MA RSW12 Vs Forum Faves

[Spy]

Dear All,

I am quite interested as to why there is not more talk of the £650 Monitor Audio RSW 12.

This has been selected by What HiFi as their Best Buy for 2007.

How does it compare to its similarly priced forum faves ?

[True-Blue]

having owned the RSW12 I can tell you that it is a very good performer for its size.

Don't pay list price though as you should be able to get a decent discount down to around £550.

I can tell you that I've replaced it with a SVS PC Ultra, which stomps it in all repsects except - fitting into a living room

If I had to go back to a 'living room' set up I could easily live with the RSW12 though, it's an excellent sub, very well made with enough poke to keep 'most' people happy.

I haven't heard any other SVS subs though so can't give a comparison to the SB12 which would be more of a direct competitor.

[Spy]

Thanks True Blue.

I was just wondering as it is a WHF Best Buy why we don't see it mentioned more frequently here

[Bass-Oldie]

We had the MA RSW12 in our room and tested it against the SB12-Plus and the PB12-Plus. The MA Sub had a very good performance from 40 Hz upwards (just as good as the SB12-Plus) but lacked much of depth below 30 Hz. Here the PB12-Plus began to shine and gave both music (bassdrum) and movies the volume it deserves.
Just listening to the MA Sub alone would not reveal those gaps as one doesn't know what is missing. We had the DVD "King Kong" remake on at that time, and the MA Sub just played Kong where the PB12-Plus showed KING Kong.
The +3dB change at 20 Hz between the EQ1 and EQ2 setting did not do much of a difference as the power at 20 Hz was already 13 dB under the SPL from the PB12-Plus. And the SVS did go even deeper. However, due to the difference in price and size, it is a bit unfair to compare those subs.

The SB12-Plus was very close to the MA RSW12, differences here were small but noticable with the right material. The decison between them is tough though. Maybe the better features on the SVS would win the deal. Or the finish is the right one on any of them. Pricewise, the SVS is about 180 EUR cheaper (listprice comparison on Gloss black version for Germany).

[danmc_82]

How does the MA RSW12 compare to an xls200, The MA would have been a perfect match with my speakers but I couldnt really stretch to the price so got a xls200 instead. Never heard the MA myself.

[russ.will]

Originally Posted by Bass-Oldie

We had the MA RSW12 in our room and tested it against the SB12-Plus and the PB12-Plus. The MA Sub had a very good performance from 40 Hz upwards (just as good as the SB12-Plus) but lacked much of depth below 30 Hz. Here the PB12-Plus began to shine and gave both music (bassdrum) and movies the volume it deserves.
Just listening to the MA Sub alone would not reveal those gaps as one doesn't know what is missing. We had the DVD "King Kong" remake on at that time, and the MA Sub just played Kong where the PB12-Plus showed KING Kong.
The +3dB change at 20 Hz between the EQ1 and EQ2 setting did not do much of a difference as the power at 20 Hz was already 13 dB under the SPL from the PB12-Plus. And the SVS did go even deeper. However, due to the difference in price and size, it is a bit unfair to compare those subs.

The SB12-Plus was very close to the MA RSW12, differences here were small but noticable with the right material. The decison between them is tough though. Maybe the better features on the SVS would win the deal. Or the finish is the right one on any of them. Pricewise, the SVS is about 180 EUR cheaper (listprice comparison on Gloss black version for Germany).

Oi! Where have you been!

We've been asking for someone with SB-12 v RSW12 experience for some while. I don't suppose you listened to the two of them back to back set to flat?

The SVS obviously offers a far superior feature set as regards on-board room integration, but it's also cheaper than the MA sub in the UK. That difference is more than enough to buy a BFD and cables, so unless the performance of the MA were demonstrably better, the SVS would still seem the compact sub of choice for it's money.

Or am I wrong?

Russell

[russ.will]

Originally Posted by danmc_82

How does the MA RSW12 compare to an xls200, The MA would have been a perfect match with my speakers but I couldnt really stretch to the price so got a xls200 instead. Never heard the MA myself.

If you couldnt stretch above the XLS-200 asking price, I shouldn't worry about the the more expensive alternatives.

Subs don't (or shouldn't) have a distinct sonic signature, so all you are really missing is a bit of extra volume capability and an extra few Hertz of depth against the more expensive subs. But that's as it should be - otherwise there would be no point in buying a more expensive component.

To put it another way, there's nothing that can come close to the XLS-200 for under £300. You've spent your budget well.

Russell

[Sniper]

Originally Posted by Bass-Oldie

The SB12-Plus was very close to the MA RSW12, differences here were small but noticable with the right material. The decison between them is tough though. Maybe the better features on the SVS would win the deal. Or the finish is the right one on any of them. Pricewise, the SVS is about 180 EUR cheaper (listprice comparison on Gloss black version for Germany).

Right - but as it happens I can get my hands on an RSW12 for less money than the SB12. Should I?

You say there are small but noticable differences - in favour of? (SVS i guess!)

[xxGBHxx]

Over on the AVS forums in the MA owners thread theres a couple of graphs showing the frequency response from the MA subs on there. Basically the response drops off a cliff under 35ish Hz.

Personally, having read the expert advice on here enough having very poor response under 35hz kinda misses the whole point of getting the sub (i.e. the strong bass under 30Hz) Even though I'm going for an all MA speaker setup, I wouldn't touch the MA subs in comparison to the other excellent subs out there for less money.

As Russ says, because you're not really looking for a distinct sound as such what matters is the bang for your buck and I think theres far better bang for your money.

G