We got the chance to review the SVS Prime Elevation speakers a few months ago and we thought it exceeded our expectations, which you can find here. Now we got a chance to check out something they’ve been pulling up the ranks in which is their subs. The SB-2000 Subwoofer is not only small but very impressive with little to improve upon.
Design
The SB-2000 has a simple yet effective design with tough build quality. It comes in either a black woodcut or piano gloss black finish. The most prominent thing is the 12″ drive in front which takes up one side of the speaker itself. For protection or just a different look in general the grill that it comes with us very sturdy and isn’t the typical mesh we’re used to seeing. We were impressed on how small they were able to make this with everything it has going which we’ll get into in a minute.
Hardware
The subwoofer has a 500-watt RMS and can peak at 1100-watt. This is a Sledge STA-500D DSP amplifier which also means you can push the SB-2000 as much as you want in different configurations without worry of it getting damaged. The setting knobs in the back include a volume, Phase and the Low Pass Filter control among an Auto standby or constant on tab. The unit also manages to give you a stereo line-level input which gives you other amp combo options as well.
Performance
We didn’t know what to expect when it came to reviewing the unit which we did for about two months straight but we were blown away by a lot of what we heard. First off everyones listening experience and way they want to setup audio is different, luckily the SB-2000 was very flexible when trying to find a sweet spot for how we liked it. We found that two configurations were best which was either to put the unit at 80hz and tweak a few settings on the receiver to work together. The other is to put the receivers low pass filter on LFE mode and let the receiver do all the decoding, managing and heavy lifting which got us more of where we wanted to be with it.
We tested it out in a few different settings, first being music which had more of subtle bass then hard hitting which we preferred. We could make it sound like car speakers if you wanted but it’s like it almost knew to hit tones evenly with songs that could get a bit crazy with the bass. We of course tested it out with gaming which we had to get a proper setup for it but once we got it really brought up the level of sound within games. The deep engine noise in Forza Horizon 3 for Xbox One sounded almost lifelike and explosions in Battlefield 1 were outstanding! Lastly when we tested it out with movies it brings it to another level. We like our sound a bit grittier almost like a ripple of bass versus one big boom and the SB-2000 was able to deliver and more. Some scenes in movies had bass in which I didn’t know it had which made the whole experience feel like we were closer to the action.
We don’t have anything negative to say really but we would maybe prefer a more aggressive look from the subwoofer itself or possibly the grill. We would also love a bit more equalizer control to get a even finer tune setting.
Bottomline
SVS has done a fantastic job making the SB-2000. We don’t think you could get a better subwoofer for the price of $699 and easily rivals bigger more expensive brands. This subwoofer can fill up sound in nearly any home theater setup you may have and is highly recommended to bring your entertainment to another level.
