BK P12-300SB-PR

Will be intresting to see how the PR performs, but i don`t think it will give similar "feel" than Mono. Still could be great compromise! I hope @Such would comment as he has heard both at home. He also has owned SVS PC2000.[/QUOTE]

I did like the 400PR for music but felt it lacking the really low end that the M+ provides - it did not really pressurise the room. I currently have the M+ plus the SVS PC2000 working together, but need to put in proper places vs cosmetic placement! However, they sound very good together with very much low end and room pressure but not much slam.
 
Thanks Such, this has been my concern with the 300-PR ...I guess there is no true compact replacement for the Monolith ;-)

Now I guess I must find the ‘eigentone’ in my room that REL used to drone on about (spent hours, many days, going grey, decades ago trying to find this mystical bass Subwoofer position faerie) hehe
 
Unfortunately for me, my Monitor Audio Platinums can really kick out some serious bass (I’ve measured them responding at 29Hz with the nCore nc500 amplifier) so Subwoofers need some real muscle to compliment them.

I’d agree that it could be placement in my room, but Monolith vs XXLS400 there is a significant difference in all rooms where I’ve tried them - the XXLS400 at my friend did nothing in his 7m x 5m room vs the Monolith Plus (in same position) rattles his foundations 8-/

Ps. My ceiling is 3m, suspended with a 1m void ...I have suspected this may be robbing me of low registers in the bass department :-(

Positioning is everything and you've kind of confirmed that your not putting them in the right place...sorry!

My P12 not PR will happily go below 20Hz so assume the 400 should be similar and it's below 30 where most of the fun lives. Fairly sure at 29Hz your speakers are also straining whereas the sub is just getting into it's stride, check out the BEQ thread and you'll see what all the fuss is about.

Loads of people come on here saying their new sub is rubbish but it's nearly always because they've plonked it somewhere convenient rather than somewhere it works. Sometimes that works, most times it doesn't.
 
Hi B1g1an

What you say is not entirely untrue, but I’ve been doing this near on 20 years and been through a lot of Subwoofers, cheap and expensive starting with Mordaunt-Short, REL Strata & Storm IIIs, Storm 5s, Bower & Wilkins 800 Series ASW800/825, XTZ, SVS, some others and almost all of the BK range

...in my opinion, Subwoofers vary in performance and not all made equal irrespective of where one may place them in a room .....one may get more linear results in certain areas of the room, but almost always a trade off with a mode or dip and need EQ or massive ugly Soffits in corners to try equalise them...almost always not very practical - my current position (I don’t have a lot of options) near centre that REW suggested measures nearly spot on, but I do have a slight lull 40-60hz - if I sit at the dining table to the left, it measures a bit better around 40-60hz and things have a bit more punch (but my SVS SB13 is still a bit shy of that BK Monolith rumble - the BK is ported and downwards firing vs sealed and forwards firing).

I tore my hair out many years ago, eventually succumbing to buying two expensive REL Storm III Subwoofers. I had been searching my room for the magical eigentone with a REL Strata III desperately to make that revered Subwoofer something it wasn’t (it never worked as well as people Reviewed/claimed it to be).

From my experience the BK Monolith is arguably the best bang for buck and produces a certain rumble that no other BK Subwoofer to date has matched - it comes at a cost though...it’s HUGE! :)

I was hoping (dreaming), as unbelievable as the claim is to me, that the 300-PR somehow might be able to reproduce this rumble too ...I believe Such’s experience though so I’ll likely drop this escapade now and stick with my SVS, or torment myself into getting another Monolith Plus one day.

If you’ve not had a Monolith in your room, I’d recommend picking up a used one (just for fun)...they come pretty cheap used ;-)
 
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As the proud new owner of this fantastic looking and sounding sub, I thought I would start a new thread to give others some information on this new offering by the brilliant BK Electronics.

Yes, it took two weeks from order to delivery but I think it was worth it as you can see that it is truly a handmade quality product.

First, some info from the BK website:
  • True 300W RMS (600W peak) discrete Bipolar amplifier
  • Forward Firing 300mm (12") long throw heavy duty loudspeaker with 8 spoke cast aluminum basket, stacked magnets and vented pole piece
  • Downward facing 300mm (12") Passive Radiator with 8 spoke cast aluminum basket
  • Continuously variable frequency control
  • Audiophile grade toroidal transformers
  • Separate controls for high and low-level input adjustment
  • Simultaneous connection of high and low level sources
  • ASP automatic speaker protection audibly transparent driver protection
  • Auto Switch On Function - Can be disabled via switch
"To get close to the performance of the Monolith we have designed the P12-300SB-PR in a 50 litre enclosure incorporating a 12" driven element and a 12" passive radiator making a drive area of a massive 17"."

Now for the unboxing and setup:
View attachment 1072616 View attachment 1072617 View attachment 1072618 View attachment 1072619 View attachment 1072620 View attachment 1072621

It is large 30kg plain brown box and when opening, your first indication of what is in this box is the label showing what it contains. After removing the supplied cables and spikes, the first thing you see is Passive driver (as it is packed up-side down). Once out of the box, the Amp plate looks very clean and professional. The front (active) driver looks exactly the same of the down (passive) driver. I chose the Black Ash veneer and it looks beautiful (without any blemishes), even the silver BK badge is classy.

Before this I had the Tannoy HTS TS2.8 which is an 8" sub - before and after shot:
View attachment 1072624

Placed the new sub in its permanent home:
View attachment 1072626

Connected the AVR sub out to LFE low-level and ran Audyssey to EQ the P12, which set the Low-level Gain to 10 o'clock and level to -6db.

