rags
Prominent Member
After returning from sunny Shrewsbury today I and Matt (Smurfin) settled down at his place to do a direct comparison of these two subs.
Review discs used for the comparison were -
Kill Bill,
Jurassic Park 3 and 2
Monsters Inc
A couple of Matts favourite CD's (God knows what they were but they sounded good with heavy/low bass notes)
Not many DVD's right ? I agree but to be honest it was getting late, I had to drive home and Matt had to drive up to Cambridge for a slap up Greek meal.
In fact we didnt even have enough time to set the ASW750 up properly - we just set the level by ear, placed it directly on the carpet without any spikes etc and in roughly the same position the PB2+ sat in. In terms of listening level we sort of established by trial and error that a reasonable level was achieved by setting the ASW750's amp gain to about 1/3 with the sub level set on Matts Pioneer processor at -10db.
At the outset id like to say how big the PB2+ is - its just massive !! I didnt really cotton on to it straight away in Matts blacked out HC room but when we took the ASW750 out of its box and placed it next the behemoth it was like OH MY GOD !!!! Now the ASW750 is not a small sub when compared to the offerings by REL and MJ Acoustics but it was at a max only 1/3 the volume of the PB2+. In fact it looked pathetic, almost wimpish next to the PB2+. We only wished that we had a digital camera to show you guys the difference in size !! Both I and Matt expected it to get an absolute pasting in the performance comparison. In terms of looks the ASW750 won hands down. The PB2+ is finished in a rough black resin like substance and looks quite industrial. Without a doubt, its very solidly put together.
We listened to the PB2+ first as it was already in place and had been flattened through the BFD (actually thinking about it I dont really know how Matt's BFD settings impacted the performance of the ASW750). Anyway to cut a long story short I loved the performance of the PB2+ - with music it sounded great going really low but never losing control or impact and with movies it was much of the same. The Kill Bill scene where Uma Thurman turns up to that girls house and they have a little tit for tat exchange was awesome - lots of heavy thuds and bangs, with impeccable timing and solid delivery. Low, really low too. JP3 where the Egyptasauraus fights with the Trex was also very good - lots of lung puncturing bass again with impeccable clean delivery. Hey these SVS guys do know what they are doing !! The bass on Monsters inc sounded exactly the same to me as it does in my room as did Jurassic Park 2 (the scene where the T Rex mommy and daddy come to collect little dino.
So 5 stars for the SVS and for £1000 at today exchange rates it really is a good buy.
Now my listening room is much larger than Matts so I didnt know what to expect from the ASW750 in a smaller environment. To start off I felt that the ASW750 performs better in my room than Matts - not sure why and maybe it was psychological but in terms of direct comparison with the same discs in the same room here goes -
We shoved the PB2+ out of the way (no easy task I would like to add!!!) and put in the B&W. Started off with the music CD's first and both I and Matt were taken aback. Very very good indeed and to be honest not much in it at all. Quite surprising really and I think Matt couldnt believe how much clean bass this little wimp of a box was putting out. In fact at one point I felt that it was shaking the sofas more than the SVS did.
On to movies and on Monster inc I felt that the slam produced by the B&W was just as good as the SVS. On JP3 and Kill Bill the SVS definitely sounded better as it went significantly lower than the B&W and this is where the main difference lies between the two subs. Even at reference level neither sounded strained or on the edge but without a doubt the SVS went lower and hence produced a better overall bass experience on movies than the B&W. Night and day ? No, nothing like (perhaps marginal) but better nonetheless. The B&W however did itself proud.
Now, in terms of recommendation - if space is at a premium and looks are important than go for the B&W and to be honest and surprisingly you wont miss a whole lot. If not then I can heartily recommend the SVS. It is the better sub overall.
Will I change to an SVS PB2+ Ultra ? TBH don't know - I was hoping for a greater step up in performance and am not sure that the Ultra will sound significantly better than the normal PB2+. I want to put my sub changing to a rest and whether than means stumping up serious money for a B4 Plus, DD18 etc is something I have still to determine. The ASW850 still hangs in the back of my mind but that may also not perform to the level I am trying to attain. Maybe its not achievable. I am as confused as ever.
