Company and Product Overview

When SVS first came on the scene, they focused on providing as much value as possible for the customer.

SVS came up with an unusual design that allowed their subwoofers to offer tremendous deep bass output for very reasonable prices. If we fast forward to today, it’s clear SVS figured out how to package all of that same great performance into more practical and compact subwoofer designs.

We will discuss the SVS 3000 Series Micro Subwoofer, which is a new compact sealed subwoofer model in SVS’s 3000 Series reference-caliber subs coming in just under $800! But, don’t be fooled by the micro size — this one delivers deep, musical, chest-thumping sub-bass from a shockingly compact 11-inch cabinet.

At Audio Advice, we think SVS just redefined what is possible in this “micro” category.

We will detail the performance of this new Micro Sub as a compact 11-inch sealed cabinet in a few different key situations. If you are considering a smaller compact subwoofer for your work from home setup, a music system, or a home theater room, at this price, you may want to consider adding one, or even two, 3000 Series Micro subs. Hopefully, this review will narrow down the choice no matter how you plan to use it.

Packaging, Design and Build Quality

In the box, there’s a heavy-duty high-current 6-foot long power cord that plugs into the back of the sub and a quick start guide.

As compact subwoofers typically go, the 3000 Micro Sub is really small with its cabinet being an almost 11-inch cube. Mounted on opposite sides of the 3000 Micro Sub’s sealed cabinet are two fully active high-excursion 8-inch woofers. There are two non-resonant steel mesh grills that cover and protect the dual-opposing 8-inch woofers on each side of the micro sub. The cabinet itself weighs 22 ½ pounds, so a key advantage to the 3000 Micro Sub is that it is powerful, yet highly compact — the Micro sub will fit underneath a computer desk or just about anywhere.

The 3000 Series Micro Sub comes in two finishes — a really high-end-looking piano gloss black or gloss white finish. Like a lot of SVS’s newest subs, the cabinet features rounded edges which give the Micro a simple, yet modern look.

To get accurate deep bass from a compact sealed box, the cabinet needs to be structurally solid and rigidly built. At this sub-$1000 price-category, we can tell SVS put some serious engineering into the 3000 Series cabinets across the board. The 3000 Micro Sub has solid, structurally reinforced MDF cabinets that are well-braced and sonically inert to resist vibrations even at maximum output.

For the 3000 Micro Sub, SVS used extra-thick MDF baffles with rigid internal bracing to create a resonance-free environment that resists system-vibrations even if pushed to peak playback levels — solving a long-time critical issue of “dancing” micro subwoofers. The light-weight design of many micro subs typically causes the cabinet to move and dance around the room from internal system-vibrations.

SVS doubled down on the anti-resonant construction by including custom iso-elastomer feet that screw onto the bottom. These feet further reduce resonances from the seismic output for more accurate & controlled deep bass extension. We think having iso-elastomer feet on a smaller compact micro sub is a very nice touch at this price-point.

Features and Technology

As a first-ever product category for SVS, the little 3000 Micro Sub is jam-packed with impressive features and tech for such a compact subwoofer.

Fully-Active Dual-Opposing High-Excursion 8-inch Drivers

Conventional driver designs are generally not practical in compact micro-sized cabinets because the driver can’t move enough air to produce accurate bass output. The 3000 Micro Subwoofer driver array solves this problem with dual-opposing, side-firing 8-inch woofers which operate acoustically and electrically in parallel.

SVS designed their dual-opposing 8-inch drivers to move in perfect unison for pristine low-frequency output at all drive levels with crisp, musical transients — think tighter, punchier output that will obliterate multi-driver passive radiator designs which tend to have a “bloated” or “boomy” sound.

Another feature we really like about the 3000 Micro Sub is the way SVS optimized the dual-8-inch drivers to support the cabinet’s anti-resonance properties. By firing in opposite directions, the mechanical energy transferred to the cabinet from the drivers is effectively canceled out, which creates a sonically inert environment throughout the micro sub’s enclosure.

