psw505 or dsw pro 500

[mikeyb]

Hello everyone! I am new to club polk and figured this would be a good way to get some peoples opinions..... I am faced with a situation. My choice between 2 subwoofers, on sale is the psw505 for almost half price, I have the smaller psw 303, which I have found not big enough for my large living room. The psw 303 works very well and pounds for a 8 inch sub. I hear the psw505 is very boomy, which might work out well in my large living room. But i was concerned about clean sound and distortion. my psw303 seems to only handle half volumes with louder music. And my next choice is the dsw pro 500, more exspensive but I really like the features it has for placement, but wondered if it even comes close to comparison with the psw505. money isnt really the object although I would prefer to spend less, i am worried the psw505 might be too boomy or distort, and be picky with placement. and the dsw pro 500 might not be enough for my large living room. anyone have some good advice for me? also would a down firing sub sound cleaner than a front firing one? thank-you!

[leroyjr1]

What's your max budget and what size is your living room?

[xcapri79]

Welcome to Club Polk.
For a larger room, the DSW600 is a better choice.

[mikeyb]

max budget about 800 bucks maybe 850. my living room is 15 feet by 20 feet with 10-11 foot ceilings. also my kitchen is attatched off the living room with and island seperating the two

[leroyjr1]

Check out Epik Subwoofers. The Sentinel should fit the bill and outperform both subs you mentioned. It's on sale now for $650

[apphd]

Welcome to CP mikeyb. You are right, your room will require a good sub. But your budget of $800-$850 should allow you to do it very well.

Check out Polk's eBay store there are a few subs on auction now.

Maybe two PSW 505's or even two dsw pro 500's. 6th Ave has a name your own price sale going on see if they will bite on $800 for two DSW Pro 500's. You never know.

Also check out the above mentioned Epik, SVS, HSU, and Elemental Designs (eD)

Good Luck

[cfrizz]

DSW all the way! Welcome to Club Polk.

[jimmydep]

I would do the DSW-PRO 500 or better yet go for the 600.

But if you REALLY want to shake the house go for a different brand.


Jimmy

[mikeyb]

thank-you everyone for your advise, i think i like the looks of the epik subwoofers, very nice looking subwoofer.

[thuffman03]

This is what you should buy.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89901

Forum member selling a mint Sunfire True Signature Sub. If I had $850 I would buy it.

[Krazyz1]

Remember PSW is ENTRY LEVEL. DSW middle of the road. Micro PRO Polk's Flagship and also has bottom radiator. I am using 2 DSW 400PRO and am really impressed for only 8" sub.

[cnh]

The DSW 600 might work...placement would be easier.

2 PSW505s also might work...and you are right..placement is more of an issue with these but not terrrible...its not as bad, for example as the PSW10 or 12s were...lots of port noise at higher volumes....the 12s in particular were a REAL pain to place..I know. I used to have one of those. The 505s with their slot port have far less port noise...the DSW line to the 600s are ALSO SLOT LOADED...see picks..!

You might want to look at Leroy1s SVS PB12P?...offer in another thread...that baby will definitely shake everything in your room and house if its still available!

cnh

[syang3]

My local dealer has both on sale and I purchased the psw505 last friday and spent couple hours listening to it on the weekend. I tried it with transformer2, matrix revolution in a 5.1 HT setup and repeated the heavy bass scenes couple times. Then I hook it to my stereo hifi setup with tube amp. It handles the movie better than music IMO. The bass is powerful and strong and the explosion in the movie is really nice, but when the really low bass frequency comes, it doesn't handle very well and got cut off pretty early. The bass is also a bit muddy, and not fast enough for music. I will rate it 3 out of 5. Then the next Monday (today) I brought it back and got the dsw pro 500. As soon as I hook it up to the stereo setup, I can tell the difference. The really low bass is more present and bass is cleaner, faster, and doesn't sound muddy at all. It doesn't have the boominess like the psw505 and blends much better with the two bookshelf speakers which have two 6.5 midbass drivers. I still haven't tried it with the movies yet but I am sure it's also nice.

The room optimizer feature which you can adjust on the remote with the dsw pro 500 also works well. When I listen to it the first time with default settings, the bass kinda lacks the punch, and after setting it to the right posistion, the punch I was looking for just comes alive. The volume control is nice too I am the kind of persion that adjust volumes all the time and this makes it so convenient. Considering the psw505 has been in the market for 5+ years, the dsw pro 500 will have better resale value and with its digital control and better sound I am happy I made the switch.

[cnh]

Welcome to the CLUB syang3...

Nice review above. I can't disagree..although I'd go with the DSW 600 since that is more of a real replacement for the lows of the PSW505. The newer Polk subs above the PSW line are generally, cleaner and faster. But the 505 will give you a heck of a HT experience for small coin.

cnh

[SuperM4N]

Mikeyb...if you are looking for duals I have (2) PSW-505's in excellent condition and I will sell for far less than you budget. Make me an offer! Not sure the right avenue to do the sale but I am flexible...audiogon, ebay, polk. Just let me know if you are interested and I can get pictures and set them up in an auction.

P.S. Only reason I am letting them go is I just got the JL F113.

[syang3]

My local dealer tags the psw505 with higher price tag than the dsw500. The psw505 is $498Cdn and the dsw500 is $398. So from the price point the dsw500 is better value. Even though the dsw500 has smaller driver unit, it actually can play lower bass than the psw505. The psw505 is still a very good sub if you can find it under $300 though.

[rallyshark]

The psw505 is at newegg for $249us shipped. That's a lot of sub for $250, but if I had a your budget, I would look elsewhere FWIW:)