Hello All!
I just received my new SVS PB12-Ultra this morning. This beast came on a lift truck!! The shipping weight was 150 lbs! After taking the monster from it's cage, it was beautiful. The maple finish is immaculate. The photos on the website really do it no justice (the color is quite an accurate representation though). SVS goes through a good effort to ensure nothing happens to your beauty in transit, monting your puchase to a heavy duty (what appeared to be) custom pallet. The sturdy enclosure was protected by some nice foam packing and heavy duty cardboard box. It was covered in a soft white cloth to avoid any scratches from the packing materials.
At 125 lbs (unboxed) I would suggest having two people to move this thing around. Luckily, I am a young, strapping lad, and was able to muscle this wild beast into place. I got everything hooked up and ready to go. I inserted two of the supplied port plugs right away. I love deep, smooth low end, and the 12hz tuning should supply quite a bit of it.
Unfortunately, I had to get to work so I could not do any listening. I will do that tonight and over the weekend. I will let everyone know how it performs. Judging by it's look, weight and down to business manual, I think I am in for a butt whooping.
*I had a Velodyne HGS-10. While musically it was pretty satisfying, I kept finding myself turning up the subwoofer volume on deep bass tracks and movies.
Edit: I am making this more concise here is the rest:
Ok. I finally got to do some extended listening. All listening was done in 2 channel mode. First off, I calibrated the Ultra, in 16 hz mode, to 85db reference. I used the Digital Video Essentials DVD. I also used my Reference speakers. B&W Signature 7 SE . These were in-wall speakers that I made B&W spec enclosures for. I am very familiar with them. My Harman Kardon AVR-325 was the power source. It has been reviewed to do 90 watts rms x 2 before clipping. (Though I never really get close to that). The parametric EQ was set to 52 hz (as there is a response bump there), with 3/4 cut and Q at .7 octave. This helped dramatically.
Music:
I started off with some of my personal favorites for subs, Tool's "Undertow", Track 9, and A Perfect Circle's "Thirteenth Step" Tracks 1 and 11. With "Undertow", there is a slow opening bass line, which digs very deep, and has some overhang on the stings. This song also is very dynamic and has some great percussion. The Ultra has rendered this song the best I have heard it done so far. I could actually hear/feel the stings vibrating in the air. It gave the opening of the song a more haunting feel than ever before. My Velodyne did a good job, but I was hearing things on this track I had not in the past. I then moved on to "Thirteenth Step". Track 1 is carried by the bassline. It is nice and and deep. Here, the Ultra was again better. It went deeper allowing more feel, (literally) and was much more, well... musical. Track 11 was even better. It is not really much of a song, but there is a lot of low frequency info here. In the very beginning of the track, I heard some low frequncy info that was NOT there with my Velodyne. It was impressive. You could actually feel the air in the room become excited.
Next, I moved onto Jazz. I knew this would either make or break it for me. It 'made it' all right, and then some. I cannot believe, for a sub that plays so low and loud, how wonderful it blends with music. It offers so much output, yet only delivers it when neccessary. I used Burt Conrad Allstars "A Soulful Journey" (A great disc, I have only found it at
www.cdbaby.com when I bought it) and Boney James "Backbone". Track 1 from "A Soulful Journey" was great. Nice poppy bass, perfectly articulated. Track four, my personal favorite, is a simple 4 piece set up. The stand up bass sounded wonderful. I was able to notice a bit more detail between the drums and the bass. The notes were much more distict on the bass as opposed to the Velodyne, which was very surprising. The Velodyne did not reveal this, as good as it is. Boney James' "Backbone" has a bit different style. There is almost an R&B type bass. A nice 45hz 'ish beat depending upon the track. I listened to most of the tracks here. Again it did every track very well.
Thirdly, I wanted to try some really well recorded pop music. For this, you have to go back to the late '80s early '90s to get pop music that has dynamics. I used Madonna's "Immaculate Collection". The track "Vogue" has a great bass line with lots of note shifts. The Ultra sounded Fantastic! I had forgotten how good well recorded pop music can sound. Dynamically speaking of course . Too bad today's pop has nothing remotely resembling dynamics. That is a different discussion though.
Lastly, going to my car audio roots, I tried some rap and bass music (I am using the term 'music' lightly here). WOW. This sub made me feel like I was IN MY CAR with the amount of output it is capable of. I could actually feel it, not only in my chest, but everywhere. Again, it is subtle when neccessary, but when the music demands it, it puts out!! I had usable in room response down to about 14hz with bass music. It was great.
Movies:
I have not actually watched any movies all the way through with it yet. I have not had the time. However, I did throw in "The Incredibles" and "Alien Vs. Predator". I was shocked with how buch bass I had NOT been feeling. This monster makes a movie much more believable when you feel it as well as see/hear it. My Velodyne was pretty much maxed out when you would just start to feel bass. Now, I barely have the thing turned up, and I have to turn the subwoofer down on the receiver sometimes. I love that. It is great to have headroom.
As you can tell. I really enjoy the sub. I really do not have anything negative to say about it. At first, before adjusting the P-EQ, I thought it was a touch boomy. However, it was just room response. Now, it sounds absolutely wonderful. The only real downfall is the size. It is big 25" x 18" x 18", especially to my wife. She was used to the Velodyne (11" x 11" x 11 1/2"). When she saw it she said, "THAT is your new sub"! However, she deals with it, and will enjoy it once she watches a movie. She does like the high quality of the finish, as do I. Bravo SVS on a jobe WELL done. This is the best sounding home audio sub I have heard, for music, movies and anything in between. It is highly reccommended.
