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Klipsch RSW-15 vs SVS SB-16


Youthman

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9 minutes ago, Youthman said:

Both subs sound fantastic but one stood out above the other

Ah, a tease!  Well done.  But I have already viewed your video and I know how it turns out.

 

The results are shocking!  Wow!  :ohmy:

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Great video, I can't say I'm surprised with your final thoughts. You should try to work your magic with klipsch and get them to send you as pair of r-115sw subs for you to review with the rf7 III and for you to put them up against the rsw15

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40 minutes ago, dtr20 said:

You should try to work your magic with klipsch and get them to send you as pair of r-115sw subs for you to review with the rf7 III and for you to put them up against the rsw15

That's a good idea, especially since I have not heard them yet.   I have not yet heard the R-115SW but I don't think the R-115SW is on the same level as the RSW-15.  Dual 15's, larger amp, not to mention $900 MSRP vs $1800 MSRP.  Still might be fun though.

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8 minutes ago, Youthman said:

But I don't think the R-115SW is on the same level as the RSW-15. 

You don't know that...yet.  :cool:

 

You are serving the greater audio community and your honest opinion on various products is well respected.  Not everything is going to be the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).  I'm guessing there are a a lot of people who want to know the best-bang-for-the-buck with various speakers, subs and amps at different price points.

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12 minutes ago, Youthman said:

But I don't think the R-115SW is on the same level as the RSW-15.

I haven't  watched the video yet, but believe what you are saying is true. That said, the scuttlebutt from a Klipsch engineer who posted his impressions on this Forum and AVS seem to differ. I 've tried to get independent (non-klipsch) reviews of folks that have both subs but haven't found anyone that has. Btw, I absolutely love both subs in my sig and only am looking for a new one when either bites the dust or hear that the R-115SW is an actual "upgrade." :)

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5 minutes ago, Zen Traveler said:

I haven't  watched the video yet, but believe what you are saying is true.

I have no personal knowledge if this is true...that is just my opinion based on my own personal assumptions.  I'll check with Klipsch to see if they would be interested in sending me one to compare to the RSW-15. 

 

11 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

You don't know that...yet.  :cool:

You are correct...I have not heard the R-115SW yet.  Let me go back and bold and italicize think.

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Michael.

 

Watched this video on FB the other day.  Very surprised also.  As great a sub as the RSW15 is, there had to be "something" you guys missed that "prevented" the SB16 from at least matching the RSW in output/slam.  My SB13 Plus hits hard and it is out in the open with little boundary gain.  I do think the RSW15's do benefit with rear boundary gain due to the rear firing active woofers over the SB16 front firing.  Maybe another test with both pulled away from any boundary.

 

Either way, great video.

 

Bill

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6 hours ago, willland said:

As great a sub as the RSW15 is, there had to be "something" you guys missed that "prevented" the SB16 from at least matching the RSW in output/slam. 

Kyle and I both thought the same thing but couldn't think of anything.  Same location, same level match as rest of speakers, same seating location, same electronics, same crossover settings, same demo material.  Not sure what else we could have done.  It sounded great, we just felt the RSW-15 during the 1 vs 1 demo and the same with the dual vs dual demo.  We weren't listening for accuracy, or how deep they went, we just both did not feel the same pressure in the chest like we experienced with the SVS.

 

SVS sent me an email stating he "wasn't completely surprised" at our results and that "in hindsight, because the Klipsch’s are a bass reflex design, the ported PB16-Ultras would have been the more fair comparison, even at the risk of moving the screen. That was my bad."

I originally requested the PB-16's but he felt since I've always had sealed subs, (Velodyne HGS15) and I wanted to put them behind the screen, the SB-16's would be the best choice. 

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@Youthman,

 

Not doubting your methodology at all. 

 

4 minutes ago, Youthman said:

SVS sent me an email stating he "wasn't completely surprised" at our results and that "in hindsight, because the Klipsch’s are a bass reflex design, the ported PB16-Ultras would have been the more fair comparison

I thought about that after I posted.  You basically had the same results with your RSW15 vs HGS15. 

 

Bill

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2 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

Is there a Cliff notes version somewhere?  I can't watch a 13 minute video here at work

@CECAA850, here ya go.

Invited a friend over to help me move the heavy subs around for testing.

 

Gave him a demo of my current setup LaScalas with (4) RSW-15's.  Then we turned off the top two subs and demoed Dual RSW-15's.

