Infinity Classia PSW310BK 10" Powered Subwoofer with Dual 10" Passive Radiators (Single, High Gloss Black)

Price: $719.95


Product Description
The compact PSW310W wireless powered subwoofer features a 400-watt amplifier to deliver deep, powerful bass with dramatically reduced distortion. And Infinity wireless subwoofer technology simplifies installation. There's no need to run a subwoofer cable around the room; simply connect the transmitter module to your AV receiver or processor, place the subwoofer where it works best in your room, and plug it in. Great bass made easyInfinity Classia PSW310BK 10" Powered Subwoofer with Dual 10" Passive Radiators (Single, High Gloss Black) Review
This is Infinity by Harman(tm)'s powered 10 inch wireless subwoofer. It is designed to work with their Classia surround sound system and RABOS frequency analyzer system, but can also be purchased as a solo unit. I picked it up via the Gold Box for an unbelievable price - nearly three quarters off list - and have been fooling with it for a couple days, hooked to my Onkyo NR-1008 receiver.I use the system for everything - TV, sports, music and home theater - and had never had a sub. My main front speakers are an old pair of bookshelf size 6" Tannoy studio monitors with concentric cones, and while they have great neutrality and fidelity, they don't thump. I don't really care for thump, and one of the things that attracted me to this sub was the profusion of reviews, here and around the web, full of little kiddies who complain that this sub won't boom their bass. I didn't want a booming system - I am out of junior high by a few years. I wanted a dedicated sub unit to take the bass load off my Tannoys and enhance sound reproduction, neutrally, in a variety of settings - and so far I've been quite pleased, with the exception of home theater.
First I want to talk about the wireless, which is a neat feature. A small transmitter, about the size of a wireless Ethernet hub, sits near your receiver (or DVD player, or whatever) and takes a purple RCA-type line-level subwoofer input. The transmitter has 4 channels to choose from. Meanwhile, you plug the sub itself into a power outlet, anywhere in the room, and set the channel to receive. LEDs tell you when and how the system is operating; you'll need the manual for that. The net result is you can put your sub anywhere there is a power outlet and room to fit it, without having to string a long cable from your receiver to the sub. It's a good idea and long overdue; your ear can't process direction information from bass frequencies so it really doesn't matter where your sub is. I didn't have any problem with wireless interference even though there was an Apple dual-band Time Capsule transmitting on both 2.4 and 5 Ghz a few inches from the transmitter.
The back of the sub has a lot of controls, including a level meter, dual L/R inputs, a sub line input, and some knobs to adjust frequncy, width and depth using the Infinity propietary RABOS system. Since the RABOS hardware (mic, analyzer, test CD) is not included, I got no use from these. There is also a low pass filter; since my receiver lets me set a crossover point, I didn't use it. (I ended up using the standard 120 Hz crossover point; the high end of this range is directional, but when I set it to 100 Hz my Tannoys didn't make up the gap.)
The unit is beautiful, with a mirror-glossy black top, tasteful aluminum trim, an unobtrusive Infinity logo near the bottom, and black grills on either side. It is quite compact, basically about a 12" cube. The top is flat, except the very front where it bevels off, and things won't roll off it. The front cloth grill is well constructed and comes off easily. The speaker is 10 inches front firing, with a ceramic-aluminum composite cone, and its stiffness results in extremely crisp reproduction without any flab. The cabinet is extremely heavy and extremely rigid, sitting on thick, firm rubber feet; Infinity isn't kidding when they promise it won't resonate. It will, however, give you a hernia or a ruptured disc if you try to lift it yourself. Get a friend to help.
There are two areas where I'm not completely satisfied. A lot of DVDs these days have dedicated LFE (low frequency effects.) The first 5 minutes of Gladiator, for instance, ("What we do in life.. echoes in eternity!") is something I like to use to check out a home theater setup. You can hear those horses thundering by, right behind you. The frequency levels used to generate that "thunder" are very low, lower than the 32 Hz Infinity advertised as the low end of the range, with -3 dB attenuation. -6 dB at 28 Hz suggests that response drops off sharply beyond that. The 15-20 Hz noises that make up a good action-movie DVD LFE track simply aren't rendered with any fineness or fidelity at all, so if that's your thing, you are going to be disappointed, as I was.
The second area is overall loudness. This unit doesn't actually get very loud. I can drown it with these 6" bookshelf monitors well before they start to clip. To its credit, I guess, the sub doesn't clip; it just sort of peters out.
However, what I was mainly concerned about was musicality. I listen to a lot of music - all genres, folk, rock, classical, jazz - and my girlfriend watches a lot of TV. Neither of us wanted a fart injector, which is what a cheap sub does, calling attention to itself when you are leaning back with your eyes closed, trying to imagine you're there in the Vanguard with Mingus and the band 8 feet away. I am happy to report that this sub is absolutely fart-free.
In summary, I feel like I got a very high quality sub for the price I paid. If I had paid list price and was looking for the highest end audiophile sub, this unit wouldn't have been acceptable; I would have held out for a 12" or 15" 400-800W unit and expected a lot more power and punch throughout the whole frequency range. For what I wanted, it is awesome and I'd buy it again at this price; but not at list.
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