So I have bit the bullet and bought 2 FVX12 after a lot of consultation with Ashish in Mumbai and Santosh in Bangalore.
Since this has been a long post I thought I'll give my final thoughts and help others looking for subwoofers like others have helped me.
Just an update.
Went to Avenue Sound Kemp's Corner in Malabar Hills to audition FVX12 and FV15HP.
Few points I'd like to make
The store has a very small dedicated mini theater approx 11'x8'.
The FV15HP is a mammoth sub. If one is planning to buy it, one should start hitting the gym before one starts saving.
The person attending to me was one Rahul, who was good with manners and had no idea about any of the products he was trying to market or the components he owned. The questions asked to him about the subs were answered from Rythmik official website.
I carried my own media (music and clips) and I do have a server at home which I wanted to access, which I couldn't listen to since Rahul didn't know a way around.
The FVX12 was connected to a Marantz with floor standing speakers, hence the subwoofer alone couldn't be heard.
The FV15HP was connected with bookshelf speakers and with the limited content I could access, I found it having the potential.
The man attending to us couldn't find enough content to make me fall in love with the sub.
He practically deafened us with volumes of about 70 on his Marantz SR7011or 12. When will people understand 'louder isn't better'?
I've been to a lot of hifi shops in Andheri, Bandra, Parel and Juhu and by far, this was the worst experience ever.
I contacted the owner to share my review and I've told him that the trip and the day was wasted. He was apologetic and asked me to come again for a visit.
I'm sorry for my rant, but I don't understand it. They are sole importers for Rythmik in India and the only store that carry these subs in Mumbai. With this kind of a demo the only reason I'd still consider a Rythmik would be coz of this forum being in love with the sub. The reason for going there was to choose between the 2.
Since their theater room is about 1/4th my size I don't think I can ever make a fair assessment of the subs without buying them and installing them in my room.
While this post was my first reaction to the store, it was more about the guy than the setup.
I talked to one of them, no names revealed though, but they were in complete praise of Ashish, who has studied in Austin and met the Rythmik people there. They are very confident on his knowledge and asked me to contact him for the best solution.
After talking to Ashish, I did find him to be knowledgeable and could answer (I guess) all my questions off his hand. That shows confidence and knowledge and he knows his stuff. He finally suggested that a pair FVX12 is not going to cut it as far as the bass performance goes. Anything will be better than the subs I have right now. About the FVX15 he said the amp has similar power to the FVX12. As per the official website I realized it's mentioned as the same, so though the 15" driver will be able to go lower than the 12", it'll lack a bit of performance since it takes more power to drive a 15" cone compared to a 12". So the head room may be limited. The FV15HP as per audioholics forum shows that it's recommended for a 5000 cuft room (but then that's America with different construction standards).
This is what determined the company that I was giving my money to. I went and did my final audition yesterday afternoon with a friend. This friend lives in Delhi and flew in to audition multiple bookshelves and subs. He was in Frankfurt recently and auditioned the Svs SB/PB2000 pro for his future 2.0/2.1 stereo setup.
This time I informed Ashish about my arrival one day in advance. During the audition a lot of movie scenes were what we've all seen (no bass boost to the track), the mids and bass got mixed together and the woofer, because it was setup nicely, it disappeared. Again I thought, maybe it cant go louder, but then Ashish played around with the settings in the amp which did the trick. He increased the woofer gain a bit and reduced the volume on the mains thus giving more intensity only to the subwoofer sound., while reducing volume to the other speakers With the other speakers suppressed and subwoofer boosted (from my choice) not only did I feel the subwoofer complimenting the speakers, I felt the "BEAST" jump into action. During the opening of interstellar on bluray the sofas vibrated gently and our clothes moved (exactly what I like in audition). There was no port noise or distortion. None whatsoever. I knew it then, I can probably overdo this woofer without killing it. Another movie scene suggested by him was the crash landing in flight of the phoenix and at I point the bass creeped up from our feet to the tummy. I looked at my friend nervously, thinking I imagined it. He looked at me and had felt the same thing. We both laughed. During the multiple changes of settings/ clips/ movies/ songs and woofers we thought it had come from the 15HP. What surprised me was that it was the FVX12 and not the FV15HP. That was the point that drove us home. 2 of the FVX12 will blow us out of the world.
Yes I'll be running the crawl, but I think I've hit the nail on it's and I'm glad that I actually did a second audition and that too with Ashish in the store. In fact my friend who auditioned the SVS PB2000 pro in Frankfurt, is planning to fly in from Delhi to audition a few 12 inch sealed, with which he's already in touch with Ashish.
I'd suggest, keeping this sub brand in your mind while picking woofers. Though the FVX12 do lack a few features compared to FV15HP, my friend suggested not to buy a woofer where I won't be able to go past he half way mark. I realized, my room will have room gain and I'll have 2 of them, so that should add 5db from normal performance
PB2000 or FVX12. Also, I have auditioned XTZ 12.17 which is not bad. I have enquired about FVX12 in Prosonic which is 10k more than PB2000 but the delivery time will take about a max of 3 weeks.
