SVS Subwoofers Comparison & Overview

When SVS first came on the scene as a company making some pretty outrageous looking subwoofers, they focused on providing as much value as possible for the customer. They went with a very unconventional design for their subs that helped them put more money into the subwoofer drivers and amplifiers. The very first SVS subwoofers were in the shape of a large tube and wrapped in black fabric. And bear in mind, this was not a small tube, imagine a 16-20” diameter tube that stood 3 to 4 feet tall in your room!

This design did allow them to enable their subwoofers to have tremendous deep bass output at a very reasonable price, which met their goal of delivering a ton of performance for the money.

When the current SVS team purchased the company in 2011, they wanted to keep this same value set and expand it further, while also delivering bass in a more conventional subwoofer form factor. Today, SVS makes a dozen different models of subwoofers ranging in size from what most people consider normal for a subwoofer to a top of the line model that is closer in size to a washing machine than most subwoofers on the market. SVS even still pays homage to those original subwoofers with two models in a cylindrical shape. 

In this SVS subwoofers comparison and overview, we’ll go over some of the characteristics all SVS subwoofers share, then get into the differences in the various models to help you find the best one, or better yet, two subwoofers that will work best for your home theater or music system.

Design Goals All SVS Subwoofers Share

Back in 2011 when the new SVS team was planning their future products, they decided on a list of 5 attributes any subwoofer they would ever make could deliver on. At Audio Advice, we believe multiple great subwoofers are the foundation of any ultimate home theater or music system. A system is just not complete without being able to reproduce the lowest octaves of music and special effects with perfect accuracy and power. We have to say, if you can pull all of these design goals off, you truly do have a great subwoofer. 

The SVS principals are in bold and our Audio Advice comments are in italics.

• Have great low-frequency extension. This is pretty much a must for any serious subwoofer. It needs to be able to reach down to the lowest frequencies to do a great job.
• Be able to produce those frequencies at the highest sound pressure levels. This attribute is a whole lot harder than the first one. To do this requires a serious subwoofer driver and amp, along with a great cabinet design. But when you pull it off, you start grinning when you’re sitting in your home theater!
• Be accurate in terms of frequencies being produced and not being produced. This one is pretty easy to do with attribute 1, but really difficult to achieve and also hit attribute 2. This means your sub design can have no boom at all - just pure accurate bass.
• Have speed and control in transients to stop and start reproducing bass according to the actual program content. We love this attribute. Great subwoofers have this and it's what distinguishes the best ones from the mediocre ones. Real-life music is fast with no overhang. Again, this one is pretty easy to do with 1 and 3, but not 2. Hats off to SVS for pulling this off with the ability to make you grin when you are slammed with a special effect, while in the next session, hear the texture in an upright bass.
• Blend seamlessly with full-range speakers. This is the goal of all great subwoofers, to fill in that last bottom octave without ever having you feel like a subwoofer is there calling attention to itself.

High Excursion Bass Drivers

All SVS subwoofers have a bass driver capable of a great deal of movement. The voice coils SVS uses are larger in diameter than you typically see as well, which allows them to move such a distance but stay linear. The top of the line model has an 8” diameter voice coil, which is by far the largest we have ever seen on a residential subwoofer.

The ability to move far and fast allows them to reach down deep and produce high sound pressure levels. Their design also allows them to start and stop very quickly, which improves their ability to reproduce accurate bass with no overhang.

Powerful Subwoofer Amplifiers

To move those massive drivers with speed and accuracy requires a lot of amplifier power. Every single SVS subwoofer has a larger Class D amplifier than you would expect to see for its price range. Even the entry-level 1000 Pro Series at $499 has a power amp capable of producing 325 watts of continuous power and 800 watts of peak power. That is pretty impressive!

Solid Well Braced Cabinets

To have accurate bass from a subwoofer, the cabinet needs to be extremely solid and rigid. With the entry-level model weighing in at 26 pounds and the top of the line at 175 pounds, you can tell SVS puts some serious engineering into their cabinet designs. 

Advanced DSP Controls

Being able to customize the output of a subwoofer to better fit with your room's acoustic characteristics is a huge plus. The 1000 Pro series has the controls on the rear of the subwoofer and includes a continuously variable phase control for better matching to your main speakers, which is pretty amazing at this price range. You even get a great app that connects to the sub via Bluetooth for more advanced tuning and control — and SVS now includes this smart app control across the entire product lineup.

The app gives you three presets for different listening setups (think rocking out vs not waking the baby). You also get low pass filter adjustments, volume, phase, polarity, a three-position completely variable parametric eq, room gain compensation, and port tuning for the ported models. The app knows which subwoofer you have and gives you the options and tuning available for your sub, making it super easy to use.

