Below is quoted out of a review of a PB12-Ultra/2 and is compared to a Seismic 12 from Paradigm. Yes The SVS is better, but for what it's worth the Seismic is no slouch!! For those of you with high WAF's or limited space, I recommend this little beast.
The PB12-Ultra/2 arrived in a well-designed, densely padded container on a nifty mini-pallet. According to SVS, this "mini-pallet, lift-off packaging" was borrowed from the appliance industry -- and, at 26"H x 19"W x 29"D and 190 pounds
About five of Paradigm’s brand-new Seismic 12 subwoofers ($1700 each) would fit inside a PB12-Ultra/2. Yet the Paradigm’s in-room response is specified at just two cycles above the SVS’s. I recently auditioned the Seismic 12 and found its performance impressive despite its size. More important, it was not a one-note boom-boom machine -- its excellent definition and extension are much better than those of other one-cubic-foot subs I’ve heard. So why would someone choose the larger, more expensive SVS over the Paradigm? Well, it’s the PB12-Ultra/2’s very size that enables it to produce cleaner, tighter bass with significantly more impact.
Still, the Seismic 12 is no slouch, and possesses some impressive technology. A Paradigm-designed, overbuilt, 12" downfiring woofer is flanked by two 10" passive radiators in a sealed enclosure. The radiators effectively do the same job as the tuned ports on the SVS. Like an organ’s pipes, the port diameter and length are tuned to a certain frequency, while radiators are weighted to resonate at a specific frequency. This is less a case of one way being better than the other than of dealing with the space constraints of a smaller box. A small box also requires Paradigm to use considerable equalization to boost response at 17Hz. On paper, the 4500W peak rating of the Seismic 12’s class-D amplifier may appear more powerful than the SVS, but the Seismic’s equalization circuit compromises its efficiency. The much larger PB12-Ultra/2 uses only a small amount of EQ to clean up frequency-response anomalies; therefore, most of its 2.4kW of peak power makes it to the TV-12 drivers.
Basic connections and controls are similar. Its smaller size makes the Seismic 12 much easier to position and calibrate, and the Paradigm has a balanced XLR connection where the SVS offers only unbalanced RCA-type ins and outs. But the SVS offers parametric EQ instead of the Paradigm’s 60Hz boost control for "added impact."
