First Look: SVS SB-1000, PB-1000 Pro Subwoofers

SVS has, for years now, developed a reputation for delivering incredible performance at affordable prices, but its latest offerings—the new sealed SB-1000 Pro ($499) and ported PB-1000 Pro ($599)—take this trend to the extreme. The 1000 Pro Series subs are equipped with the company’s new 12-inch high-excursion driver and 325watt RMS/820-watt peak power Sledge STA-325D amplifier paired with the latest Analog Devices DSP. They’re also the most affordable SVS subs yet with app connectivity for tuning and setup.

The smartphone app is available for Apple, Android, and Amazon devices, and gives you access to volume control, parametric EQ, crossover settings, phase, polarity, and room compensation, and allows you to store your settings in one-touch presets optimized for music, movies, gaming, etc.

While similarly named and part of the same series, the SB-1000 Pro and PB-1000 Pro are quite different in terms of size and aesthetics owing to their respective sealed and ported designs. Conventional wisdom holds that sealed enclosures are typically more accurate and better controlled, resulting in more articulate performance better suited to music, at the expense of low frequency extension. The SB-1000 Pro does boast bass extension down to 20Hz, though, which is plenty enough for most movie fans.

Ported enclosures like the PB-1000 Pro, by contrast, typically reach even lower, and the PB 1000 Pro is no exception, reaching down to 17Hz in standard mode and 19Hz in sealed mode. Bottom line: If you want a smaller sub and you have a medium-size room, you will get plenty of room pressurization and great performance from the SB1000 Pro while saving some money. For larger rooms, I would opt for the PB 1000 Pro to get that extra displacement and low-frequency reinforcement.

Setup and connectivity are straightforward and identical on both subs. Their back panels feature line-level stereo inputs (the right designated as the LFE input), along with line-level stereo outputs and speaker-level inputs as an alternate connection method.

As previously mentioned, the smartphone app connects via Bluetooth and allows control over all user adjustable parameters, which can be tweaked from your listening position. Alternatively, there are controls on the back panel for primary user settings. The back panel also has a connection to accept the SVS SoundPath Wireless Audio Adapter, sold separately.

In the few hours I’ve had to audition both the SB-1000 Pro and PB-1000 Pro with a variety of music and movie scenes, it is clear each represents a new level of performance at its respective price point. Both perform well across an extreme range of music genres and sounded great with whatever bottom-heavy action sequences I threw at them. The needs of my room and my sound system may have me leaning more toward the PB-1000 Pro for my own purposes, but there’s absolutely nothing lacking in the performance of either, and I look forward to giving both a thorough beating in the lead-up to my more comprehensive reviews.

Look for those reviews soon here at Home Theater Review.

• What they are: SVS 1000 Pro Series Subwoofers.
• What we love: Deeper, more powerful bass extension with a full suite of controls via smartphone app.
• What we don’t: The PB 1000 Pro is quite large and may pose challenges fitting into your available space.
• Size:
  • SB-1000 Pro with grille: 13.5 x 13 x 14.76 inches; 26 lbs.
  • PB-1000 Pro with grille: 18.9 x 15 x 20 inches; 42.5 lbs.
• MSRP:
  • SB-1000 Pro in Premium Black Ash: $499.99; Piano Gloss Black / Piano Gloss White: $599.99.
  • PB-1000 Pro in Premium Black Ash: $599.99.