SVS PB-3000 13" Ported Subwoofer (Premium Black Ash)

The hype is real, believe the hype… SVS doesn’t manufacture speakers, they manufacture alternate reality emersion machines. The PB-3000 is a beast of a sub that takes bass to the next level.First a little background. Skip to the next paragraph if you just want the nuts and bolts. A few years back my 12” JBL died. 2nd one actually. Both died roughly five years from each purchase from the same flawed power supply problem rendering the amps irreparable. JBL even published a supplemental manual informing owners of the issue, and telling them what components needed replaced on the board. Of course this has to be done prior to the power supply blowing and taking the rest of the amp with it. When I called with this concern after finding this supplemental packet, I got a simple, “your out of your five year warrantee period.” To which I replied, “you’ve lost a faithful customer forever.” Okay, okay, I hear ya… Get to the review. Read further, this becomes relevant. I discovered SVS about 7 or 8 years ago now. Honestly I never made a serious move since I’d become accustomed to the bass from my two Infinity towers. Add to that I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that much on just a sub. But I’m a “you buy once cry once kinda guy.” I’d had my eye on the PB-2000 since it’s release but was in love with the “tunable” subs like the SB-13 and later the SB-4000. I’m sure I wouldn’t have ever bought one for my system. $2K was a bit too much for me and my space isn’t really big enough to justify something I really don’t need. Then the heavens parted, the rays of light shined, the angels sang, and the 3K series decended… I knew in an instant I was going to buy one.For me the decision came down to SB-3000 or PB-3000. Both have the same power rating, but… Well we’ll come back to that. Both have a electronic control panel on the rear and blutooth control via Android or iOS. Pluses for the Sealed 3K. It’s physically a smaller box, so it takes up less precious space in a smaller listening room. It’s “only” $1,000 making in $400 cheaper than it’s big brother. Minuses for the SB-3000. It’s a physically smaller box so there’s less physical volume to move air in. More volume literally means more sound. It’s often compared to engines. “No replacement for displacement.” A ported and larger box will put out “bigger” sound all other things being equal. I won’t say the lack of ports is a downside. Many people prefer a tighter crisper bass found in sealed subs, especially for music listening. Conversely conventional wisdom has the edge going to ported subs for movie watching where strong LFE tracks need to go from 0 to 11 in an instant. Most folks agree a properly tuned sealed or ported sub can perform respectably well on both music and movies. I’ve always had ported subs and preferred to stick with what I know. Pluses for the PB-3K. PORTS! I’m not a sound engineer but I’ll try… As I understand it, the same driver in the same room needs about 4x as much power to get to the same listening volume when in a sealed box vs a ported. Now… That shouldn’t scare you away from the SB-3K. It’s amp has 800w of RMS power which is what? Yeah, about 4x the output of standard 12” ported home theater subs. So unless your in a large room or you just don’t like you family or your neighbors, the SB-3K should have the power your after. Next up is reach. Ported boxes can generally reach lower even below the audible threshold of normal hearing. They can reach these lows and with much higher output due to the physics of being able to move a driver in “free air”. The speaker is able to move with less resistance and thus able to achieve lower frequencies more easily. Now I want to be clear here… We’re talking about the straight bottom end of frequency. Sealed S subs can still get down to 20hz and below, it’s just takes more power. Since the cone r less frequently at lower frequencies, it has to move more air per stoke to get the same perceived listening volume as drivers at higher frequencies or even the same driver at a higher frequency. Ported get there more easily reserving that extra power for a louder listening experience. I’m not even going to touch room gain. If the physics of bass sound interest you. SVS has several well written articles that can be found in their FAQ section of their website. Have fun! The downsides to the PB-3000. Price is about it… $1400 is expensive by anyone’s metrics… So it’s your choice if you want to stretch for it. SVS has a fantastic team of engineers that have built quality ported subs long enough that they’ve avoided many of the pit-falls that consumers complain about with ports. Namely, and trust me I’ve tried. I don’t find the PB-3K to be overly distorted or boomy. In my experience (mainly with movies), I don’t find distortion that isn’t present in the audio track itself.My personal experience with SVS and the PB-3000… I purchased this back in mid-Jan so this isn’t a two day (love it or hate it) review. I had the sub for a few weeks and thought I was doing something wrong. I though perhaps I had a setting buried deep in the menus on my receiver that was limiting the output. But after exhausting every bit of my trial and error knowledge I broke down and called. I was blown away at what happened next. I received support with troubleshooting to a level I don’t think I’ve encountered before. I’ll save the details but the bottom line was I was asked if I minded in “digging a little deeper?” Meaning we’re going to take stuff apart, you cool with that? Heck yeah! I believe Scott was his name. He walked me through a simple series of tests and we