Polk Audio PSW505 12-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Black)

• Single powered subwoofer in black for use with stereo or home theater speaker systems
• Equipped with one magnetically shielded 12-inch long-throw woofer
• Slot-load venting minimizes turbulence, noise, and distortion
• Rated to 300 watts of continuous power (460W peak)
• Measures 16-1/8 x 15-1/8 x 18-3/16 inches (HxWxD)

Bass is clear, deep, oh, and LOUD! If you really want your HT to sound like an IMAX theater, then I whole-heartedly recommend this sub. It fills in the low end seamlessly. It also takes the burden of reproducing low lows off of your other speakers (which aren't nearly as capable as the PSW505). This is not a cheap "rumble box". The first movie I watched with this sub connected is Peter Jackson's "King Kong". The raptor/bronto chase through the gully is off the hook! The 30-ton bronto's gallop will set up a standing wave in your intestinal tract!!! But loud does not mean muddy or rumbly with the 505. I was pushing the sub to about 50% volume and I thought my house's windows may break. And like I said, that was only at about 50% volume. Besides, you want to be a good neighbor and not max this thing out cuz it can be heard clearly from a good 50 feet away. I find that it performs exceedingly well at about 15% of its capability in my medium/small sided living room. At normal/reasonable volumes, this sub recreates the super lows that truly make the difference between listening pleasure and listening rapture. No HT is truly complete without a sub and this one fits the bill to a tee.

a) I definitely WOULDN'T recommend this product if you live in a dorm/apt/condo/townhouse. This thing has the sonic capability to really anger your neighbors.

b) This sub is one of the few in its price range that actually has an LFE input (Low Frequency Effects) in addition to LL & speaker-level. I you didn't know, LFE & Line-Level (LL) inputs both use an RCA connector. The difference is that the LFE channel carries only low freqs from source whereas LL carries the entire sound spectrum. The LFE goes straight to your sub's amp whereas LL first goes through your sub's built-in crossover and then from there to your sub's amp. If you plug LL into the LFE input, you'll be asking the sub reproduce the full sound spectrum. Not what you want, of course. Probably not a big deal whether you use one or the other. The Polk's built-in crossover is fine, i'm sure, but I'd rather do the crossing-over at the A/V unit level.

c) Apparently, a good powered sub has an ON/OFF/AUTO switch, a 180-degree phase-change switch, a volume control, a cross-over level control (this control is not functional if you are using the LFE), a LL input (or two), an LFE input, and a Left/Right channel speaker-level input and corresponding outputs (for a total of 8 speaker wire connectors).

d) The unit seems very well built with what feels like sturdy wood (or MDF) and is somewhat heavy. Which is a good thing. It feels reassuringly sturdy/massive.

e) Would I buy this sub again? Well, I've discovered that many of the wonderful items that are for sale at Amazon are no longer being produced. IE, they are discontinued by the manufacturer. Do a product search at polk.com and you will no find this sub (you can do a search in the product support section to find its corresponding literature pdf). I just guess that that is the nature of the beast. Great products sooner or later get replaced with even newer & greater products. The older and merely "great" (not "greater") products still need to get cleared out of the inventory so they wind up at amazon.com or other e-tail sites. So, despite the fact that this sub is no longer in production, no longer supported, and is probably a year or two or three (or more) old... would I still buy it again? HELL YES!

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Was very iffy on this sub since I was going from a $1,000 Velodyne to this, but let me tell you I am not disapointed.Low tight bass with no distortion or rumble, sounds much better playing music than the Velodyne did,even though I use it mainly for movies.In my opinion you are getting a high end sounding subwoofer for $300, there is no way you can beat that!Tried to see how loud I could take it to see at what level it would start to distort, but could not get there because my windows were about to pop And my nose started to itch from the tremendous vibration, teeth rattled a little too! trust me I am not exagerating! BUY THIS SUB!!!!!

Update: YES March 10 2012 and this sub is still going strong....Amazing!

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Polk Audio is still making great speakers. I bought my first pair almost 30 years ago in 1978, had them for almost 25 years till I replaced them with smaller ones with a Velodyne sub. When my overpriced Velodyne sub went out on me last month, I decided to give Polk Audio a try since my first experience with Polk was so good. All I can say is that I'm glad I went with the 12" and for the approx $300 price tag, it sounds as good if not better than my high end $800 Velodyne sounded. For the extra $75 or so, get the 12" as opposed to the 10", you'll be glad you did.

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This is a great budget sub for those looking to get their feet wet with home audio, for someone that has never had a sub before, or is upgrading from a HTIB (Home Theater In a Box). I currently have this sub and have been using it for 2 months. Polk has a longstanding reputation for building quality products and for excellent customer service. If you're considering the PSW10, don't as for a little more money this sub is in a completely different league and I have owned both.

Pros:

Price

Good sound for the money

Decent looking sub

Decent sound quality for home theater or music

Provides a good amount of bass for a medium size room (20x15)

Cons:

Doesn't go very low. I believe this sub is tuned at 35Hz from reading reviews, and it drops off sharply after that. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of the sound is in movies where you'd want a sub to perform well. For music, it's less likely going to be an issue. In my own experience, I played a couple of bass test songs (Bass, I Love You and a frequency sweep) and found the same to be true. On the lower notes this sub simply loses it's composure under the tuning frequency, which is to be expected as there's no acoustic load for the driver under that. The end result is that the driver flaps freely and there is concerning port chuffing (noise) and simply a lack of output.

Suggestions:

At this price point there are few competitors to this sub. The BIC America F12 12-Inch 475-Watt Front Firing Powered Subwoofer has gotten better reviews than the PSW505 and will play lower and likely sound better doing it. If you catch it on sale it will cost less than this sub, otherwise expect to pay a little more. Another option would be the Lava Subs 12" 250 Watt Home Theater Powered Subwoofer which has gotten great reviews on the A/V forums and is a new contender, but costs a bit more.