This further works to solve the longtime problem with micro subwoofers which “dance” or “walk” across the room due to all the internal system-resonance generated from within the cabinet.

Innovative Dual-Driver Motor Assembly for Maximum Current Delivery

SVS precisely tuned the dual-opposing drivers for more immersive low-end with a proprietary high-precision overhung motor configuration specifically designed for the compact Micro Sub.

Here, SVS used an oversized, vented motor structure with a high-current copper voice coil comprised of 4-layers of winding to generate a high-density magnetic flux capable of driving the aluminum cone to move massive amounts of air in a confined space with pinpoint accuracy even at maximum excursion.

Whereas many micro subwoofers rely on flawed passive radiator designs that introduce boominess and inaccurate bass, the 3000 Micro’s dual active array renders pristine, room-filling output. At all drive-levels, SVS’s powerful proprietary ferrite motor system generates high-density magnetic flux capable of driving room-filling sound pressure levels precisely tuned for pinpoint transient speed.

Sledge STA-800DM Amplifier – Massive Output From A Micro Sub

When the SVS engineers set out to design an amplifier powerful enough to drive their fully-active dual-opposing 8-inch drivers at reference levels from a micro-sized cabinet, there were big challenges.

In order to move the dual 8” woofers with speed and accuracy, a lot of power was needed. SVS met the power demand for the 3000 Micro with the Sledge STA-800D2 power amplifier which is an 800 watt Class D amplifier capable of 2,500+ watts on peaks. This is the same world-class MOSFET-based discrete amplifier tech that trickles down from SVS’s reference flagship 16-Ultra series subwoofers that sell for $2,000. This amplifier section produces sustained high-current output for the most difficult low-frequency playback without clipping or bottoming out — and at less than $900 for SVS 3000 Micro, that is pretty impressive!

When dealing with such a powerful amp and motor configuration in a compact sealed cabinet, thermal management is crucial to transcendent sub-bass performance. SVS engineered effective heat dissipation through Micro’s efficient high-power voice coil to keep the 3000 Micro cool without impacting its performance. This innovative design allows effortless, on-demand current at all times and ensures 3000 Micro always presents accurate, heart-pounding, acoustically tuned bass.

High-Performance 50 MHz DSP Engine & Processing Power

Normally reserved for high-end separate audio components, processing power from a 50 MHz DSP by Analog Devices delivers sophisticated control and custom response curves optimized for real-world output and acoustically tuned room gain. It also enables advanced tuning and control via the SVS subwoofer DSP smartphone app. The result is a subwoofer that far exceeds expectations given this small size.

SVS Smartphone App – the easiest way to manage subwoofer DSP

As an added bonus, the 3000 Micro Sub is also completely compatible with the advanced SVS Subwoofer app.

This is really cool because this lets you connect to the Micro Sub wirelessly over a Bluetooth connection and fine-tune the output while sitting in your favorite seat. With the app on your smartphone, you can control the volume, or adjust more advanced settings like the crossover frequencies, a three-band parametric EQ, the polarity, room gain, and there’s even access to multiple DSP functions that you can save as custom tuning profiles.

You can even optimize these tuning profiles for the type of content you’re enjoying and then save them as presets for later. These include presets for your music, movies, or even video games for even more exhilarating tailored bass that immerses you deeper into your video games.

For less than $900, you really just cannot beat the value the Micro Sub provides.

Performance

SVS precisely tuned their fully active dual-side-firing 8-inch drivers electrically and mechanically in parallel for fantastic low-end that will work in a variety of situations.

We tested the 3000 Micro Sub using Klipsch's The Fives powered speakers as a soundbar replacement in a medium-sized living room and also in a small home office space with a pair of powered speakers.

