I've been gradually working on getting my office to being a much more pleasant place to be. Part of that has been bringing in a cheaper HDTV and setting up a halfway competent stereo system.
I had picked up a fairly inexpensive surround speaker system (Klipsch Quintet, $189 off woot), and it sounded rather good, but as you'd expect from minisats, there's no low end. So I needed a subwoofer, but I didn't want to spend much.
Enter the Polk Audio PSW10... purchased for $90 off Amazon (free Prime shipping too). Yes, ninety dollars. New, even.
I must say, it's a pretty good deal for those trying to put something together on a real budget. It's a bit boomy, while it punches surprisingly well, the bass isn't quite as tight as I like. But still, it's less than a third of what I paid for my Paradigm PDR-10 some years back.
It's not quite as good as the Paradigm PDR- it won't hit as hard or run as loud, but in a small space for a secondary or tertiary subwoofer, it's better than it has any right to be at that price. I've noticed that it's gone up by $15 since I bought it last week, but even then it's still worth it.
So if you're trying to assemble an el cheapo system for a small room, this one is definitely worth a look, and it's going to be hard to beat without laying down $300 or more. Sure, my Paradigm DSP would blow it into next week and there's no shortage of other competent subs out there too, but again... this is right at one C-note.
It always sounds damning with faint praise to say "well, for the price..." but few times can we really say cost wasn't some kind of factor. When cost is up near the top of the concerns, this will get it done while still leaving some money for other components.
I had picked up a fairly inexpensive surround speaker system (Klipsch Quintet, $189 off woot), and it sounded rather good, but as you'd expect from minisats, there's no low end. So I needed a subwoofer, but I didn't want to spend much.
Enter the Polk Audio PSW10... purchased for $90 off Amazon (free Prime shipping too). Yes, ninety dollars. New, even.
I must say, it's a pretty good deal for those trying to put something together on a real budget. It's a bit boomy, while it punches surprisingly well, the bass isn't quite as tight as I like. But still, it's less than a third of what I paid for my Paradigm PDR-10 some years back.
It's not quite as good as the Paradigm PDR- it won't hit as hard or run as loud, but in a small space for a secondary or tertiary subwoofer, it's better than it has any right to be at that price. I've noticed that it's gone up by $15 since I bought it last week, but even then it's still worth it.
So if you're trying to assemble an el cheapo system for a small room, this one is definitely worth a look, and it's going to be hard to beat without laying down $300 or more. Sure, my Paradigm DSP would blow it into next week and there's no shortage of other competent subs out there too, but again... this is right at one C-note.
It always sounds damning with faint praise to say "well, for the price..." but few times can we really say cost wasn't some kind of factor. When cost is up near the top of the concerns, this will get it done while still leaving some money for other components.