Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions SVS PB-12 vs EP350

Can anyone be kind enough to shed some light on these subwoofers please? With shipping they are the same price, but I do hear that the SVS is better. Is this true? Are the differences too minor to get a sub from a different company?

You just asked one of the harder questions

The two subs almost target different applications. The SVS is a big, arguably ugly black box with high enclosure volume and large, highly resonant ports. It produces the most deep bass and seems to outperform the EP350 in a pure movie environment. The downside is that the enclosure and port keep resonating a bit after the signal has gone away, so musical performance isn't as tight. As with every other aspect of A/V system performance, some people hear this effect more than others -- some won't even consider using an SVS for music, others think they sound fine and don't know what the fuss is about.

The EP350, on the other hand, is a smaller enclosure with small ports so less contribution from the enclosure/port assembly. The result is a bit less raw output on movies, but (again arguably) better performance on music. The smaller enclosure and nicer finish also are a huge issue for some installations (eg. a dual-use room where the system needs to look "nice") but in a pure HT environment the big black box might be fine.

Which is best for you ? Depends on how you value (and/or believe ) each of the points above.

Both are very capable subs, each has pros and cons.

EDIT -- just took a look at the latest PB12 (the NSD, based on the PB10 design). It is more than twice as big as the EP350 (~9500 cubic inches vs. ~4400 for the EP350) but it looks like the new port definitely takes the bass response a bit lower. I think everything above still holds but maybe even more so.

The PB10 is felt to be a fantastic little sub for movies but has actually been described as "sucking" for music, while the musical performance of larger SVSs have historically been described with nicer language. I am only guessing, but I expect much of the same will apply to the new PB12.

Like Hsu, Axiom seems to have tried to keep more of a balance between music and movie performance while SVS has tended to optimize more for the movies. As you move into the more expensive models from any of the companies the compromises tend to go away -- it's only at the price ranges we can *afford* where you have to look hard at where each product is targetted.

I'm buying a HT for the purpose of watching many, many movies. I tend to use my senheisser HD595's for music and only occasionally listen to music on my HT.

The purpose of asking the question is that I thought the SVS was a pretty good step up in quality over the EP350. If this isn't true than I'll go with the EP350 just for the sake of having a matching subwoofer. Of course, I'm also open to the option of getting the EP500...but that's a tough one...

The EP500 is a great step up from the 350.

Worth the difference! IMHO!

For a pure movie system I think you would find the latest PB12 goes noticeably deeper than the EP350, and you probably would prefer it, at least in a larger room.

On the other hand, the EP500 is a totally different beast from the EP350... it plays deep bass more accurately than the SVS, is reported to be one of the better ported subs for music, has tons of power, handles overdrive situations much more gracefully than most subs (ie you can crank the volume and not hear your sub making "grunking" noises), and is still small, nicely finished and matches all your other speakers.

But, of course, it is more expensive too. Welcome to the slippery slope

>>the SVS was a pretty good step up in quality

I probably don't need to say this, but we're not talking about quality here, just "design philosophy". The EP350 is nice, well balanced subwoofer that does music and movies well, which is what most people want when buying a system. The SVS plays deeper (and probably a bit louder) but sacrifices size, finish and musical performance. They are both high quality subs, although I'm sure Axiom and SVS both feel their own products are higher quality

the EP350 will extend down to 18hz will it not? Mabey I misread the specs...Which sub do you have bridgeman?

-Robb.

It is shown as down to 18Hz in room at -9dB. I doubt you will get much "usuable" bass that low, and also depends on the room. The anechoic +/- 3dB rating of 28Hz would be a better spec to use for comparisons, with maybe useful in room response to about 25Hz.

Bridgeman,

Here is a $400 sub showdown including the PB10-ISD (the older model).

He did in fact agree with you in saying that it wasn't a very musical sub. He then used a filter for sub 25hz notes.

Here is a quote " Conveniently, the AudioControl equalizer has an optional 18 dB/octave high-pass filter with available settings at 15 Hz, 25 Hz and 35 Hz. I switched it on to 25 Hz, and the effect on the PB10-ISD’s ability to render detail was simply astounding. Suddenly there was resolution and detail in spades!

Not entirely sure what a High-pass filter is, is this done with a receiver?

-Robb.

The high-pass filter, lets all frequencies 'higher' than the filter pass, and then steps off or reduces those lower at the filter frequency at a certain slope.

So in the article, he is using the filter to filter out below 25 Hz, leaving more headroom for the sub, now that it doesn't have to reproduce the lower freq. It is not a hard cutoff, but slopes off below 25Hz at 18 dB per octave.