The Fives have a special crossover circuit that automatically activates when you use a sub. When we connected up the Micro Sub with The Fives, voices in the music immediately sounded much cleaner and detailed with this 2.1 soundstage. The 3000 Micro also presented impressive low-end from a shockingly compact 11-inch cabinet that SVS tells us will go all the way down to 23Hz!

Compared to larger ported subs like the SVS PB-1000 Pro, sound effects were understandably not as impactful or immersive coming from a miniature 11-inch cabinet — however, instruments hiding in the mid-range frequencies like acoustic guitar plucks, string sections, and voices in the music and even dialogue sounded much cleaner and more resolute with The Fives and the 3000 Micro, together.

If you like Sci-Fi/Fantasy thrillers, there’s a great scene in “The Witcher,” which is a TV series you can find on Netflix about a superhuman monster-slaying hunter who falls in love and goes to battle with his own heart. Right at the beginning of the first episode, there’s a scene where a baby fawn timidly approaches a pond in a dark creepy forest and begins to have a drink.

At about 30 seconds in, the experience of chest-pounding deep low-end impact just blew us away when a huge spider-like creature emerged from the waters with the Witcher in mid-chase right behind it. Sound effects as this giant spider emerged from the depths of the waters was shockingly impressive for such a small compact 11-inch cabinet.

We were also immediately impressed with how open and spread apart the mid-range became with this setup. Violins and string sections in the soundtrack were clearer, more resolute, and detailed — which also made dialogue in the mid-range stand out more clearly.

We enjoyed using the SVS Smartphone App to fine-tune the phase and change the volume from zero right from our chairs so that music, dialogue, and sound effects were all musically balanced for a more immersive cinematic experience with this 2.1 setup.

A great way to experience musical bass response is Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly,” which was recorded in 1982 for the American singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut solo studio album.

We listened to this song with the 3000 Micro under our work desk in a small home office with a pair of computer speakers. Immediately, we were impressed with the musical bass response and the deep low-end extension featured on the song’s powerful four-to-floor kick drum and the tuneful electric bass guitar.

The 3000 Micro let us feel the drummer’s heavy-footed playing-style with chest-hitting bottom-end weight that felt just like a live concert. The electric bass guitar had a tuneful-sense-of timing that simply came alive with the same impressive low-end energy we would expect from a substantially larger subwoofer.

Overall, while there are obvious limitations to consider when designing a subwoofer as small as the 3000 Micro, we were impressed with the performance. It may not be as impactful on sound effects as larger, more expensive subwoofers, but we think this compact micro sub packs a surprising musical “punch” that is very easy to get immersed in for music and soundtracks. It’s also very cool to have a micro subwoofer that can deliver this amount of performance and still fit in just about anywhere.

Overall Recommendation

We have to say, the sound coming out of the entire setup with the 3000 Micro and Klipsch’s The Fives worked really well under a computer desk for listening to music. The little Micro Sub also performed a lot better than we expected for such a compact subwoofer in a living room when watching movies and TV shows.

If you have some great-sounding small speakers and you enjoy listening to music as much as you enjoy watching movies or TV shows, you’ll want to consider adding one (or even two) SVS 3000 Micro Subs. This compact sub will blend very well with your main bookshelf speakers.

It’s small enough to fit anywhere and it has enough horsepower to deliver breathtaking bass from a shockingly compact 11-inch enclosure. For small-to-medium-sized rooms and especially home offices, we think the little Micro Sub packs huge value. If you have the space, you are better off with a full-sized subwoofer — however, if you are limited in space or looking for a great little sub to put under a computer desk in an office, then strongly consider the SVS 3000 Micro sub.

Read our SVS Subwoofers Comparison & Overview for a complete rundown on all the SVS subwoofers.

If you need help knowing what to look for when shopping for any type of subwoofer, feel free to give us a call or chat with one of our subwoofer experts. We’ll be happy to help you find the perfect one — or even two — that will work best in a home theater or with your music setup.