We love the way you can adjust these from your listening chair to fine-tune things. The room gain is very slick in that it allows you to roll off the ultimate output of the sub if it's overloading your room. 

Industry Best Warranty

Most subwoofers will have a 5-year warranty on the subwoofer driver and a 1 or 2-year warranty on the power amp inside the subwoofer. All SVS subwoofers have a full 5-year warranty on everything which is very impressive. 

Now let's take a look at the 5 different model ranges you’ll have to choose from in the SVS line.

SVS Subwoofer Models

As we go through these, every series has at least two different models. You will see ported subwoofers and sealed subwoofer options throughout the SVS lineup. This is one of the first decisions you should make. As a general rule, the sealed enclosure model will provide you with a faster and more tuneful bass response and will appeal to the person most interested in sound quality over quantity. The advantage of the ported cabinet is its ability to play much louder. You’ll notice the ported cabinets are much larger in size within the same series and as a result usually cost more than the sealed version due to the extra cabinet expense.

When you compare, you’ll also observe that the ported model in one level, sells for about the same price as the sealed model in the next series up. It really comes down to matching the subwoofer to your main speakers and deciding how much sound pressure level you want in your room. The sealed versions produce a ton of output to our ears while most of the larger ported models can reproduce the sound of a tank rolling by with its full rumbling glory. 

With so many different models to choose from, matching the right model to your system can be a little daunting.  This is why we recommend you contact the experts on our team to discuss the best options for your situation.

1000 Pro Series Subwoofers

Here we have two models, both the ported version and the sealed model have been upgraded to an all-new 12” long-throw driver with a high-precision tuned overhung motor configuration. Both models have also been updated to the SVS Sledge 325 watt Class D amplifier which is capable of 820 watts on peaks.

Like most of the ported and sealed versions from SVS, there is a big physical difference in the size of these two. The sealed SB-1000 Pro is pretty small with its cabinet being close to a 13” cube. The ported PB-1000 Pro is far larger with a cabinet that is roughly 19” deep and tall and 15” wide.

As an added bonus, both models are completely compatible with the advanced SVS Subwoofer app. SVS's smartphone app lets you connect to the sub over a Bluetooth connection to fine-tune the subwoofer from your favorite seat. At their starting price range of $499 - $599 you just cannot beat the value these provide. 

With the advanced SVS Subwoofer app, you can:

1. Control the volume.
2. Adjust advanced settings including crossover frequencies, a three-band parametric EQ, polarity, room gain, and more,
3. Access multiple DSP functions and save custom tuning profiles as presets optimized for music, movies, gaming, and more.

For small to moderate-sized music or home theater spaces, we recommend you go with two of the more compact SB-1000 Pros. Using dual subwoofers is always a plus over one as your bass response will be much more even across a larger listening area.

To help this model blend in better with your room, SVS offers the SB-1000 Pro in three finishes — black ash, and for $100 more you can get a piano gloss black or gloss white. The PB-1000 Pro is only available in black ash.

On the other hand, if more stunning low-frequency output with unerring control and accuracy below 20Hz is what you're seeking, the ported PB-1000 Pro version will be a perfect match for larger room sizes. 

2000 Pro Series Subwoofers

When you first glance at the Pro 2000 series SB-2000 sealed model, you might wonder why it costs almost twice as much as the SB-1000. They both appear to be in a similar-sized cabinet with a 12” woofer. It’s only when you take a deeper dive that you realize there is a world of difference in these two series!

SVS developed a very special 12” woofer for the Pro 2000 series. While we will not go into all of the technical details here on the differences (it would take almost 1000 words), suffice it to say, the only things similar about the two woofers is they are both 12” in diameter. The voice coils, magnet structure, basket, cone, wiring, and more are all in a different league. The end result is a woofer that can move further and quicker delivering far more bass impact than the 1000 series and with even more speed.

There are three models in the Pro 2000 series, the SB-2000 Pro which is the sealed version, the PB-2000 Pro, and finally, there is the throwback model to the original SVS subs, the PC-2000 Pro which is their ported cylinder-shaped subwoofer. We’re sure that by now you have figured out SB means sealed box and PB means ported box.

All three models use a Sledge 550-watt power amp that can produce 1500 watts of power on peaks. Not only do you get more power but it has a higher-end amplifier output stage using 25 Amp 600 Volt MOSFET’s for massive power output. This is trickle-down tech from when SVS developed a new amp for their top-of-the-line 16” models.

The digital signal processing also gets an upgrade as they use high-resolution 50Mhz Analog Devices Audio DSP with double precision 56bit filtering for improved audio quality. 

