SVS 25-31PCi Subwoofer.

 
Manufacturer: SV Subwoofers LLC, 590 Carlin Drive, 
Austintown, OH 44515; Fax 330/793-8183; e-mail 
feedback@svsubwoofers.com; 
www.svsubwoofers.com 
Price: $499 (factory direct) 
Source: Manufacturer Loan 

I reviewed the SVS 16-46PC in Issue 88, and am still using that unit in my middle home-theater system. Since that time, the company has upgraded the line with the new "improved" versions. Hence the "i" suffix at the end of the model designation for the 25-31PCi model I am briefly reviewing here.

The upgrades for the entire PCi line include a new driver, a somewhat modified grill screen, and a new amp that is more powerful (320 watts vs 190 watts) than the one in the earlier PC versions. As before, the company has three models in this series: the 25-31PCi, 20-39PCi, and the 16-46PCi. (The company has additional, more expensive and more potent systems in four other series, but I can assure you that the PCi group should be able deliver just about all the subwoofer goods most $ensible enthusiasts would need.) In each case, the first number indicates the enclosure tuning frequency and the second indicates the approximate height of the cylindrical-shaped enclosure.

I had them ship me the 25-31PCi unit, because reviewing the biggest version would kind of be redundant. The "improvements" to the 14-46PCi should not result in a monumental enhancement to the performance over the previous version, and even the company admits that. The next size down (20-39PCi) is actually in the same practical performance category as the bigger model, because both are potent to 20 Hz (and lower with the 16-46), and so I felt that in a way reviewing it would be redundant, too. That left the 25-31PCi, which is the lowest priced subwoofer the company currently offers. The low price alone would make it an interesting item to check out.

Like the 16-46 and 20-39 versions, the 25-31PCi involves a cylindrical enclosure that is 16 inches in diameter. Although the height should be 31 inches, the sample I was sent was closer to 33. Tom Vodhanel, the designer, says that the unit has grown slightly since the earlier version's introduction, but that he kept the original nomenclature because the basics of the enclosure are essentially the same as before.

Unlike the lower-powered amp/crossover in the earlier models, the one in the new sub is a high-efficiency design with no heat sinks. It has line-level stereo inputs and outputs (the crossover sums the bass to mono for use in the sub), and also accepts speaker-level inputs, which also high-pass filter the signals to the satellites. On the other hand, while both the speaker-level and line-level inputs have a variable low-pass filter (40-120 Hz at 12 dB per octave), there is no high-pass filtering with the line-level inputs. I assume that the line-level passthrough outputs would be used to daisy-chain two subs together for an increased output.

The rationale here (becoming more common with subwoofer models all the time) is that most users will opt to use the sub-out and built-in crossover feature of their surround processor for high- and low-pass filtering duties. The 25-31PCi has a crossover bypass switch that allows it to accommodate such hookups, although the low-pass filter can still be switched in to fine-tune the bass contour if room acoustics require it. (This can be done with other-brand subs, too, of ...