If you have more money to spend or can wait, and you care about true performance, save up and buy a better sub. Some internet direct companies (Elemental Designs, Hsu, Epik for example) all offer great values and will provide performance in a completely different league from this sub.

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** boy does time fly ....3 Jan 2013 update....my two PSW505's still amaze me.......that is all.....

**Update, 28 Dec 2011, still flexin' my windows in my basement and taking names....just ordered another one because was running this and a 6.5 klipsch sub in each corner, will go 2 PSW505's. Tip...you can catch them onsale late at night like one day a month for $170. Oh also 2 weeks ago the pizza man said "last week what were you watching?? When I came to the door I could fell the bass in my chest." That would be dark night with a PSW505 and an Okyno 809 reciever....thanks

Purchased this sub at the same time I purchased a BIC F12. Will update with

more info but basically ran them the same hours before testing (about 15 on music and movies), watch same 20-30min of exact movie scenes(Inception, Star wars, Matrix reloaded, Dark Knight, did testing "slow, C weight, blabla with meter from my friends father who is "Carver, Paradigm" Audophile type.

Design: The PSW505 is built a little better and the grill doesn't vibrate when bass is loud like the F12. The F12 is a little higher but the PSW505 seems about 15lbs heavier.

Bottom line, this PSW505 produced a way higher SPL with the same settings than the F12, much higher.

My basement theater room is 25 wide by 40' deep. Placed both subs in same location, 1 foot from intersection of north and west walls. Sony 820 receiver connected subwoofer out, receiver on -3db SW setting volume 32, 40 and 42.

This Sub is powerful enough to overpower my BIC LRC (Left right center) Formula speakers. The F12 couldn't do that without going to 3/4 volume and shaking the grill and sounding like it was working 2 hard. The PSW505 at about 5/8 volume shakes my entire north wall, the window, the ceiling and the south wall about 35 feet away from the sub.

F12 did sound a bit better for punch deep bass songs like "murder gram" by LL Cool J, and "eat em up L". On movies F12 sounds nice, but PSW505 sounds like IMAX.

It's like comparing a 50 cal. to a cannon (PSW505). Both will do damage but the PSW505 does the most. Also with the PSW the bass is "thick enough" to where the M16 shots in Inception kinda scares me, with the F12 no.

F12 is good tho' but the Polk, you can play that thing and your walls will submit before the sub.

So anyway the F12 is going back to Amazon tomorrow.

FYI most people who review subs are upgrading from a HTIB (home theater in a box) so they will like the sound of anything, I have a 8" Klipch, sub12 Klipsch, 6.5" klipsch from my 300 HD surround system, some 8" off brand, 2 subs in my living room, 2 fosgate punch classics in my car, etc, etc, so I know what Im talking about when it comes to bass.

Like someone said, this Polk isn't something for apartment dwellers or people who share walls with neighbors! It actually shakes my ceiling. No picture falling off the wall and all that other crazy stuff but once again, my theater room is 25x40.

I will edit with db meter readings I did over the last 2 days.

One more thing, you can run 2 subs from 2 dif manufactures at the same time, did it with the Polk and F12 and the Polk and one of my Klipsch subs. Just place them in a room perpendicular to each other and also one will have to have phase set to 0 and one to 180.

5 starts because for a $200 and something sub this thing scares me. Not 5 stars compared to $900 600watt RMS subs.

Polk Audio PSW505 12-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black)

BIC America F12 12-Inch 475-Watt Front Firing Powered Subwoofer

edit: When I first connecting this sub, I got little bass and port noise, took about 5 days of playing it about 1-2h a day before it started to really "do work" but every day it got better and better with thicker bass at a lower volume.

26 Oct 2011 edit:

Ok so here are the SPL readings I took:

with Sony 820 receiver vol at 32 the F12 produced 91.5db the PSW505 94db SPL....SPL w/o a sub on my system at vol. 32 is 65dba. That's with the subs hooked up exactly the same way but polk just under 1/2 volume crossed over at 90 and F12 just over 1/2 gain crossed over at 90. Location was each sub 2ft from Northwest corner of theater room (25x40)

with polk at 1/2 volume, and vol. 40 on sony receiver Polk hit 101.5 SPL, little over 1/2 (like one dash) hit 105 SPL. F12 same Vol hit 95 SPL both crossed over at 90 htz.

just as a comp, my HD300 6.5 sub at 40 hits 82db SPL.

at vol. 20. the Polk hit 92db SPL, the F12 86 db

at vol 30. the Polk hit 103 db and F12 98 db (sitting slightly to the left of test done at vol 32 above).

Songs to test: "respect" by Notorious BIG (should here a low to high rumble on each bass hit)

"Murdergram" LL cool J

"Eat-em Up L" LL cool J

"phone numbers" Whiz Khalifa this song has some fast low bass hits that the F12 got each one clearer than the Polk.

"get em girls" Cam'ron

"booming system" LL cool J particularly the part where he spell "C O O L I N"

a bunch of random top 40 songs and a few limp biskit songs and the movies above.

So anyway I got this to feel the bass in my chest while watching movies and provide some low end for music. If you're only listening to music get the F12, if you want to feel gun shots in movies get the PSW505. I couldn't even imagine using 2 PSW505's!

**Update 28 Oct 2011** Switch my output on my bluray to bitstream HD versus PCM to let my sony 810 reciever decode the sound and the LFE signal came on the reciever when watching movies and the bass just got real!!! Now run it at little over 1/4 sounds nice. Gets better by the week. Prob had it 2 weeks now listing at about 1.5h/day av.