The SB-2000 Pro is about a 15” cube and starts to get on the heavy side at close to 50 pounds. You can get the SB-2000 Pro in black ash or pay $100 more for gloss black. The SB-2000 Pro will likely be the go-to subwoofer for a lot of systems. It is well under $1000, can deliver bass down to 17 Hz, and can produce up to 121 dB of sound pressure at 30 Hz. Do you have any idea how loud that is? It's basically the SPL level of a 747 on take off! Two of these can fill up a pretty large room with big and fast bass.

But what if you want even more bass impact? The PB-2000 Pro has two large ports and is in a cabinet that weighs in at 64 pounds and is almost two feet tall, 20” wide, and 19” deep. This guy can reproduce bass down to 16 Hz and put out an astounding 128.3 dB at 30 Hz! For those of you who like to feel your pants legs shake a little during special effects, this might be the subwoofer for you. It does cost $100 more than the SB-2000 Pro and comes in black ash only, but can really move some air in a modest to decent sized room.

For those of you who want the impact of the ported sound but do not quite have the width or depth, SVS offers the PC-2000 Pro which is a cylinder version of the PB-2000 Pro. It is about 17” wide by 34” tall and comes with a black gloss top. The PC-2000 Pro will set you back $50 more over the PB-2000 Pro but it comes with the SVS SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System which is in itself a $50 value. We recommend these isolation pucks under any brand of subwoofer.

The 2000 Pro series is also where you start to get app control features. You can adjust output, phase, low pass, and its frequency on all three, plus you get listening presets, parametric eq and room gain, plus you can have variable low pass slopes at 6dB, 12dB, 18dB or 24dB / octave which is great for blending the subwoofer in 2 channel audio applications. The PB and PC 2000 Pro also come with plugs for the port(s) if you want to fine-tune it more to your room and the app helps with changing the subwoofers output as you tell it how many ports you plugged. 

To our ears, the SB-2000 Pro offers a ton of performance for the money and might be the best value in the entire series.

3000 Series Subwoofers

In this series, you’ll have three choices, a ported or sealed model and a new micro-sized model. For the 3000 series, SVS took everything they have in the special driver used for the 2000 Pro series and added a few more tricks. First, it's a 13-inch high excursion woofer and the first in the line to use a flat edge wound voice coil which reduces mass and improves the driver efficiency. 

The 3000 series is where you start to see significant price jumps to move to the ported version and more output. But even the sealed SVS SB-3000 can produce bass down to 18 Hz in frequency response and put out almost 127 dB at 30 Hz, which is just astonishing.

While the SB-3000 uses a large 13” woofer, SVS kept the cabinet pretty compact in size as it's basically a 15” cube. You’ll want some help moving it around though as it weighs in at 54 pounds with its high-performance 13-inch driver and well braced solid cabinet. 

The 3000 level is also where the price starts to jump up significantly to move to the ported, higher output model. The PB-3000 is $400 more than the SB-3000 due to its much bigger cabinet. At about 22” high, 18” wide, and 26” deep, this is one big subwoofer! We highly recommend two people move this model as it's 84 pounds!

The PB-3000 goes down to 16 Hz and can give up almost 133 dB of SPL at 30 Hz! You’ll have 800 watts RMS of continuous power and 2,500 watts of peak power on hand. This kind of deep bass and power is not something you are going to want to have in an apartment or condo unless you are totally isolated from your neighbors as you will likely get a stream of complaints if you crank this guy up to its full potential. 

SVS 3000 Micro sub

The newest addition to the 3000 series is a brand new product-category coming in just under $800 — SVS 3000 Micro sub — and at Audio Advice, we think SVS has redefined what is possible for the “micro” category. This little subwoofer delivers deep, musical, chest-thumping sub-bass from a shockingly compact 11-inch cabinet. Mounted on opposite sides of the 3000 Micro's sealed cabinet are two fully-active high-excursion 8-inch woofers which SVS tuned specifically for the 3000 Micro. 

As a first-ever product-category for SVS, the little 3000 Micro is jam-packed with impressive features and technology for such a compact subwoofer. Here, SVS used the Sledge STA-800D2 power amplifier, which is an 800 watt Class D amplifier capable of 2,500+ watts on peaks.

You will have impressive low-end that will go all the way down to 23Hz! If you are considering a smaller compact subwoofer for a smaller space like a 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, Micro subs. 

App control is just like the 2000 Pro series with a great variety of things you can adjust from your seat. And like the 2000 series finish options are the same. The sealed model can be had in black ash or gloss black for $100 more while the PB-3000 comes in black ash only. 

Like the other series, we do prefer the sealed model here as well. It is super fast and tight which makes it a great choice for both music and home theater.

4000 Series Subwoofers

With the 4000 series, we are starting to get into the realm of huge subwoofers! The three models all incorporate a lot of trickle-down tech from the legendary SVS 16-Ultra series. 

All of them use a massive 13 ½” woofer with edge wound voice coils. The woofer assembly alone is heavier than a lot of subs on the market. 

