Audiophilepure

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0126/SVS_SB5000_REvolution_Active_DSP_Subwoofer_Review.htm

The recording quality is outstanding, and the vinyl release boasts incredible dynamics, which really push a sub like the SVS SB-5000 R|Evolution, but somehow still nowhere near its limits. The double bass, in particular, sounds enormous in the mix when played through the SVS SB-5000 R|Evolution active subwoofer. Even though I’ve listened to this album dozens of times on a wide variety of loudspeakers and headphones, I still discover new details, such as the buzz of a vibrating open string or a high fret on the bass, which is one of the hardest sounds to reproduce musically! My system, with the SVS sub integrated, makes it effortless. Their 15-inch dual voice-coil subwoofer driver handles the bottom octaves like a champ! I feel like Hans Zimmer better watch out!

This is a subwoofer that can grow over time with the unusual in-its-class ability to daisy-chain multiple units. It’s powerful yet agile. It is petite yet plays big. It makes music better and cinema more watchable. It can be hidden behind a sofa or in a corner, hardly being noticed in the arena of Domestic Acceptance Factor.

Who is its intended audience? While the first audience will likely be at an RBH dealer with some of the company’s bookshelf speakers, it would be a mistake to limit the audience to just that demographic. Anyone who has speakers that need help delivering bass to near 20 Hz and doesn’t want a large box spoiling one’s décor would find a friend in the RBH S-12HPS. It’s well engineered with a build quality that promises a music and movie enhancer with a shelf life measured in decades, not years. The RBH S-12HPS should be on the short list for anyone looking for a compact, powerful, and musical subwoofer.

The subwoofer’s rear panel has a special slot designated for MartinLogan’s SWT-X wireless transmitter kit. The kit consists of a transmitter that looks like a large AppleTV with stereo RCA inputs. If you want to use the sub with a receiver’s LFE (Low Frequency Effects) output, then you use the right input, which is labeled accordingly.

The receiver looks like an L-shaped USB stick. The USB connector plugs perfectly into the designated slot on the back of the Dynamo 1100X that’s labeled, “Wireless Module Connection.” The module sits flush into the back of the sub. It takes up zero additional footprint. There’s an apse-shaped notch allowing you to pull the module out easily if you need to.

Now, with that all sorted out, how did these bad boys actually sound? Pretty darned good, all things considered. I combined the big SVS Speakers with a variety of amps, including my dual mono Benchmark AHB2 amps, my big Anthem STR power amp, bi-amplified using four channels of my AXIOM ADA-1000 5-channel amp, and a pair of XA60.8 Class A Monoblock power amps from Pass Labs. The speakers seemed to revel in the gobs of available power on tap from each combination. I’d be hard-pressed to pick an amplifier pairing from this lot that I liked best or that I thought subjectively sounded “superior.” If you put the preverbal “gun-to-my-head,” though, I would say the Pass Labs amps had a certain level of smoothness and just the right appealing level of warmth to their sound that mated especially well with these speakers. All the other amps were clean, transparent, and also sounded excellent in use, no question about it. However, using the Benchmark preamp, Pass Labs amps, and SVS speaker chain just had that little extra special something that made it “all systems GO!” Some out there might scoff at the notion of the SVS speakers being worthy of the Pass Labs amps, but I beg to differ.