 

Removed the right pair of RSW-15's from behind the screen and replaced it with 1 SVS SB-16.  I turned off the top left RSW-15 so that we could demo 1 RSW-15 against 1 SVS SB-16.

 

Used SPL Meter to match levels on all speakers.  RSW-15 was at 0dB in my Onkyo, had to increase the level to +8dB for the SB-16 to match the rest of the speakers.

 

We used the Train Wreck Scene in Super8 for each demo.

 

We didn't feel the SVS as much in the demo as the RSW-15.  We both swapped seats and moved around the room to see if sub location might have been the cause.  It wasn't.

 

Then we removed the other two RSW-15 and replaced them with the other SB-16.  Playing both SB-16's, we still didn't feel it as much as we felt with Dual RSW-15's.

 

It wasn't scientific, it wasn't a "controlled test", no measurements were taken.  We just noticed in that particular scene, the SVS didn't pressurize the room as the RSW-15.


The other thing we noticed is during the scene, there was a certain part that the SVS didn't sound "good".  It was "floppy" sounding.  It wasn't bottoming out or over excursion, it just didn't sound clean.  It was very similar to the sound I heard from them during the beginning of Edge of Tomorrow.  It's was a certain frequency that just didn't sound good in both demos.

 

With that said, I still think the SB-16 are amazing subs.  Lots of slam, they look gorgeous in piano black and I has a ton of advanced controls via the App. 

 

Kyle and I were both rooting for the SB-16 since he owns the PB-13 and PB-16 and if they were an upgrade to my 4 RSW-15's, I was willing to sell them to help to put towards the purchase of the Dual SB-16's.

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7 minutes ago, willland said:

I thought about that after I posted.  You basically had the same results with your RSW15 vs HGS15. 

Yes, I got as much "slam" from a single RSW-15 as I did Dual Velodyne HGS15's so I sold the Velos.

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2 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

You're comparing 2 sealed subs to 2 ported, correct?

I believe so.  I always thought the RSW-15's were considered a sealed sub but am now finding out from others that it's technically considered a ported sub because of the radiator even though it doesn't have a "hole" or a "port".

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SVS also said, "As you probably know, your subs have a passive radiator instead of ports but they work in a similar manner – they augment deep bass output at/near the tuning frequency of the passive radiator.  So it’s understandable the SB16U would have less output in the 20-35 Hz bandwidth.  Above 35 Hz it would be close. "

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3 minutes ago, Youthman said:

@CECAA850, here ya go.

Invited a friend over to help me move the heavy subs around for testing.

 

Gave him a demo of my current setup LaScalas with (4) RSW-15's.  Then we turned off the top two subs and demoed Dual RSW-15's.

 

Removed the right pair of RSW-15's from behind the screen and replaced it with 1 SVS SB-16.  I turned off the top left RSW-15 so that we could demo 1 RSW-15 against 1 SVS SB-16.

 

Used SPL Meter to match levels on all speakers.  RSW-15 was at 0dB in my Onkyo, had to increase the level to +8dB for the SB-16 to match the rest of the speakers.

 

We used the Train Wreck Scene in Super8 for each demo.

 

We didn't feel the SVS as much in the demo as the RSW-15.  We both swapped seats and moved around the room to see if sub location might have been the cause.  It wasn't.

 

Then we removed the other two RSW-15 and replaced them with the other SB-16.  Playing both SB-16's, we still didn't feel it as much as we felt with Dual RSW-15's.

 

It wasn't scientific, it wasn't a "controlled test", no measurements were taken.  We just noticed in that particular scene, the SVS didn't pressurize the room as the RSW-15.


The other thing we noticed is during the scene, there was a certain part that the SVS didn't sound "good".  It was "floppy" sounding.  It wasn't bottoming out or over excursion, it just didn't sound clean.  It was very similar to the sound I heard from them during the beginning of Edge of Tomorrow.  It's was a certain frequency that just didn't sound good in both demos.

 

With that said, I still think the SB-16 are amazing subs.  Lots of slam, they look gorgeous in piano black and I has a ton of advanced controls via the App. 

 

Kyle and I were both rooting for the SB-16 since he owns the PB-13 and PB-16 and if they were an upgrade to my 4 RSW-15's, I was willing to sell them to help to put towards the purchase of the Dual SB-16's.

Thanks for the summary.  Did you ever switch side to side to eliminate room issues?  If I understand this correctly, you kept the SVS's on one side and Klipsch on the other?

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