As you might expect the power increases with the 4000 series going to 1200 watts of continuous power with 4000-watt peak power available. It uses the same high-end MOSFET design as the 2000 and 3000 models with just more guts.

SVS adds some pretty neat power control when you get to the 4000 models. The circuitry they call Active Power Factor Correction does line conditioning, surge suppression, and voltage regulation allowing the amp to deliver its full power potential even if you have some swings on your power line. They also added a ground isolation circuit to help prevent ground loops.

And speaking of AC power, the 4000 series can pull up to 1200 watts out of the wall, so we advise if possible a dedicated circuit for these if you can.

All three models add balanced inputs and outputs along with the RCA connections and you’ll get a head’s up display on the 4000 models to show you the mode it’s in.

Even the sealed SB-4000 is pretty serious in size factor weighing in at 102 pounds in a box that is roughly 18” by 18” by 21” deep. Like the 3000 series, stepping up to the ported version raises the price $400 and in the 4000 models, the ported version is also available in black ash or gloss black for a $100 upcharge. The PB-4000 is almost 2’ tall, 20” wide, and a whopping 30” deep, so you had better plan your space out properly if you are considering one of these. Plus its 157 pounds out of the box! 

The PC-4000 offers the same sonic output as the PB-4000 and for many people may be a better physical option for their room as its a 16 ½ cylinder that is about 44” tall, making its footprint far smaller than the PB-4000 although the PB-4000 does outperform it in ultimate low-end extension. Like the PC-2000, the PC-4000 also comes with the SVS SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System. 

Both the PC and PB models offer some pretty interesting port tuning. You can plug 1, 2, or all 3 ports to fine-tune the sub to your space. 

Speaking of the specs, all of these three models are very impressive with the 3 dB down point being 19 Hz, 13 Hz, and 15 Hz for the sealed, ported, can cylinder. The output is equally as impressive at 30 Hz of 126.8, 134.5, and 131.1 dB. Those are stunningly loud levels!

We see any of these models going into a pretty serious home theater where you are after bass that feels like you are right in the action. And why not go for two of them! You’ll save $200 on a pair!

16 Ultra Series Subwoofers

If you have made it this far, you are probably looking for the last subwoofer(s) you will ever need to buy. As the model number says, these use a huge 16” woofer that has an 8” flat round voice coil. To see this in person is just mind-blowing. 

You will definitely want to have either a dedicated electrical circuit or nothing else on it for these as they can pull 1500 watts out of the wall when they are going full speed. The powerful MOSFET amp can deliver 1500 watts continuous power or 5000 watts on peaks to satisfy even the most dynamic thunderclap. 

These both have all of the same features as the 4000 series with a nice heads up display, full app control with no upcharge for a beautiful black oak, or gloss black finish. 

Physically, these are monsters! The SB16 Ultra weighs in at 122 pounds and is roughly a 20” cube. That makes it pretty easy to place in most home theaters, but you will definitely need moving help. The PB16 Ultra is another story. It looks more like a small refrigerator. You’ll need to be ready for 174 pounds of solid subwoofer in a box that is 25” tall, 22” wide, and 31” deep. 

Spec-wise they are both really impressive with the SB getting down to 16 Hz and the PB going all the way down to 13 Hz! The SB can put out just shy of 130 dB at 30 Hz, while the PB can produce almost 137 dB, which is beyond the threshold of pain!

With over 20 product reviews from around the world rating these as some of the best subwoofers you can buy period, it's easy to see why so many home theater enthusiasts have these in their ultimate systems. The SB16 Ultra even won the coveted Class A recommendation from Stereophile Magazine in the powered subwoofer category. As a matter of fact, if you search subwoofer reviews, you will find SVS products are probably the most highly reviewed brand on the planet. 

When you look at all the technical advancements SVS put into the subwoofer driver and MOSFET amp for these, it becomes very hard to believe they can sell them for what they do. Heck, you can buy 2 of the top-rated SB16 Ultras for the price of many other brands mid-level subwoofers. SVS tells us most people who move to the 16 Ultra series wind up with two. We think this is a great idea as it will help smooth out the response in your room.

If you are ready to feel bass like you never imagined possible, yet with pinpoint accuracy and super quick response, the SB16 Ultra is an awesome choice. The SB16 Ultra is a great choice for reference home theater and music systems. If on the other hand, you want a sub that reaches down into infrasonic levels, the PB16 Ultra is an excellent choice. Or if you want the ultimate in a very large home theater space and have a home theater processor like a Datasat or Trinov that is super flexible with crossovers, we have a somewhat crazy idea. You could use two SB16 Ultras down to 20 Hz, then have a one or two PB 16 Ultras kick in for the infrasonic frequencies found in some special effects.