to ensure it was in fact dead, which it was. They immediately shipped me out a new driver and told me to keep the old one. I asked if they maybe wanted to do further testing on it to see what happened at which point they said sure, and sent me a prepaid shipment sticker to send it back. Whole ordeal only took about a week to fix.

In case your decision wasn't hard enough already.

 

[Awoken4Life]

Talk about a left turn! After all the great advice and opinions from several forums I have decided on and ordered the Power Sound Audio XV15. It's a 15" downward firing ported sub. I wasn't sure of the need for a 15" or downward firing but this subs specs and price point were great. Believe me, I went through a ton of specs on a ton of subs! What really tipped the scale was the customer service on a few questions I had. I got a response back from Tom at 10pm (apparently he works long hours like I do) - as a fellow business owner I respect that. His answers were not condescending and straight forward. He told me what I could expect (freq range and ~dB) out of his sub as it would be placed. I have been in the Audio Visual industry for over 25 years and know what these things are, what I wasn't sure of is brands, reliability and trustworthiness. I had not originally been considering them because they were relatively new but the more I read about them on the forums and the more I looked at their offerings the more I realized they were among the best of the them because of prior experience. I post this so that others who follow this thread looking for answers (as I did through posts years old!) know the thought process behind how I got to my own decision. Thanks to all and thanks to PSA - Welcome to the family!

Here's one link I found particularly helpful. I loved the simple layout but the name was absolute perfection. You can choose any other of the tested woofers for a direct comparison on the the same graph. Great site guys - congrats!
Data-Bass
I relied on the graphs from several sites other than the manufacturers and also the input from actual owners of the subs or others sharing what they have heard to make up for what I couldn't hear myself. Descriptive impressions go a looong way. I will post my own thoughts on the PSA XV15 when I've had enough time to for a rounded opinion.
Again - thanks to everyone! This is what forums are supposed to be about - helping each other out and spreading information!

 

[ImcLoud]

In regards to customer service... Not trying to say HSU is bad, because I honestly do not know, or sound like a fanboy of Rythmik...

The first time I hooked up one of my FV15HP's, the driver blew. Not really sure how/why, but I called up Rythmik's technical service support and got ahold of Brian who had me test a few things to ensure it was in fact dead, which it was. They immediately shipped me out a new driver and told me to keep the old one. I asked if they maybe wanted to do further testing on it to see what happened at which point they said sure, and sent me a prepaid shipment sticker to send it back. Whole ordeal only took about a week to fix.

In case your decision wasn't hard enough already.

DOA, I hope they were nice on the phone, LOL.. Although that can happen to anyone, I wouldn't use that story to help the brand out...

 

[Soccerkid830]

DOA, I hope they were nice on the phone, LOL.. Although that can happen to anyone, I wouldn't use that story to help the brand out...

I was more pointing out that they sent me a replacement without wanting the other one back. Until I offered to send it back, at which point they said okay. Every manufacturing process ever has defects. You can't control every little inconsistency without spending money like it grows in thin air.

 

[3db]

I would because its clearly demonstrates great customer service on Rthymik's part and since the owner still owns the sub and is happ with it, demonstrates the quality of the product. Sh?t just happens sometimes.

 

[jbrown15]

Well since we're posting our customer service stories now and the OP went with a PSA I thought I'd share my customer service story from dealing with Tom from PSA.

So I was roughly the second person to order PSA's latest sub the XS30 back at the end of November 2012, I actually ended up going with dual XS30's. for anyone that didn't know the first half dozen that were shipped out ended up receiving some damage during shipping because the first few were shipped out just in boxes instead of strapped to a pallet. Tom had a packaging company that he's been dealing with for years design the packaging for the new XS30's and I guess they figured they could get away without strapping them to pallets. I'm up in Canada and live close to the border, so Tom shipped my two subs to my friends place that lives just across the border. By doing that I saved a lot because of cross border shipping and PSA offer's free shipping within the US.

So anyways when they arrived at my friends and I went to go pick them up all four grills were damaged in shipping, I wasn't to concerned about that because I already knew Tom would replace the grills because two other customers had the same thing happen and Tom had already sent them their replacement grills no questions asked. But when I actually got the subs home and fully unpackaged down in the theatre room I could see that one of the subs had a very small nick in the black finish close to the driver and the other sub had a damaged amp. The sub with the small nick wasn't an issue at all because I would almost have to point it out to someone to see it and the grill cover covers it as soon as the grill is on. The amp on the other hand had me a little bummed out. It looked like someone had kicked the side of the box and it basically mangled the gain knob and actually dented the amp in just a little.

