Pros: Fairly Easy; Though Tedious, To Set UP And Calibrate
Cons: There is no way to "override" the auto on power feature.
The bottom line: Look into some other brand you can get a lot more bang for the buck.
Full review
I ordered two Infinity CSW-10 Subwoofers. The CSW-10 is supposed to be Infinity’s newest and best Subwoofer.
Friday I received my new CSW-10 subs. I was extremely disappointed. I tried a myriad of positions, and settings. To begin with, out of the box one had a very slight, but noticeable hum, and the other ones cabinet was shall we say “less then perfect” (should I be surprised? They’re assembled according to the tag on the back of the Subwoofer, in Mexico) I overlooked these minor imperfections. Much more important to me, was their sound. They don’t even come close to the quality of sound that my old Infinity SSW-212 produced. I wanted to “feel” the low frequencies; I know what I was used to. I know its personal taste, but a Subwoofer either can, or can’t “shake” your house. These have a very smooth, very mellow bass. They don’t have the “punch” I'm used to; and quite honestly, I found them to be a bit muddy at higher volumes. My old Subwoofer used to shake my neighbors basement. My neighbors used to say “We can’t hear it when you watch a movie with action in it, but we can feel it, our basement vibrates.” You are never going to achieve that same effect with the CSW-10’s; I don’t care how many of them you hook together. For listening to Jazz music, or String Bass they may be fine, but for Action Movies it’s not the Subwoofer to buy. For anyone interested TWO OF THESE TURNED UP FULL VOLUME were not even close to achieving the level that my old Infinity SSW-212 did. I don’t like the CSW-10’s. I will be eating the shipping, but they are going back! The new Infinity CSW-10 Subwoofers aren’t even in the same game, let alone same ballpark as the Infinity SSW-212…
There is ONE MAJOR FLAW (IMHO) with the CSW-10 Subwoofer. There is no way to "disable" the auto on power feature. The problem is this...In a movie that has soft passages; the sub goes into standby after approximately ten minutes without a signal. (As it says in its instruction manual) When these subs wake from standby, for some reason they make a distinctive, and annoying "squelch" sound. In a movie that has periods of quiet interlaced with loud explosions, like canon fire that would drive me insane. Most Subwoofers that do have auto on, have a switch to "bypass" it for just such instances. It would be easy for Infinity to remedy this on future models. All they need is a switch. But sadly there is no way that I can see to bypass it currently on a CSW-10.
One other note. The CSW-10’s come with a R.A.B.O.S. kit. While I found it to be relatively simple to use, make sure you have access to the internet. Otherwise you have to do some confusing calculations to come up with the settings. After you do the tests you’re supposed to calibrate the speaker to your room acoustics. This is the part I found most disappointing. Instead of the results being a numerical setting (i.e. set the dial to 58). Instead you’re instructed to dial a specific number of “clicks” counterclockwise. An example would be turning the dial seven clicks. I noticed that the clicks didn’t feel precise out of the box, how are they going to be after a little dust settles in them? For a Subwoofer that lists for $999.00 you would think they could come up with a better way to do this like putting numbers on the dial instead of just dots.
