Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Monitor Series Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black)
by Polk Audio
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Monitor Series Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black)
Customer Review: Perfect Subwoofer! (For What It Is)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read a number of reviews on Amazon and throughout the Web that praise this subwoofer and others that pan it. Let's be clear: This subwoofer is perfect for what it is: An entry-level subwoofer for small to mid-sized rooms. Anyone who expects this thing to defibrillate their heart or rattle the photos off the wall are kidding themselves. Likewise, no one should expect that this one subwoofer is going to saturate a large room with high levels of bass. It's just not made for that!
What I WILL say is that this subwoofer works very well in small to medium-sized rooms IF it's set up in the ideal way. It took me a fair amount of tweaking to get this sub sounding the way I wanted without it rattling its own case during bassy parts of films. READ THIS: If you don't have it in the best place in your room AND it's trying to pump out too much, it WILL rattle undesirably. Also, if you don't set the optimal cross-over frequency for your speaker system, it definitely may sound "boomy."
At first, I had this sub right next to my TV stand and it was set to the highest frequency on the crossover selector in order to let the receiver handle the crossover -- which, that setting also needed tweaking, too. (By the way, I have the sub connected via the RCA connector.) The sub DID sound boomy. The sub DID distort and rattle. It DID NOT sound like I wanted it to.
Since then, I've moved it to the corner of our medium-sized finished basement room, facing the listening position. I toggled the phase switch to hear which setting sounds better. I've also tweaked the crossover frequency in the receiver (120Hz in my case, but your results may vary). Those three adjustments have led me to turn DOWN the sub and get MORE sound out of it when the LFE channel of my movies gets active. And I get plenty of bass that way without distortion.
If you get the PSW10 set up and end up not liking the sound, work with it. Move it around and listen to the differences. Tweak the crossover frequency on the back and maybe even in your receiver. Toggle the phase switch to see which side sounds best.
Rome wasn't built in a day, but once it was it was grand. So is my experience with this subwoofer.
Customer Review: Good For Money But Not Great
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought Polk bookshelf speakers and was looking for a sub to go along with them and came upon the PSW10. I did a lot of research reading reviews on this sub and other subs in and around the price range. Most people said that it was good so I felt comfortable buying it for about $100.
I like to think that I have a good ear. I've grown up loving music and my dad has always been in bands so I got my taste from him. I guess I should have known what I was going to get spending just $100 but I was pumped to see what this thing could do. I thought it'd sound great. It's pretty good and if you aren't too concerned with perfect quality it's a great choice. The only thing is that it just can't handle the low lows. It flutters and sounds terrible but most music doesn't have these frequencies anyway. Rap and hip-hop might be an area of concern but anything else should be in the clear. Another thing is if you want it to be VERY loud it isn't going to sound good. It gets very muddy and you can hear the sub fluttering when you crank it but again this isn't a huge concern. It handles reasonable volumes just fine.
There was one thing I was confused about when I was reading the reviews so let me clarify for anyone with the same problem. YOU DO NEED A RECEIVER. I thought because it was powered and the pictures showed speaker outputs I could power the speakers with the sub. I was wrong... The power only goes to the sub. It is not put out through the speaker outputs. They are just there if you want to wire the system in another way. Luckily I had an old Onkyo receiver laying around.
So as long as you aren't looking for anything amazing this sub is a pretty good choice because of the fact that it is so cheap. I wanted to have something better but I'm in college so I couldn't afford it. If you have a higher budget go for something that handles a lower frequency range. The audible frequency range is from about 20-20,000Hz. This sub is said to be able to handle down to 35Hz but I don't think it sounds good even there. I'd go for something that is rated down to at least 30Hz or 25Hz.
Hope this helps
Customer Review: Good entry-level sub
Summary: 5 Stars
Couple of points up front: The PSW10 is NOT an audiophile-grade subwoofer, and shouldn't be graded as such. A true audiophile, if they have a subwoofer at all, will drop 2- to 3 grand on a Velodyne, Rega, Rel, etc. and then complain if they can't hear fingernails plucking the strings of a double bass. Next, the low frequencies produced in a movie are inherently different than those produced in music. Getting a subwoofer to reproduce both equally well can be tricky. My review of the PSW10 is from a 2-speaker, mid-level audio system perspective and not a 7/5.1 surround-sound home theater. I'm NOT saying the -10 won't work well in a HT set-up, but suggest you may need to use 2 different settings (see below).
