Much of this get together has already been discussed, so I'll probably repeat it. Such is the nature of the Internet.
I was fortunate enough to get an early model of the PB10-ISD to audition. I figured, rather than me wax poetic about it all on my lonesome, I'd invite some other folks over for a demo. How often do you get to hear SVS' best powered sub next to its entry level sub?
Before I talk about the demo itself, I feel a story from the following day is in order. I live in a block construction home. So does my neighbor. We are separated by a block construction fence. The afternoon on the day after the demos I was in the front yard when I saw the neighbor, and the following conversation ensued:
Neighbor: Good afternoon!
Me: Good afternoon!
Neighbor: How was the get together?
Me: Great… And loud!
Neighbor: I know.
Apparently we had his house shaking and rattling. Mind you, both subs were stacked on the exact opposite side of my house from his, and we had all doors and windows shut for the demos. I can only imagine what the other neighbor thought!
There were a total of 14 (if memory serves) of us throughout the demo, and the love of bass among this crowd was high. During the five or so hours people were over, 1 whole hot dog and 13 whole beers (and I know I had two) were consumed. People just sat and/or stood there listening to demos. One person has since told me he was hungry, but he just couldn't pull himself away from the demos.
When it comes to the demos, I've got to give a special thanks to Keith (AKA Weez at the Home Theater SPOT). He brought both DTS and Dolby Digital demo disks he'd made from his personal library that made the experience better by an order of magnitude. Instead of pulling out a DVD, setting up the sound options, finding the chapter, fast forwarding to the best scene, and then repeating the process for each movie, we just sat back and let wave after wave of intense bass hit us from these two subs. Keith's personal demo disks convinced me I need to buy a number of movies I had otherwise ignored.
We spent a fair amount of time going back and forth between the two subs with the demo material. We played the majority of this material at or near reference, and much of it was recorded extremely hot. It was not at all uncommon for someone to ask, while we were playing the PB10-ISD, if the PB12-Ultra/2 was the one playing. One time, after being asked to check it was the PB10-ISD playing, I triple checked because I just couldn't believe it myself. The PB10-ISD put out sound no sub in its price class should in my room (about 3,400 cubic feet with one doorway to the rest of the house).
Well, as good as the PB10-ISD is, it took the PB12-Ultra/2 to point out it wasn't perfect in my room, with this material, at these volumes. We replayed many of the scenes on the PB12-Ultra/2, and to my knowledge no one mistook the PB12-Ultra/2 for the PB10-ISD. It was then you could hear the PB10-ISD was lopping off some of the most extreme peaks at high volume in my room. It's worth noting, in my opinion, that even though we pushed the PB10-ISD beyond its limits, it never once bottomed, and we heard no audible distortion – it simply refused to do what it wasn't designed to do.
After we went through the movie demos, we threw in some concert DVDs. The Blue Man Group Complex Rock Tour and a Godsmack concert DVD stand out in my mind (the drum solo on the latter, also brought by Keith, convinced me to put it on the short list of things to buy). The drums on these DVDs have to be experienced with a quality subwoofer like the PB10-ISD or PB12-Ultra/2.
Conclusions:
At the end of the day, the SVS PB12-Ultra/2 proved itself among the truly elite subwoofers for home entertainment. The SVS PB10-ISD showed that it may not be able to catch that big dog in a large room, but it can certainly run with it. What I just can't get over is how good the PB10-ISD is for its price point (it had no business digging so low or so loud in such a large room for around $400). When it comes to music, the demos showed both these subs more than hold their own. After the music demos, we laughed (I'm not kidding – we laughed out loud) at the idea of either of these subs not being musical.
After about four solid hours of extreme bass, we all spent about 20 minutes in the back yard discussing what we'd heard. Ron Stimpson, SVS co-founder, was nice enough to show up and answered any questions we had, as he did throughout the whole demo.
We had a great time, and got to make new friends. Some special thanks are in order for making this event possible:
SVS: for making these fine products, loaning me the PB10-ISD (they can't have it back – I'll gladly pay for it) sending enough t-shirts for everyone, and loaning me another Rane PE-17 so both subs could be equalized in the room (once I measure the response of the PB10-ISD in my workout room I'll decide if they can have that back). Ron also gave Keith a mug as a gift for traveling the farthest.
Scott, Tom R., Keith, and Les: for helping with food and beverage (let me know if I forgot anyone).
My lovely wife, Simona: for putting up with us and being supportive of this whole thing.
Some technical info:
- Amplifier/Processor: Denon 3805 with all speakers set to small and crossover at 80 Hz (both subs were running flat initially, and later we tweaked the PB10-ISD 2-3 dB hot to see how far we could push it)
- DVD player: Denon 1910
- Rane PE-17 equalizers (one for each sub)
- Boston Acoustics VR-M90 mains, VR-MC center channel, VR-MX side surrounds, VR-M60 rear surrounds.
Photos:
I only took a couple of photos, as did Scott (he posted his in his thread) and so did Keith (hopefully he'll post them or let us post them here). I really meant to take more photos, and I missed shots of a number of people, but I was having too good a time to walk around with a camera.
Clockwise we have Keith, Barry, Vince, Mike, Steve, Tom R. (no, not Tom V.) Scott, and Ron.
Tom, Ron, Les, Steve, Keith, Barry, and Scott.
Barry, Paul, Paul's friend whose name escapes me, Steve, Scott, Les, Keith, and Ron.
-Robb Roy McNabb
This summary along with further discussion and photos continues in this thread at the Home Theater SPOT.