Review discs used for the comparison were -
Kill Bill,
Jurassic Park 3 and 2
Monsters Inc
A couple of Matts favourite CD's (God knows what they were but they sounded good with heavy/low bass notes)
Not many DVD's right ? I agree but to be honest it was getting late, I had to drive home and Matt had to drive up to Cambridge for a slap up Greek meal.
In fact we didnt even have enough time to set the ASW750 up properly - we just set the level by ear, placed it directly on the carpet without any spikes etc and in roughly the same position the PB2+ sat in. In terms of listening level we sort of established by trial and error that a reasonable level was achieved by setting the ASW750's amp gain to about 1/3 with the sub level set on Matts Pioneer processor at -10db.
At the outset id like to say how big the PB2+ is - its just massive !! I didnt really cotton on to it straight away in Matts blacked out HC room but when we took the ASW750 out of its box and placed it next the behemoth it was like OH MY GOD !!!! Now the ASW750 is not a small sub when compared to the offerings by REL and MJ Acoustics but it was at a max only 1/3 the volume of the PB2+. In fact it looked pathetic, almost wimpish next to the PB2+. We only wished that we had a digital camera to show you guys the difference in size !! Both I and Matt expected it to get an absolute pasting in the performance comparison. In terms of looks the ASW750 won hands down. The PB2+ is finished in a rough black resin like substance and looks quite industrial. Without a doubt, its very solidly put together.
We listened to the PB2+ first as it was already in place and had been flattened through the BFD (actually thinking about it I dont really know how Matt's BFD settings impacted the performance of the ASW750). Anyway to cut a long story short I loved the performance of the PB2+ - with music it sounded great going really low but never losing control or impact and with movies it was much of the same. The Kill Bill scene where Uma Thurman turns up to that girls house and they have a little tit for tat exchange was awesome - lots of heavy thuds and bangs, with impeccable timing and solid delivery. Low, really low too. JP3 where the Egyptasauraus fights with the Trex was also very good - lots of lung puncturing bass again with impeccable clean delivery. Hey these SVS guys do know what they are doing !! The bass on Monsters inc sounded exactly the same to me as it does in my room as did Jurassic Park 2 (the scene where the T Rex mommy and daddy come to collect little dino.
So 5 stars for the SVS and for £1000 at today exchange rates it really is a good buy.
Now my listening room is much larger than Matts so I didnt know what to expect from the ASW750 in a smaller environment. To start off I felt that the ASW750 performs better in my room than Matts - not sure why and maybe it was psychological but in terms of direct comparison with the same discs in the same room here goes -
We shoved the PB2+ out of the way (no easy task I would like to add!!!) and put in the B&W. Started off with the music CD's first and both I and Matt were taken aback. Very very good indeed and to be honest not much in it at all. Quite surprising really and I think Matt couldnt believe how much clean bass this little wimp of a box was putting out. In fact at one point I felt that it was shaking the sofas more than the SVS did.
On to movies and on Monster inc I felt that the slam produced by the B&W was just as good as the SVS. On JP3 and Kill Bill the SVS definitely sounded better as it went significantly lower than the B&W and this is where the main difference lies between the two subs. Even at reference level neither sounded strained or on the edge but without a doubt the SVS went lower and hence produced a better overall bass experience on movies than the B&W. Night and day ? No, nothing like (perhaps marginal) but better nonetheless. The B&W however did itself proud.
Now, in terms of recommendation - if space is at a premium and looks are important than go for the B&W and to be honest and surprisingly you wont miss a whole lot. If not then I can heartily recommend the SVS. It is the better sub overall.
Will I change to an SVS PB2+ Ultra ? TBH don't know - I was hoping for a greater step up in performance and am not sure that the Ultra will sound significantly better than the normal PB2+. I want to put my sub changing to a rest and whether than means stumping up serious money for a B4 Plus, DD18 etc is something I have still to determine. The ASW850 still hangs in the back of my mind but that may also not perform to the level I am trying to attain. Maybe its not achievable. I am as confused as ever.