I can tell you from experience, I listened to a lot of subs in the box stores in my quest for my HT package and in my price range of under $750 the only one i was truly impressed with was a supercube III. I was not impressed with the sound relative to the price but merely relative to the size, it is an impressive little guy but after hearing so much about HSU and SVS (and axiom) on forums i figured i try flying blind as i didn't feel that it would be any worse than a cheap valodyne or equivalent.
Bottom line is i was blown away by how deep the PB-12NSD goes for under 700 dollars shipped to my door. The only downside is its a beast size wise and has a very low WAF. I have it in a fairly decent size room open to the kitchen and have never had it past 35-40% on the gain and if i want to rock to a movie keep the DB at 0 on the Denon. I will say when i first hooked it up and listened to music i wasn't overly impressed as it sounded like i thought it would and no more. However after putting in a dvd (U-571) the permagrin began. I cant speak for HSU as i have never heard them but have heard as many good things as SVS on forums and such. Another factor was SVS's customer service was as good as Axioms IMO from day one. I give two thumbs up to SVS and look forward to fitting one of their pricier models in the budget.