Watched Deadpool on Apple TV iTunes (4k HDR with Atmos) and WOW, the bass is amazing! Strong but very controlled even at those settings. Will have a play with sub level on the AVR when I watch Deadpool 2 on UHD tonight.......

Overall, I am very happy with the upgrade so far and can recommend this sub.
Hello,

I have this same sub and wondered if you could post a picture of the rear of your sub so that I can see what settings you have? Hope you can help!
 
Sure
IMG_0375 (2).jpg
 
Thanks so much! Is your high level gain set to min and phase set to 0, can’t quite see on your pic?
Cheers
Yes, phase is 0. I do not use High level (nothing connected) so it is Min.
 
Thanks so much! Is your high level gain set to min and phase set to 0, can’t quite see on your pic?
Cheers

Notice the lo level gain position depends your room size/subwoofer placement. Before Audussey run you should have idea where the sub sounds good.

There should be some kind of db reading when you run Audussey on-screen setup and you will turn the gain knob until it shows about 78-80db. It´s fine to go little bit over on the red colour so the SW level comes back more in the negative db which allows you to safely run it hotter, this is what most of people does cause Audussey sets the sub quite low. You can then tweak the level later on via receiver menu, no need to touch the knobs anymore behind sub!
Example SW level = -8db and you want more grunt, change it to -4db and listen. Personal preference as some like more grunt and some less. Also there is differences with certain movies so you can easily tweak it to your liking. 3-6db boost is very typical.
 
Just ordered one of these wee boxes to replace my Mordaunt Short 309i. Expected delivery is Thurs, hope it comes on Wed as that is my day off. Looking forward to playing with it.
 
Notice the lo level gain position depends your room size/subwoofer placement. Before Audussey run you should have idea where the sub sounds good.

There should be some kind of db reading when you run Audussey on-screen setup and you will turn the gain knob until it shows about 78-80db. It´s fine to go little bit over on the red colour so the SW level comes back more in the negative db which allows you to safely run it hotter, this is what most of people does cause Audussey sets the sub quite low. You can then tweak the level later on via receiver menu, no need to touch the knobs anymore behind sub!
Example SW level = -8db and you want more grunt, change it to -4db and listen. Personal preference as some like more grunt and some less. Also there is differences with certain movies so you can easily tweak it to your liking. 3-6db boost is very typical.
Thanks! I was getting all confused with all the knobs on the back :) and the instructions are too technical for my liking!
 
Mine arrived yesterday.
IMG_20190606_141658626_HDR.jpg
 
Seriously considering one of these but not sure whether to go with one of these or an xls400!

Anyone done a comparison?
 
Seriously considering one of these but not sure whether to go with one of these or an xls400!

Anyone done a comparison?

They have different purposes so you need to decide what you want it to do and then the choice is simple. The XXLS400 should be compared to the not PR version of the P12, where the choice is spend an extra £100 odd on claimed more musical talent. The PR version of the P12 would be compared to the Monolith, where the choice is whether you want your big cinema style bass in a more 'discreet' sealed box or a gigantic ported box.

There is a desperate need for a proper real life comparison of all BK's subs as even they don't know who there products are really aimed at.
 
Serious big grin on my face this morning. Was reading another thread and 2 tracks where mentioned. Bassotronics, Curtain Shaker and James Blake, Limit To My Love. Listen to the second 1 and wait. Funkin hell.
 
The XXLS400 should be compared to the not PR version of the P12, where the choice is spend an extra £100 odd on claimed more musical talent.

I don't think it's that simple. Why isn't the more powerful amplifier and arguably better driver also relevant for movies?

Edit: and it's only an extra £60.
 
I don't think it's that simple. Why isn't the more powerful amplifier and arguably better driver also relevant for movies?

Edit: and it's only an extra £60.

BK recommend the p12 for movies, the 400 for music... That simple :)
 
BK recommend the p12 for movies, the 400 for music... That simple :)
It seems that this is correct - according to BK themselves: "The XXLS400 is an extremely high power yet compact subwoofer that can deliver very low bass at high volumes for the AV enthusiast, but with great timing and control for the Audiophile."
 
BK recommend the p12 for movies, the 400 for music... That simple :)

It would be interesting to know if the peak output levels were higher for the XXLS400 or not. I suspect they may well be...
 
It would be interesting to know if the peak output levels were higher for the XXLS400 or not. I suspect they may well be...

Logic would suggest it though whter that's really useful or not there's no way to tell. Like I said before, there's no real world comparisons for BK subs, they just seem not to care.

Choosing BK as a brand is probably the simplest choice anyone will ever make but it's a total finger in the air to decide on a particular model. All reviews have been in isolation and in particular the reviews for the P12 and 400 read virtually word for word the same.
 
I’ve just had the 300sb-pr delivered.

using the high level input, its running along side some Monitor Audio Platinum 200 II. So far it’s been a breeze to set up and the build quality is certainly up there with the higher end products.

I’m only using sub for music and glad I chose the PR model over the single driver version. At first I did think it would struggle with faster sounding music, however it doesn’t miss a beat. My speakers are more than capable and the BK helps bring out the deeper lower frequencies.

i would definitely recommend this sub.
 
Received mine a couple of weeks ago. Loved it, but unfortunately transformer was audibly buzzing and there was a strange rattle coming from inside the sub at certain frequencies. Luckily BK are super so I sent it back and they'll be sending soon a replacement one with in-built DC blocker and soundproofing the transformer!
 
Seems a proper con how the P12 can go below 20hz happily but the Mono + has a filter and essentially has no response below 20Hz.
 
Seems a proper con how the P12 can go below 20hz happily but the Mono + has a filter and essentially has no response below 20Hz.
The P12-PR model won´t have similar output as Mono below 30hz. Ported is always stronger with 45litre larger cab.
 
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