I immediately emailed Tom and told him about the damaged amp, small nick in the other sub and four broken grills and sent pictures of everything with the email. He replied back to me in less then 5mins and was very apologetic about the damaged subs and assured me everything would be taken care of. He told me to hook up the subs and see if they were working okay. So after hooking them up and dialling them in a little and running some test material I could tell they worked fine. Because the subs were just released Tom told me that it would be about a month to get two brand new subs and that I should just keep those two and use them until some more were available. At that time he would send me out two brand new ones and pay the return shipping on the damaged ones. When the new ones were available Tom sent me an email letting me know that I could return the subs now and he'd send out the new ones right away, or if I wanted he would send out four brand new grills and a replacement amp for the damaged unit directly to me and pay the cross border shipping and I could just keep the subs I already had. On top of that I would receive a kick back of a few hundred dollars for my troubles.

The whole process took about four weeks and the whole time I would receive emails from Tom every few days just checking in to see how things were going and how I was enjoying the subs. In the end I was able to get dual XS30's for under $1800 and I still have the damaged amp as a spare because really other then the gain knob being damaged there's nothing wrong with it. I'm 110% happy with the subs and the customer service that I received from PSA.

 

[stevenn]

^^ +1 Wow what a story jp.. With having dealt with Tom many times when he was the V in SVS, I can’t say I’m a bit surprised though. He definitely puts customer satisfaction and service as a top priority not to mention performance for your $$.

 

[3db]

Looks like two people/companies dedicated to customer service. That is certainly nice to see.

 

[precisi0n12]

Resurrecting this thread a little bit... I am in the same boat as the OP and was curious how happy you are with your choice? I am looking at the same three subwoofers...

 

[Jeff R.]

Two respectable companies competing for the heavy weight title in customer service is a great thing!!! It sound like the way companies used to do business many years ago.....

 

[SearchofSub]

I'm looking for a powered sub to replace my dead sub. I have been reading through the forums and have noticed that the face of home theater has changed since I last ventured for product. The brick and mortar stores are being phased out by the ID outfits. I'm being drowned in brands/ specs and finding more relevant models daily and am worried of missing out on a product to consider by not being familiar with all the ID brands I don't know of. My budget is in the +/- $1000 range. I have the following components:

5 - Tannoy Precision 8 (set up in L/C/R/LR/RR)
1 - Denon AVR X-2000
1 - Playstation 3 for games/DVDs/BlueRays (soon to be replaced by a Playstation 4)
1 - Direct TV HR23700 cable box
1 - SurroundCast wireless rear surround transmitter

I currently have one Tannoy TS12 sub which is about 10yrs old! It has stopped working so I want to replace it. It is a 12" downward firing sub. I do have active kids so downward firing sub is appealing just from the "protect my investment" frame of mind. I liked the fullness of that sub and it also had LFE controls onboard. My range of music is upbeat classical, EDM, old school, trance, Pink Floyd, dance, top 40, latin dance, latin rock and more but that should give you a range of sonics.

Room description:
* my room is 16.5'x21' playing long ways
* I have a tiled floor
* there are lots of windows
* one of the long walls opens to the kitchen with a long counter and a hallway on either side
* the ceiling is raked on the short side from 18' down to 8' with an opening to a room above

Usage description:
80% movies
15% gaming
5% music

Volume level:
I like loud volumes for some viewing but don't want to sacrifice quality at low volumes either.

I also need to run wireless to the sub and place in the back corner of the room. That adds to the cost of the Rythmik. I have talked to reached out to Rythmik and spoke to Brian. I reached out to HSU on their forum but had no response yet. I'm trying to make sure I get the best economical choice but not sacrifice on my listening experience. I also considered the HSU ULS15 since it comes with wireless but am being advised to stick to ported since we are so movie heavy in our experience. I have also been warned about the wireless but see that others have done it with success. Would my receiver compensate for any delays? I have asked HSU about their specs on the wireless but have not heard back yet. I don't want to lose the lower freqs for the movies. I posted in other forums so am looking for more input but don't want to delay in more of my own indecision. Any other options I may be missing on with good response? :/
Thanks!

Some poeple have had problems with the ULS-15 and its wireless feature. Rythmik FV15HP is better than the VYF 15-H..