found that the amp was bad. (Cue the twilight zone music…honestly I have the worst luck with sub-woofer amps.) They overnighted a new amp to me including new screw and a hex bit to install them. (Not that I needed these, but it’s just the extra thought that went into this that impressed me.) After installation it’s been flawless. No complaints.My listening experience since then has been just that… An experience. It’s a lot like a V8. It can be soft and gentle when it’s called for, but the sound can be earth shattering if it’s taken to my limit. Notice I said my limit. My room is too small to take it to it’s limit. In music, bass is crip and clear. Your mileage may vary as I’ve never owned a sealed sub. So I can’t speak intelligently on that. In a theater experience this machine is a crowd pleaser. If you like boom in your fireworks and your cannon fire, you’ll love the PB-3K. The blutooth app is fantastic. It features full tunability from your recliner. Lv adjustment is of course the most convenient but the presets are what really allow this to shine. For movies with lighter LFE you can have a “boosted” curve. For heavier more dominant tracks you can dial it back a bit. See the attached pics. Or you can set it once and never touch it again if that’s your style.So wrapping up this thoughtless gushing rant… For you it comes down to price vs. performance. Some would say $1400 is a ridiculous sum of money to spend on a single speaker. I even thought so too years ago, until I realized your not talking about 1% of the human audible spectrum as I read in one random article. Your talking about roughly 3 octaves. When you consider that “concert A” is 440hz. The next octave above is 880 and the next below is 220. A decent main speaker will normally get you respectable sound quality to around 120hz and up to the top end of audible sound. That’s about 7.5 octaves… (~110, 220, 440, 880, 1760, 3520, 7040, 14080, next full octave would be 28khz). A sub takes you down… (~110, 55, 27.5, next full would be 13.7hz). And these octaves are the ones that dominate the action-adventure spectrum of movies and the live experience section of music. Frankly when I started this process I intended to spend about the same on my sub as I did for my 3 front speakers which seemed like good balance. If I’d have purchased the PB-2000 that would’ve been pretty close. I’m sure it would’ve served me well. I certainly didn’t need the extra output for my space. But the electronic tunability was worth the extra stretch to me. For you? You’ll have decide. If you’ve heard of SVS you’re likely not a home theater novice and frankly I’m probably not telling you anything you haven’t heard before. But this really is a personal choice that comes down to your demand for clarity at the bottom end of the spectrum, your preferred output/listening level, the size of your room, and yes price. No matter what your preference I can't say enough about SVS products and service. Now if you’ll excuse me… I have to finish that apology letter to the USGS about that small earth quake in the Ohio Valley back in May.

Update 9-27-2021I rearranged my family room and put this baby in the corner the PC-2000 used to be in. Holy cow was that an improvement. This thing will now destroy my house if I turn the volume up. I had to turn the gain way down as it was so overpowering with bass in the room. This sub is awesome! Buy it now! Raising to 5 stars.Update 7-19-2021This PB-3000 has finally broken in a little over half a year later of using daily and is producing much better bass than it had been. I guess that speaks to the quality of the material for longevity. Raising it to 4 stars. I am starting to love it.Update 4-25-2021This sub still doesn't live up to the hype after having it a few months now. If I had it all over again I would have bought another Klipsch R115SW or tried another sub. The Klipsch hit lower are better for music and movies and cost way less money. It just seems to cut off when the frequency goes low. The Klipsch hits deeper lower frequencies. Everything I have seen on YouTube and read tells me I should be seeing otherwise but my ears tell me the Klipsch in my house is the better sub. I am going to move this beast to another room and see if that changes my opinion but I am doubtful. The SVS PB-2000 also loses volume when the frequency goes low so I suspect that is just a SVS thing.By every review I have seen this sub should be amazing and just overkill for the room it is in which is not large. I replaced a 2 year old Klipsch R115SW that was just opening up and frankly way more impressive than this SVS PB-3000. Now to be fair I am forced to place this sub on a side wall probably not in the ideal spot because of room size but the Klipsch was also there. The Klipsch was also more musical in my opinion and only cost $699 with a wireless kit as it was being replaced with a newer model. The Klipsch even plays lower frequency bass. The SVS needs to be set to -10db or lower which seems odd as my Klipsch yet again can be set at about half volume and still produce more bass. I really don’t feel I should need to push the amp that hard just to get bass. My Marantz AV8801 is set to 0db and I don’t feel it should be set higher. I will update this review if things change but right now I feel this sub is overpriced.On a positive this SVS is a nice looking subwoofer and even looks great with the metal screen on the front. Because of dogs and my wife I am forced to leave that on. Maybe that is killing some bass from it? Hopefully this will break in since I don’t think I can return it or I would as of now.I do love my SVS PC-2000 though that is in the same room.