Carver SW150P 10" 150W Powered Subwoofer
By: Carver Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 4
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 On: 2008-06-17
I live in an apartment so I couldnt use a big sub and wanted clean sound. I researched tons of smaller subs and I kept coming back to the Carver SW150P so I decided to give it a shot. Love the sub after using it for a few months and it is not even broke in yet. It adds that extra punch I was missing from my movies. It can shake the walls pretty good too for a 10" sub. My setup is mainly for movies & rock music and it consists of two Energy C3s for front left and right, Klipsch center speaker, and bose 161 for rears. Knew I could could not go wrong with a subwoofer made by Carver. This sub fits in nicely and is the most beautiful sub you can own. I have the crossover set at 60Hz and the sound is clean. The level can be turned up pretty high before there is any distortion and you have the settings way too high if getting distortion. Recommend keeping it at 12 oclock. Also, if you are getting a hum in it, as previous posts state, the problem is your setup and not the subwoofer. First make sure your system is grounded, get a power conditioner and you can even use the crossover processor within the sub to mitigate the sound. This probelm is not by the Carver subwoofer but caused by your stereo and electrical outlet. Good news, is it is easy to fix. Bottomline, The 150 watts and 10" woofer is more than you will need, if you can find this sub grab it as they are hard to find and this sub sounds like subwoofers costing over $1,000. Best $399 you can spend to transform you home theater system and you can even find them on sale for closer to $300 every now and then.
 On: 2007-02-25
I purchased this sub after I bought a new receiver since the new receiver did not have any connectivity options for my old passive sub. The main appeal of this sub was the design, which blends in very nicely with the rest of my living room. I wont comment on the sound quality since I live in an apartment and I cant run this thing on full blast (it definitely beats not having a subwoofer though).
Like the other reviewers I also had a problem with the subwoofer generating a constant hum. As the previous reviewer indicated, this is caused by a ground looping problem which is quite common when a lot of AV equipment gets strung together. To eliminate or mitigate this problem, just try to connect all your equipment to a common ground (e.g. a single surge protector). If that doesnt do the trick, hum eliminators/isolators can be had for fairly cheap at any music equipment store. In my case, the main offender causing the hum in the sub was my cable TV coax line hooked up to my cable set-top box (which in turn was hooked up to my receiver). I simply plugged the coax into my surge protector (APC SurgeArrest Performance PF11VT3) before running another coax to the cable box. The hum went from being slightly annoying to inaudible (unless I put my ear right next to the sub).
On: 2007-02-04
Just got this sub on Friday and all I can say is Wow....The benifit of this sub is that it has a great compact shape making it easy to place in the room. Cant beat the price. Looks very well constructed. Nice smooth finish and all the controls youll need to set it up with your system.
This is my first powered sub and never knew all the deep sounds I was missing. The Carver really brings movies to life...new deep sounds you can hear and feel!
My sub did not make the other componets hum (have a passive sub which I am still using) as the poster before me experienced.
I did, however, have a hum (gounding loop hum which is a common problem with powered subs in general) when I first hooked it up. To get rid of the hum I kept the cross-over circuits in the sub on, even thought I have the sub connected to the receiver directly by the RCA cable. For some reason, the cross-over circuits in the sub take care of the grounding loop hum issue.
In conclusion, this sub is a bargin, has a great design, and really adds performance to your 5.1 home theater.
On: 2007-01-31
I figured this was the same as the Audiosource. I believe I was right. This performs very well for a 10". I just wanted to get this quick review out there. I couldnt find any before I purchased this. Its close to my Sony sa-wm500. Doesnt have as much volume or the lows, but looks MUCH better and it has more features as well. Its also $30 cheaper. The shape may be convenient for placement. I wish I could have gotten it in black. It is sharp looking. It does give out a soft humming noise when turned up. I can only hear it when close. My other ones dont do this using the same cable. Also, most listings have the weight incorrect. Its 42lbs shipping and 36-37lbs for the woofer. Same as the AudioSource. This product is fantastic for $120 delevered. (Update) when i daisy chain this subwoofer to the others, it sends the low humming noise to the other subs. This severely drops its rating for me. Although, I cant figure out how to change my 4 star rating on this site. Its still good for a stand alone sub. Its down to a 2.5 in my book now. Lets hope the humming is not a standard feature for all of these. I called the company. They think its a grounding issue. They did tell me the Carver is an upgrade to the Audiosource. They said it had better electronics (amp).
They seem identical to me. They make them both, they should know...
Anyway, its worth returning and getting a new one. Amazon pays for shipping on defective products.
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