SVS PB12 Plus/2 Review

Vu Nguyen

Last Update: 07/08/06

Introduction

SVS is a company that has been around since 1999. For many years, they have sold subwoofers to people all over the globe and it has become popular enough to obtain official distributors in various countries.

The latest addition to their overseas distributor list is Deep Hz Audio. Their goal is to give Australia and New Zealand a taste of how good SVS sub woofers are. The best thing about having a local distributor is we don’t have to import it ourselves and rack up additional costs of import duties, GST and shipping costs that can be hundreds itself.

Deep Hz Audio is Melbourne based business owned and operated by Peter Thompson with help from his daughter Kathryn who looks after the website, invoicing, receipts and shipping. The business was founded a few months ago and they import SVS subwoofers exclusively. Peter has stated that it is his passion to have great sound and has the need for a quality subwoofer. With no subwoofer under $3000 capable of matching the performance of a PB12 Plus/2, he became very excited about becoming an SVS distributor so he could share the SVS experience with us.

Why SVS?

I was not able to audition this subwoofer, so I purchased it purely on the positive feedback it has received from various AV forums and reviews on the Internet.

Deep Hz Audio carry on the SVS tradition of offering a 45-day money back guarantee. With that in mind, I decided to make my purchase. I must say, after listening to it I doubt anyone would want to actually return it.

The transaction

I purchased my subwoofer from Deep Hz Audio. The transaction was great, from start to finish. I communicated a lot with Peter and my emails were replied to the same day with a lot of depth and detail.

Timeline of events:
Payment made on Friday 28/7.
Payment cleared Saturday and receipt sent out from Melbourne 29/7.
Subwoofer was sent out on Monday 31/7.
Received the subwoofer on Tuesday 1/8.

As you can see, it only took three working days for the subwoofer to land in my house. I was totally surprised it was this fast because I was advised it would have taken longer to send to me since it is an extremely heavy delivery.

The Package

The packaging was great, every corner was packed with hard foam so I assume it is able to absorb the impact of being dropped to a certain extent.

The subwoofer itself is huge, I have measured the dimensions before using a tape measure but for some reason, it seemed bigger than what I have imagined.

Besides the subwoofer, the package came with the following:
2 foam port blockers
A detailed manual
6 rubber feet
Two spare fuses
An SVS PEN! =)

Overall I am very satisfied with the way it was packaged and the extra contents.

My Setup

I have a small HT area which is in my bedroom (6m x 7m) and takes up 50% of my bedroom. Here is a diagram of my room layout for anyone interested: Layout.

My sound system consists of the following:
AVR: Marantz SR-7500
Mains: VAF DC-X
Centre: VAF DC-6
Rear: VAF DC-7

Location

The SVS manual stated the following regarding the location of the subwoofer “Go for a corner if you can, and avoid putting your sub where it might adjoin large open areas.“

Out of curiosity, I decided to try two different locations to see if it makes any difference at all. The first location I will place the subwoofer is an area that adjoins a large open are, the other location will be the corner of the room as SVS recommended.

For the location test, I simply played Star Wars Episode II scene 3 ‘Return To Coruscant’ over and over at both locations.

Not surprisingly, at the exact same gain level there was a tremendous difference between the two locations. The bass felt a lot more powerful in the corner position, and by this I mean my room literally rattled and vibrated a lot more from the bass. Another thing to note with the corner position is if I closed my eyes and was spun around to lose my sense of direction, I would not be able to pinpoint where the bass is coming from. With the adjacent position I could easily tell where the subwoofer is and bass is coming from.

Testing

Firstly, I want to make a statement saying I am in no way an audio expert. This section will involve my initial impressions and thoughts while listening to selected movie scenes.

The subwoofer has one port blocked and the subsonic filter is set to 20Hz, my AVR will be set to -20dB because that is what I usually play my movies at.

War of the Worlds (R4 DTS)

I played two chapters from this movie, 4 (In the Storm), and 6 (Heat-Ray).

Scene 4: Besides the bass being extremely powerful in this scene, I liked the way the sub controlled the direction of the bass. When Cruise and Dakota were in the house looking at the lighting from inside the house, I could actually hear and feel the bass coming from the from the front (the subwoofer is right behind the listening position in a corner).

Scene 6: I really enjoyed this scene purely because it actually felt like the heat-rays were hitting my floor!

U-571 (R1 DTS)

I played the famous chapter 15 (Depth-Charged) from this movie.

In this scene the bass was controlled extremely well. The decay between each initial depth charge explosion and the water splash was very well done and noticeable. I could definitely hear the huge explosion, the quick decay and the bass from the water splashing.

Finding Nemo (R4 DTS)

I played chapter 25 (Darla!) from this movie.

Something unexpected happened when I played this scene, the bass was so powerful I was worried I was going to break my house! I had to turn the AVR volume down to -30dB after the first tap on the glass, and even at that level the bass was still extremely powerful. Not only did my room shake but my steel carport outside rattled. Every time Darla tapped the glass the bass was just pounding!!

Conclusion

The addition of this subwoofer to my sound system has definitely made my movie and music experience a lot better.

Not only do I hear the difference, but I can actually feel the difference.

The great bass has definitely added a lot more realism to my movie experience. For example, explosions now feel like they are actually happening in my room!

I am proud to say I am an extremely happy owner of a SVS PB12 Plus/2 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a sub under $3000.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this review and my subwoofer feel free to email me at stinger01@gmail.com