Yamaha YST-SW315

[Khellandros66]

<font color='#000000'>Hey Everyone, This is part of my review of a new budget sub that I got off the Internet. This article is one that should be read by the open minded.

Down to business, I got nailed the wonderful act of god and lost my Yamaha YST-SW305, which for the money sported dual 8 inch spruce cones and a 200w amplifier. &nbsp;I loved this sub both for movies and music. &nbsp;I was very distraught to find it is no longer available anywhere within my reach so I had to find a close or exact replacement. &nbsp;

In my search I found a B&amp;W ASW300, which is very clean but not very dynamic, or a great deal of low end. &nbsp;I tried a Definitive ProSub100 but I would wait to save the money, but I got stingy because there isn't a power switch on the #### thing?! &nbsp;So almost out of hope I decided to go and listen to Velodyne and Infinity subs, which where either too boomy or not enough low end kick in the 25Hz region.

I finally decided to give a floor-firing sub from Yamaha a try, not really doing much research nor finding any reviews on the sub I found its closest kin, the YST-SW320. &nbsp;After careful reading and research I decided to go and listen to it at my local Best Buy, boy in a store like Best Buy, to be impressed even surprised to here a piece of equipment not only correct hooked up, nor damaged in some way was enough but to hear great deep rich clean bass was jaw dropping (I used to work for Best Buy, most employees only know what the card says or what consumer reports feels is a good piece of equipment) So I decided that since they didn't want to match a e-tailer, I ordered a YST-SW315 from etronics.com.

This sucker is heavy for $209 + $40 shipping. &nbsp;This thing weighs a decent more than 37lbs. &nbsp;Its video shielded, and has the controls on the front, which contrasts the typical black box. &nbsp;I only had one complaint at first and that is the LFE input must be very sensitive, cause the sub would make a loud &quot;bump&quot; noise each time I hit mute, or switch through various DSP modes. &nbsp;So since I have my front L/R speakers set for large I decided to give the preamps a try, no more bump and still the same signal.

So far I have watched House of 1000 Corpses, Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones, Harry Potter: The Chamber Of Secrets, and the sub-killer the DTS:ES version of The Haunting, this baby rocked right through these movies at an average 87dB @ 2.5 meters C Weighting (87-92dB @ 2.5 meter 20Hz – 80Hz sine wave sweep &nbsp;C Weighting), and never broke down gave up, or ran out of gas. &nbsp;The segments that I used were the first real encounter with the door knocking in the Haunting. &nbsp;House of 1000 Corpses is probably the best horror movie since the Exorcist, the movie has rich clean sound and lots of bass, which in Destinta theaters nearly killed their LFE system. &nbsp;AOC and HP where rather fun to watch as usual but really good for spacious bass, no pun, the scene when Anakin leave to find his mother at Tatooine the music is similar to the famous two suns setting scene in A New Hope, and lets not forget the basilisk in the end of Harry Potter.

This concludes my movie section; I will post another about music soon.

Bob</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>Nice review, goes to prove that ultimately, it is upto your ears. Cant wait for the review on its muscial abilities.</font>

 

[Khellandros66]

<font color='#000000'>Now we dance.

Well I am now gonna write a little more about movies, and a great deal about music.

I have tested out my copy of Mask Of Zorro and Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers.  I love the music in both movies, and especially when Banderas and Zeta Jones dance, its so much fun, the YST-SW315 added new life to this scene where I felt and heard rich stong bass, but never went for the volume or cringed at any sign of boominess.  The Two Toweres was amazing, especially when Grima Wormtongue sees Sauroman's army of Ur-Khai it just brought this chill to my body.  The theatrical edition left me thirsting even more for the Extended cut with DTS:ES.  

Ok now we denfinitely dance, and headbang, and rave, and... Sorry.  

First CDs I used are my reference discs which include Stevie Ray Vaughan's The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol 2, Lord Of The Rings TTT Sndtrck, AK1200 Lock &amp; Roll, The General's Daughter HDCD Sndtrk, and Princess Mononoke HDCD Sndtrk.

Vaughan's Voodo Chile (Slight Return) was sooo tight and clean I could feel the the drummers legs and arms moving, also Wall of Denial was same results.  I never felt distracted from Vaughan's guitar work or vocals, which is god cause no, one thing should stand out unless its meant to.

The Two Towers soundtrack is probably one of the cleanest I've ever heard.  Bass is a non issue its so invovling I couldn't tell you how good just the bass sounded, I really don't think its possible.  This is by far one of the most emotional soundtracks ever made.  It doesn't tell a story, yet its not like a Mozart piece that wasn't written with the thought of a movie.

AK1200 is a Drum &amp; Bass DJ who takes songs from other artists and remixes and adds some of his own new touches.  Lock &amp; Roll is my ultimate subwoofer test CD.  Not only are the vocals and music mezmerizing, but the bas is undeniably low and quick.  This sub passes with a B+ cause only under extremely loud segments did its knees bend under the weight.

General's Daughter is all over the map as far as what is heard, but it is fun and full of bass, especially tracks 1-5.  I love the use of purcussion instruments and their natural sound.

