This is correct.

Eh?

My Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers and Center all use 5" drivers, which by logic should be a "step down" from my previous SVS Prime and Ultra bookshelfs using 6.5" drivers, right? No.

The Ascend speakers beats the SVS speakers without a break of a sweat. And since movies generally require a sub, the low-end "loss" wasn't even apparent at all.

What I'm trying to say is, don't be so quick to dismiss a smaller driver. It's all about proper integration.

Have you went and audition any of them though? All 3 speakers from your list has significantly different tonal balances.

For me personally, I've never heard the AE301 so I won't comment on it. But between the Klipsch RP150 and the ELAC DB6, I prefer the RP150s any day. The Klipsch RP150 just offers a better top-end, is more dynamic and has a better mid-bass balance to my ears vs the DB6.

As a bonus which I appreciate, the RP150s are also much more easier to drive to reference levels due to its high sensitivity (yes, yes the number provided by Klipsch is bullshit, but it's definitely a high sensitivity speaker at the end of the day), great for movies.

Also, might want to add the Q Acoustics 3020 to that list.

No problem, hope you find something you like.

I have a pair of them as my desktop speakers, mated with a Sb1000 sub. The 3020s does nothing wrong, very natural sounding speakers for the price. Sumptuous bass, nice smooth midrange and a tweeter that doesn't cut in your ears like a sawmill.

While they lack a lot of the "hi-fi" bullshit qualities (not enough air, soundstage not having enough width or depth for example), they are competent in what they were intended for : a great pair of speakers at a reasonable price.

Not sure exactly if that's MSRP, but the v681 isn't worth that much tbvh with you. If you can find it closer to RM2k or so, then yeah it's much more reasonable.

Don't quote me on this, but I've seen the v681 for RM2199 from stylelaser just a month ago. Of course, whether that is a new unit or display model, I don't know. They didn't state what's the condition like.

Why don't you just search for last year's A850 instead? Should be going for around RM2.5k. You get better YPAO for one and the ability to EQ the sub(s). Only thing it lacks is DTS:X, but if you don't plan to do 5.1.2 then it doesn't really matter.

Out of those 3 options, I'd go with the SR5011 solely because it has pre-outs. Never know when you may need pre-outs, but when you want/need it and the receiver doesn't offer any - you'd be pressing your own balls on why didn't you get one with it.

Also, it's April now. That means the yearly announcement of receivers are just around the corner (Yamaha and Onkyo has started), you may want to wait out on that instead.

IINM, the x2300w and SR5011 share very similar major components - the DAC(s), the transformer, the op-amps, the caps... But well, honestly the biggest difference in "sound" between them is down to how Audyssey could potentially screw up the EQ in relation to one another since it's impossible that they'll return the same EQ results every single time.

To be very honest and frank with you, changing receivers and not employing any sort of its auto-EQ system would generally result in; mostly subtle perceivable difference.
Better or not is subjective. If you ask me, I can't tell the difference between a Bur-Brown DAC vs a Sabre DAC. But there are people who would swear that they can and when asked to explain the science behind it, they cannot and start talking in gibberish "audiophile lingo" for whatever reasons.

So yeah, whatever sounds better to you is at the end of the day, is all that matters. Impossible for me to tell you if you'll get better audio quality with either x2300w or SR5011 over your current Yamaha v371.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Apr 3 2017, 06:46 PM

The auto-EQ makes the biggest difference to my ears.

In their "pure direct" mode which employs no PEQ, no bass management, no levels/delay set, then it would come down to power handling at different impedance. Some receivers will crap it self and sound bad just because the speaker dips into 4ohms while some others would still play along fine. Then some receivers would start sending distortion waves because they ran out of juice when the listener is playing his speakers at reference volume.

If that's the difference in "sound quality" that the so called audiophiles talk about... then, I guess they didn't learn what the hell ohms law is in school.

Yamaha sub preouts are often times only 1.0v, aventage models or not.

Many of today's digital amps on subwoofers have a sensitivity of 1.2v to 1.5v on the input, so having only 1v supplied to them, the usual "12 oclock" gain is often times not enough (again, placement matters). So, just turn the damn dial to 3 oclock, problem fixed. The sub isn't going to explode, because if it does then that sub is just a fart box to begin with.

Yamaha's top end model now a days have no backlit keys on the remote anymore. Cost cutting 101.

Don't know where the myth started that you have to match colors to colors.

What matters is that you match the positive to positive and negative to negative to avoid polarity issues. The cable color doesn't matter because all it does is transport current to the speakers from the amp, they are still copper underneath their jacket. There are some custom cables that are wired only one way, but that's a whole different topic so don't worry about that.