This subwoofer will give you tight, punchy bass for most music genres. I used jazz, alt country, indie rock, and a little hip-hop to get my settings. The key here is to spend time during burn-in to get your crossover, phase and volume controls all married together. Once I found the right crossover setting, I learned that a little volume goes a long way with the PSW10. As many other reviewers have noted, too much volume will shake your walls with deep, boomy, unintelligible bass. You may want some of that for an action movie, but not so much for music. Next, I used the line-in with RCA's first, then swapped-out those for some heavy-duty Monster 10 gauge at the speaker-level connection. Jury's still out on which sounds better. Finally, if you're placing your sub on anything other than carpet (hardwood floor, ceramic tile, or even a shelf) seriously consider swapping-out the cheapo nailed-in feet. I have hardwood flooring, so I screwed in some nice 2" legs with dampers between the box and risers, and hard rubber pads making contact with the floor. Probably has a small positive sonic effect, and actually looks a lot nicer sitting up like that, too.
Lastly, got mine at [...], with free shipping. For that price, the PSW10 is a no-brainer. And remember, you don't notice a good subwoofer until you turn it off.
Customer Review: Meets Expectations...
Summary: 5 Stars
A couple of years ago, my Klipsch Promedia 4.1 speaker system I used for my PC failed due to the internal amp crapping out. It sounded awesome with anything I played on it up to that point. Money was tight so I replaced it with an inexpensive Logitech X-540. This was adequate for video watchng and game playing and even did okay for most music, but it really showed it's limits there. However, I recently upgraded my home theater AVR to a better one (Onkyo TX-SR707) and decided to use my old AVR for my PC with the old Klipsch speakers (I cobbled together a 20 year old Pioneer receiver to drive the Klipsch sub unit). This performed better than the Logitech unit until the Klipsch Sub unit blew the speakers. Enter my need for a new powered Sub.
I got the Polk PSW10 unit because it was inexpensive even in comparison to some of the smaller sub units I would have gone with. My expectations were for it to perform at least as well as the Promedia sub unit, but probably not as well as the Velodyne powered sub in my home theater. I have to say, I'm quite pleased. The Polk unit sounds better then the Promedia unit. I can't say how it compares to the Velodyne because I'm too lazy to swap the units to compare them.
System:
Sound Source -- Asus P6X58D Premium onboard Realtek multichannel audio output
AVR -- Kenwood VR-407 (set up in 6 channel analogue mode to PC)
Speakers -- Klipsch Promedia front and rear speakers, Polk PSW10 Sub (4.1 config)
Benchmark Music:
King of the Dancehall -- Beanie Man
Tremble (I love Trace edit) -- Marc et Claude
(Take Me Away) Into the Night -- 4 Stings
Damaged (Cage mix) -- Plumb
The Chain -- Fleetwood Mac
Far Away -- Nickelback (I've found this song to be the most demanding on the subwoofer for some reason. It sounded like crap on the Logitech unit and only a little better with the Klipsch sub. It sounds good with the Polk unit.)
Customer Review: Fine for 90% of Users Out There
Summary: 5 Stars
I was totally shocked when this speaker arrived. I had NO IDEA it was this big, heavy, and solid. Polk Audio's product quality is obvious; I'll definitely buy from them again. It's a solid, great-sounding speaker. If you're adding a sub to a small to medium-sized room, this will do just fine.
Super easy to setup. I plugged one end of the cable (RCA male-to-male) into the LEFT RCA input of the sub and the other end into the RCA subwoofer output of my Yamaha RX-V467 receiver. As others have said, I did not worry about splitting the signal with a Y-cable. I set the crossover to it's highest setting and used the crossover in my receiver instead. I set the gain of the sub at about 75%. Others have mistakenly wrote that you can't bypass the crossover, which tells me that they didn't read the instructions, didn't use Polk's online support, and don't know what they're talking about.
I paired this with the Polk Audio SurroundBar...another great speaker system. Also solidly built, great sounding, and highly recommended.
I read some of the reviews here where "audiophiles" were trying to dissect the functionality of this sub at specific bass frequencies (50 Hz versus 40 Hz and lower) and I had to laugh. Subs are supposed to be "boomy." The very definition of sound below 40 Hz is "mud" or "boom." 40 Hz and lower should be felt more than heard. Let me put it this way, thunder and rumble in movies I've used it with sound just like the thunder and rumble I've experienced in a real movie theater. This subwoofer sounds GREAT for 80-90% of the users out there, especially if you're using a good receiver and your other speakers are good.
For $99, I'm blown away. You're definitely getting your money's worth when you buy this. Don't be fooled by the power rating. It's 50 watts RMS and 100 watts Peak. More than enough and plenty of boom for most uses.