Princess Mononoke is a story telling soundtrack. Thats because anime requires more than beautiful pictures, drawings, and dialog to help the audiences emotions.  So much can be read in words, and nobody sees things exactly the same as others. So the music establishes a feeling of hate, happiness, and fear.  This CD is one of the largest scaled orchestras I own.  I mean there are hundreds of percussion instuments from Europe, Asia, and America.  This is also a very dynamic soundtrack too.

Music wise this sub holds its own with ones costin up to $600 but lacks the power and clean sound of the higher priced models out there from Velodyne, SVS, HSU or Definitive.

But at $209 on Etronics.com its hard to beat.

Bob</font>

 

[cagey]

<font color='#000000'>Bob, your review was very informative. &nbsp;I'm new to this arena, so I don't know what your numbers meant (the dB and weighting).

Basically, do you think this sub actually gets down to the 20s? &nbsp;Sound effects good and clean (not muddy)?

You made this comment <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">So since I have my front L/R speakers set for large I decided to give the preamps a try, no more bump and still the same signal.</td></tr></table>

Can you explain that? &nbsp;My receiver will be the HTR-5660, which does have pre-amps. &nbsp;Are you saying I hook the sub up via the LFE connection, and the speakers to the receiver (rather than to the sub)? &nbsp;That's my plan. &nbsp;And I'm leaning toward some 6&quot; mains and surrounds, which I'll likely set to large as well.

thanks</font>

 

[Khellandros66]

<font color='#000000'>This sub has a very sensitive LFE input, so sensitive that on my RX-V1300 it makes a bump or quick thump when switching between inputs and surround modes. &nbsp;I found that seting the fronts to large (Definitive ProMonitor200s which are rated down to 28Hz) I then sent the LFE signal to &quot;MAIN&quot; then I conneced the sub to the L/R Front Channel Preamp Outs. &nbsp;There is no loss in quality either.

As for 20Hz I burned a custom CD on 3 audio track, 1 is; Sine Wave, next is Square Wave, and the third is an Absolute Sine wav. &nbsp;All of these last 10 seconds per 10Hz from 10Hz-90hz.
In ther first 10 seconds there wasn't any sound then at 11 sec on my Toshiba SD4800 there was a substantial amout of bass, I will re-test to see exactly how many decibels is was for those 10secs but off the top of my head I believe it was 75-ish

~

Bob</font>

 

[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#000000'>There's a guy who frequents AudioCircle that uses a pair of those Yammie subs, I think. &nbsp;He has about $20K in his system (!) and actually says those cheap yammie outperformed some BAG END Infrasubs (at least in his system). &nbsp;He could have about anything he wants, and that's the best he's found (again, in his rig). &nbsp;He was very skeptical, and he realizes that folks tend not to believe him, but that's his story and he's stickin' to it!

Never heard one myself, but at the price I might get one for my bedroom rig. &nbsp;(My pair of HSUs aren't going away, tho!).</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>I have a pair of YST-SW800 which replaced a pair of M&amp;K. The Yamahas kick nice and are among the most musical of all the subs in the market.</font>

 

[Ultra Nexus]

<font color='#000000'>I heard somewhere that the best subs are the ones with the speaker pointing at the user, rather the floor like the Yamaha`s. Is this true or just bs? &nbsp;

</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>

Ultra Nexus : <font color='#000000'>I heard somewhere that the best subs are the ones with the speaker pointing at the user, rather the floor like the Yamaha`s. Is this true or just bs?  

</font>

<font color='#0000FF'>The floor firing woofers are sensitive to floor materials and are harder to position, once set, they offer the best bass due to their coupling nature. Yamaha's original subs used to be front firing and only with the newer ones, they decided to use the floor firing ones.</font>

 

[Khellandros66]

<font color='#000000'>Rob,

Believe me if I had the Money I'd have an HSU tube sub in a heartbeat, but I am still a college student working part time at (now) Office Max.


But for those who like me can't afford a $550+ sub we have to go for the bag for ya buck subs.</font>

 

[Stanley]

<font color='#000000'>After reading your review on the YST-SW315 Khellandros I had to give the sub a try and picked one up a week ago. My Klipsch sub sounded ok for movies but for music is was not good. I'm happy to say it's all you said it was. After watching a few movies with it I couldn't see any reason for keeping the Klipsch and sold it to a co-worker for what I paid for the new one. He's not into music, just movies, so I didn't feel bad selling it to a friend. Yes, Stevie Ray really sounds better now. Theivery Corporation, Tosca and Nitin Sawhney do too!
I'm loving it. Thanks guy!</font>

 

[Khellandros66]

<font color='#000000'>Stanley,

I am glad to read that you like the sub. &nbsp;Yeah SRV's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) is sweet song.

Best sequence, this killed me, was watching NHRA Nationals on ESPN2 dang the Top Fueler were sweet!


Bob</font>

 

[aircare1]

...the YST-SW315...
Music wise this sub holds its own with ones costin up to $600 but lacks the power and clean sound of the higher priced models out there from Velodyne, SVS, HSU or Definitive.

But at $209 on Etronics.com its hard to beat.

Bob</font>

FYI: I asked a Yamaha rep about a good sub to add more low end to my YSP-1 DSP and they also recommended the YST-SW315.