The stripes/colors/shape of a speaker cable pair doesn't matter, they exist just to remind the user which terminal the cable is connected to.

So basically, the striped portion of your cable can go to + or -, it doesn't matter. You just make sure that if you connect it to + on the amp/receiver, you then connect it to the + terminal on the speaker. Repeat the same for all speakers.

Don't know why you so skeptical. I have subs that are 15 years old and never even serviced once, still works like a charm until today. If only they had the beastly power of modern subs to extend below 25hz, but they don't.

You're buying a quality product. Not a fart box bolted with a puny driver and questionable magnet, along with an amplifier made out of plastic caps.

If new is out of your wallet limit, then get second hand. It's absolutely a viable reason. Believe it or not, many audiophiles take care of their systems like its some divine shrine. I haven't seen many with their systems being on its deathbed. Not even ones that are over a decade old.


To answer your sub selection in the above post, both subs are meh. Nothing special, but not absolutely terrible either. My suggestion is to save up another 1-2k to get a good sub that will last you for many years.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Apr 25 2017, 08:48 PM

You didn't state the size of your living room, so no one can give you an accurate answer. Sub + room size = x performance, they are both related.

A sealed sub will never have the output of a ported sub, this is simply physics. Ported subs has a port to push more air and they are usually in a bigger enclosure, these 2 things alone will always beat a sealed sub especially when it comes to frequencies under 30hz. The difference is even more significant under 20hz (ULF).

You mentioned you live in a condo. I have no idea how thick your condo walls are, but the chances of annoying all your neighbours is pretty high if you opt for a sub that pushes a lot of output in the lower octaves. A single SB1000 will do pretty well in room sizes around 1300 cu. ft (or 130 square feet~). By "well" I mean solid output down to 25hz~, which in comparison to many RM1k+ subs is substantial.

My suggestion, get a SB1000 now. Then in the future get another SB1000. Engage in multiple subs, not just a single one.

Between the 2000 series ported sub, I'd rather go for the PC2000 over the PB2000. They perform very similarly but the PC2000 actually has a slight bit more output and also cleaner transition of the ULF octaves towards the midbass. It's not very significant, borderline noticeable in fact.

But theoretically, the PC2000 is cheaper than the PB2000 because it comes with the soundpath feets (which... doesn't really work honestly, unless you are on plywood floors or something). Those 4 feets already cost RM360.

The PB2000 and PC2000 are priced the same. I think there may be a bit of confusion when I said the PC2000 is cheaper. It's "cheaper" because the cost of adding the soundpath isolation feets are already counted in the PC2000's price tag.

Promos are kind of pointless in boleh land because most people would rather just buy some logitech speaker or bose or something like that. Waste all the money for promo to get like 5 buyers, for what? Exposure? Those who already knows the brand will find a way to get it.
Those who doesn't know, like I said... their knowledge starts at "logitech speakers cukup, got boom boom already what, no meh?" Good luck trying to educate them in a short brand promo, next to impossible. Good thing the internet exists these days.


The PB13u has more output over the PC13u. This is simply due to size. I mean, SVS could make a bigger PC13u when they designed it but that would defeat the whole purpose of a cylinder sub to begin with right (this is also why a PC16u doesn't exist, according to them)?

PB13u is not discontinued btw, just not being brought in anymore. I think you can still get a special order from Max, I'm not sure though.

That said, the PC13u is absolutely no slouch. It's still a 20hz monster, consumer subs wise.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Apr 28 2017, 05:13 PM

PC12+ at 4k is a mega steal. 2nd or 3rd hand or not.

Honestly that's because we have a lack of choices here. If PSA, Hsu, Rythmik (okay they used to, many years ago), and RBH are as readily available as SVS here, you won't be seeing such products being snapped up so fast.

In fact SVS isn't one of the best anymore in the price-performance category, in the US and Europe at least.

Sad to say that only other company, sub wise that matches SVS for price-performance in Malaysia is JL Audio. But even then, JL is still more expensive in most cases.

Ya unfortunate. Most people are content with slim, 6 inch subwoofers where they can hide under their sit or some cabinet now a days. Market getting so small, too niche.

But then again, thankfully we still have bros like sivanathan04 who are serious about good quality audio, know how to cut through the marketing bullshit and buy what was actually - good. We only live once!


I called them before, but they don't have many ready models available. Most of the models (like the popular FV15HP) usually need to wait for MOQ or special order only, which takes a couple of months to arrive. At the end, they end up more expensive than SVS.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Apr 29 2017, 10:45 PM