Home > Consumer Reviews > AudioSource SW Fifteen 200-Watt Powered Subwoofer

I bought my SW Fifteen at Amazon...The thing was very heavy and quite large. I decided to place it as suggested, at least about 3 feet from the side and rear walls. My main speakers are a pair of Klipsch La Scala’s which are extremely efficient and can play very loud with very low distortion but are somewhat restricted in the very low end, so the ideal match would be a subwoofer which could play equally loud and that could go deeper into the low end. After reading the consumer reviews on the Audiosource SW Fifteen I decided to give it a try. After a lot of tweaking with the crossover and the level setting I got the most balanced sound at about 45 hz for the crossover and about 1 o’clock for the level control. Because I wanted to use it for home theater as well as music I went with the high level connection. I had an Audio Pro SW-50 subwoofer for about 8 years until very recently I decided to give it to my kid brother. This subwoofer was very revolutionary in its time and I paid [lots of money] for it. There is just no comparison. The SW Fifteen is absolutely fantastic. There are opinions about it being boomy, maybe because the crossover is set too high. I think it is better suited for systems with bass capable main speakers. In my case, with the setting at about 45 Hz, it sounds better than anything I have ever heard (including the velodyne’s and the M&K’s). The included test CD is helpful up to a point because the test tones have center frequencies to far apart. I found the Stereophile’s test CD to be better for fine-tuning the subwoofer blend with the main speakers. After the tweaking I played one of my favorite movies on DVD, Crimson Tide (chapter 18 has some fierce explosions). My room was shaken. Quite an experience. In the included test CD, tracks 10 to 14, the bass is extremely well defined and extends quite deep. How can Audiosource develop such a marvel for less...is a mistery. The bottom line is that it is one of the best subwoofers I have ever heard regardless of price. Recommended without reservations.

This is a fair quality subwoofer. It is a very good price and has a lot of power. On my system the SW15 plays frequencies as low as 22hz, which is impressive. The bass is not as punchy or resonating as higher-priced models (Cerwin Vega, Velodyne) and sound reproduction is not as clean. But this sub is good for the price, especially if you don't want to spend much more than $1000 on your stereo system.

Our main interest in buying this subwoofer was to give our home theatre system some of the low-end impact you feel at the movies and for that use it's a success. I spent the first evening running through bits and pieces of Jurassic Park, Top Gun and Independence Day, messing with the crossover point and level control and eliciting some interesting harmonics from our china cabinet. Yeah, it's that powerful. I'm going to replace the cheap speaker-wire clips with binding posts: hence the 4 stars. At this price I'm not worried about whether or not doing so voids the warranty! Other than the terminals, I'd give it a five. Oh: be prepared to let your subwoofer replace an end table or something: the guy is big. BUY this sub if you want the true theatre low end but don't expect to hide it under the couch.

I have purchased two of these bad boys. I recommend adding some polyfill to the inside cabinet as it turns a tubby sounding subwoofer into a very tight and defined subwoofer. A $4 purchase makes this subwoofer perform as good or better as a sub costing 3 times a much.

I found this power house on the net and was sceptical about its performance for such a low price. I tested this speaker with the local rap stations, bass CDs and DVD movies and was impressed. (Memo to self: put pictures back on walls before wife gets home) Then I put in a DTS DVD and for some reason the DTS intro will peak the speaker, but nothing else does, not even the movie following the intro. I give this speaker five stars despite the DTS intro, it hits hard with plenty reserve. ...