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: Plenty of bass for the average user/room
Summary: 5 Stars
This speaker comes in cherry and black. I bought the black here on amazon for $101 free shipping. The subwoofer itself is large and bulky. Mine is hidden behind my TV stand which also made it easy to plug into the receiver. I only needed a 3 foot Monster subwoofer cable which I bought on ebay for $7. Most receivers have a dedicated subwoofer connection which is where you plug in the cable, the other end of the cable plugs into either the 'L' or 'R' connection on the subwoofer. Turn the frequency response dial all the way up on the subwoofer to cancel it out since your receiver will control this.
This subwoofer provides plenty of tight punchy base which can be easily heard throughout the whole house. Explosions during a movie and even just plain music is alot more enjoyable now. I do not see why a more powerful subwoofer than this is needed for the average user with a basic sized room. Unless you have a mansion or are addicted to loud ear-deafening bass, this will be all you need. If I do feel the need to make the bass more powerful, there is a volume knob on the subwoofer itself or a volume adjustment on the receiver. I like to use the receiver to adjust the power of this subwoofer while watching a movie. Most modern day receivers will let you control the volume of one speaker at a time. Some people might want to hide this subwoofer behind their couch but then you have to buy a 12 or 16 foot subwoofer cable and run it under the carpet or hide it somehow. It's easier to just keep the subwoofer in the front of the room if possible. Overall, nice product and well made by Polk. I would definitely recommend this if you are in the market for a subwoofer.
Customer Review: Great sub for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
The problem with a lot of reviews regarding home audio is that critics compare budget equipment to high dollar equipment (big surprise...high dollar wins).
This sub is a budget line addition to your home theater. If you are low on cash and need a .1 to add to your setup, this is your sub. That being said, this sub is amazing for the price tag. Great bass with no distortion (just don't go nuts with the volume). It suffers at the very low range but what budget sub doesn't. Main problem is the lack of an LFE input.
Here is the solution from Polk: Use the RCA inputs and turn the frequency knob clockwise, this will essentially create and LFE connection.
One unrelated Polk story: I recently moved to Austin, Texas. I had left my Polk audio home theater in Galveston. A prick named Ike came in and flooded my storage, submerging my Polks under sludge. When I got to them I noticed the water line was halfway up the tower speakers.
Hoping beyond hope I brought the smelly mess up to Austin where I took them apart and tried to clean and dry them out. Plugged em in after a few days and they sounded horrible. Sprayed some De-Oxit cleaner on the connections and BAM! They sprung back to life and just played through The Dark Knight with zero distortion. Polk will always be my number one choice in speaker.
Bottom Line: Great sub for the price. If you have a budget-mid range home theater, this is a great addition. If you have a high dollar set up, your probably not looking to purchase this product or reading this review. ;-)
Customer Review: almost completely useless...
Summary: 2 Stars
Polk makes great speakers (LSi series), good speakers (RTi series), ok speakers (Monitor series), and mediocre speakers (R series). But like most speaker manufacturers, their subs are horrible for the money. Why? Because they are betting that if you are already buying their speakers, you'll likely want to buy one of their subs too, especially if some slimey and/or ignorant salesperson tells you that you MUST "match" the sub and speakers.
Of course, those of us who know something about audio know that aside from a few rare exceptions (like Magnepan planar speakers which really require a super-quick musical subwoofer) there is ABSOLUTELY NO SUCH THING as "subwoofer-matching"---just get the best-sounding sub you can afford. The best bang-for-your buck subs are made by the two dominant Internet-direct subwoofer specialists, Hsu and SVS.
This PSW10 is a prime example. If you are in a small room and listening to jazz or rock music, it's not too bad. Use it while blasting hip-hop, or watching a special-effects loaded movie like "Jurassic Park" or "Fellowship of the Ring" and you won't even know it's there---it simply does not go low enough nor loud enough (let's not even talk about if it's clean enough) to do the job. The only worse mass-market subs I've ever heard would be the Sony and Yamaha subs; the Infinity subs are slightly better.
For this price range you can do much better looking at the 12" Dayton subwoofer from partsexpress dot com which goes for under a hundred fifty dollars shipped.
Customer Review: Respectable Bass Output
Summary: 5 Stars
A 10"in speaker that has gained my respect. Highly recommended. This baby packs quite a wallop at high or low volumes. With a trained ear and some tweaking, anyone can appreciate this near set it and forget it subwoofer.
However, for the single subwoofer coaxial output on your receiver, you're going to need an RCA single female input to double male Left/Right channel output connector in order to connect this unit properly. I think they (POLK) should include this with the product.
If you own at least a midrange receiver of a clean 110 watt output or more, this solidly built Polk Powered subwoofer can take some serious punishment and is a perfect addition to any system.
I push a shared 300 watts through this subwoofer with a Yamaha natural sound receiver. Along with a main pair of Cerwin Vega CLS-12's, a pair of Cerwin Vega bookshelf speakers and center channel as they all combine harmoniously in the joy of blissful home theater Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The additional subwoofer completes the audiophile pile thus making the living room walls, picture frames and furniture vibrate and shake while watching a good Blueray movie.
Bottom line: Rock Solid, tight and precise lows and low/mids and it really seems to hold it's own in the end. Well worth the research, reviews and purchase. I've had it about a month now and I like surprising guests when a big boom happens in a movie. It makes us all jump and go wide eyed when it's first felt, then heard! >;-]
Customer Review: Nice design, marred by 60 Hz a/c hum
Summary: 2 Stars
I ordered this unit to complement the pair of Polk Audio Monitor 60 speakers I already own to which the unit bears a stylistic resemblance. I assume that the subwoofer was the work of the same design team that did the Monitor 60. I love the sound of the Monitor 60s. It's sweet, understated, yet solid and convincing, good for reproducing classical music. This comment is from a guy who spent six months making the rounds from dealer to dealer looking for the perfect grand piano.
This unit was extensively reviewed, with generally good ratings and seemed like a good choice for a budget subwoofer. Unfortunately, when I plugged it in it exhibited a noticeable line a/c hum. After some analysis, I concluded that this noise has two components: a vibration from the power supply transformer that seems to be amplified by the enclosure, and hum from the woofer itself. This hum seems to come from residual line a/c hum that the power supply was not able to completely filter out. The 60 Hz fundamental seems to be OK; the noise
I contacted Polk Audio customer support; they were attentive and responsive, and sent me a replacement amplfier. Unfortunately the new amp had the same behaviors.
The hum is barely audible at 10 ft away when the system is idling. I thought long and hard whether I could live with and decided to return the unit. I purchased a used Yamaha YST-SW215. It is smaller, and loses a few of the lowest notes to the PSW10, but it's absolutely quiet.