It's the second time in a few months that prices have gone up. Bought sb 2000 in June for £594, how times have changed
Exactly - so that's £200 in 6 months, or 33% increase - way above inflation. There's definitely some re-positioning of the SB2000 and PB2000 in the line-up.
The auditions went well today, thanks (though not from your perspective
). I spent an enjoyable hour at HiFiX (Frank Harvey Hi Fi Excellence), listening to various material that I know well over the years, from Dolby Digital trailers, dts test tracks, a bit of Fight Club and so on. The set-up was Kefs all round, with an SVS SB-2000. To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by the SB-2000 - I thought it would have been more of a step-up from my old Q100E but it didn't give me the bass extension I quite expected. I briefly listened to the SVS SB-13 Ultra and that did give me what I was looking for, but sadly is completely out of my price range!
I then went down to see
@Jag @ Epic Home Cinema, who was kind enough to give me an hour and a half of his time, going through all the same tests as before and a few more. The system was XTZ speakers all round, with the 12.17 sub. The 12.17 was tuned to match the room and demo'd with various different EQ settings and bung positions. This was much more like it, with a greater depth and slam than the SB-2000. Jag even took the time to do calibration while I was there, to set the dB level correctly for each of the 11 (yes, 11! in 7.4 format) speakers in the system.
Ultimately I think the SB-2000 was a tad cleaner, but the better extension and slam of the XTZ did it, together with the far greater flexibility for tuning, with the in-built three EQ settings and four bung combinations. Consequently I came away from Jag's with a lovely XTZ 12.17
The visceral slam and low-frequency rumbles in the Fight Club in-flight plane crash scene were awesome, as was the depth and grating sound of the concrete pipe falling off the truck in Toy Story 2. The Lyle Lovett dts audio CD also really showed the quality of the system and left Jag wanting to get hold of the CD himself
Now comes the fun of setting it up - when the wife's out, of course
Huge thanks to Kevin at HiFiX and Jag at Epic Home Cinema, and of course Jag's wife who supplied the tea and biscuits!