Review: Polk PSW550wi personal review

[Deleted member 38504]

I'm going to use this space to review the lil subwoofer and also get help setting it up in the same thread. Hope it's useful for prospective buyers.

The Polk TSW125 was rubbish. It only made noise and vibrated. Doh! Didn't even bother with the TSW110.

Test drove the 550wi and immediately paid and bought it. Job done. Please be aware,this is a personal review. Your views could be different and so they should!

Big huge black square! Fingerprint magnet! My two year old daughter was sleeping on it last night. Seriously. It's big for my standards,I have seen lil woofers,for me,this is big!

Lovely blue logo light that illuminates in the front of the sub. Looks very upper class,the sub. What I didn't like was the volume control. No knob. Two buttons to increase and decrease the volume.

Fancy remote. Got all sorts of lil fancy things on it,like room optimiser etc. Not used it till now. Don't know how to yet.

Plugged in the subwoofer to my denon 520BT AVR along with my Polk audio TSX440t floorstanders. Note,the sub is not placed in a corner because I can't place it there,no space. Hence its put next to one of the towers.

Ran audyssey.

On the back of the sub ,there is a low pass option. That is set to about 80hz for now.

On the AVR menu,speakers set as LARGE.

On the AVR menu,crossover for the FRONT it was 40hz after audyssey. I made it 60hz after chatting with a couple of our members who helped me set this up initially.

On the AVR menu again, there is a BASS menu,inside that there is a subwoofer mode,and in auto audyssey it was set to LFE+MAIN. Also,LPF for LFE is 120hz.

The immediate sound difference is easily apparent with and without the sub. Now after listening to the sub when I turn it off,my towers seem flat. The sub is far from being run in or set,but most definitely it got the movie to sound much tighter. Some songs I played made the sub go very boomy,but I guess that was the song itself. It doesn't feel loud at all. Just different. Good different.

Thanks to ed and mash for the initial setup help.

More tomorrow morning. Thanks guys for reading!

 

[MaSh]

I'm going to use this space to review the lil subwoofer and also get help setting it up in the same thread. Hope it's useful for prospective buyers.

The Polk TSW125 was rubbish. It only made noise and vibrated. Doh! Didn't even bother with the TSW110.

Test drove the 550wi and immediately paid and bought it. Job done. Please be aware,this is a personal review. Your views could be different and so they should!

Big huge black square! Fingerprint magnet! My two year old daughter was sleeping on it last night. Seriously. It's big for my standards,I have seen lil woofers,for me,this is big!

Lovely blue logo light that illuminates in the front of the sub. Looks very upper class,the sub. What I didn't like was the volume control. No knob. Two buttons to increase and decrease the volume.

Fancy remote. Got all sorts of lil fancy things on it,like room optimiser etc. Not used it till now. Don't know how to yet.

Plugged in the subwoofer to my denon 520BT AVR along with my Polk audio TSX440t floorstanders. Note,the sub is not placed in a corner because I can't place it there,no space. Hence its put next to one of the towers.

Ran audyssey.

On the back of the sub ,there is a low pass option. That is set to about 80hz for now.

On the AVR menu,speakers set as LARGE.

On the AVR menu,crossover for the FRONT it was 40hz after audyssey. I made it 60hz after chatting with a couple of our members who helped me set this up initially.

On the AVR menu again, there is a BASS menu,inside that there is a subwoofer mode,and in auto audyssey it was set to LFE+MAIN. Also,LPF for LFE is 120hz.

The immediate sound difference is easily apparent with and without the sub. Now after listening to the sub when I turn it off,my towers seem flat. The sub is far from being run in or set,but most definitely it got the movie to sound much tighter. Some songs I played made the sub go very boomy,but I guess that was the song itself. It doesn't feel loud at all. Just different. Good different.

Thanks to ed and mash for the initial setup help.

More tomorrow morning. Thanks guys for reading!

Congratulations. The Sub surely looks life size. However, for the settings in Blue above.

1. The cross over knob is overridden when Bass Management is used in the AVR. You can set that knob to the largest number mentioned(120hz I guess).

2. Switch the speakers to Small and cross them at 80. You can move to 60hz, once the Sub has burned in. Or you could even move higher to 90-100-110 to take the load off the speakers and give more to the Sub to pump. All depends on your taste.

3. Bass mode should be LFE and not LFE+Main.

Before all this, do try to find the sweet spot to keep the Sub. You could also get one of these to make your Sub Wireless Polk Audio PWSK-1 DSWProWi Subwoofer Wireless Conversion Kit. If not, get a long RCA cable such as Pure Copper 3 RCA - 3 RCA Composite Audio Video AV Cable TV LCD LED DTH - 10m, to do the Sub Crawl and place the Sub as close as possible to the sweet spot. This RCA might not be perfect to use as a Sub Cable, use it only to do the crawl.

MaSh

 

[amedius]

I am owning Polk sub psw 505 - 12 inch. I keep the sub at 120 hz and the volume at 1'o clock position. Awesome punch and with the help of receiver crossover for sub, the bass is more tighter and does not boom. Anyway Contrats for your Polk Sub.

 

[skdas]

celester340
Congratulation !

Now without sub every movies or music will be meaningless to you.

So Enjoy !

 

[mshifi]

congrats on you purchase.the sub makes all the difference to your music and movies. Happy listening

 

[efernand1]

Hi Celester340,

Congrats on the sub!

Let it burn in slowly and accordingly you can play with the settings to make it optimal.

Go through the operations manual to gather a fair understanding as this is your first sub...

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Sorry guys was in a flight.

Couple of questions, should I turn off the sub when I power off? Or shud I just keep the sub on when I turn off the power.

Right now crossover on 80hz, speakers set to small and sub mode is LFE.

When i turn on the sub,I get a thump noise. Is that normal?

I'm watching master and commander,my my...this is fun!

 

[efernand1]

Hi

A thump noise should not come....keep the power on the sub on auto....if there is a signal through LFE, it will come on and when there is no signal, it will go off

 

[Deleted member 38504]

OK so behind the sub there is AC main, with on off position. That is ON.

There is also a power switch that has three positions, standby, auto and on. That is on AUTO.

When I put switch on the main switch on the wall, a thump still comes from the subwoofer.

On a separate note.... Watching movies is great fun! Much more involving. The sub makes a nice throaty rumble when it wakes up during action or low Vass scenes! Feels like it needs to let loose! Right now sub volume is not even 50%.

 

[MaSh]

OK so behind the sub there is AC main, with on off position. That is ON.

There is also a power switch that has three positions, standby, auto and on. That is on AUTO.

When I put switch on the main switch on the wall, a thump still comes from the subwoofer.

On a separate note.... Watching movies is great fun! Much more involving. The sub makes a nice throaty rumble when it wakes up during action or low Vass scenes! Feels like it needs to let loose! Right now sub volume is not even 50%.

Yes Power Switch on Auto is fine. You dont have to switch off the mains or do anything at all. It will go into standby on No signal and wake up when it senses signal from AVR.

However, regarding the Power switch on Auto, if you are watching a movie with occasional loud tracks, then there are chances that the Sub might get bored and go to sleep during the silent momentshyeah:. So then it makes sense to toggle the switch to On for such movies, so that when the rumble happens, the Sub is not caught on the wrong foot.

MaSh

 

[Deleted member 38504]

haha the sub looks really docile just sitting there! The good part about the dowfiring port is that u cant see the woofer move! Its got solid 2 inch stands on which it rests too. Suddenly during an intense scene u can hear the growl of the sub and im like ,what was that!!! lol

Speakers - Large or Small Setting

The last paragraph completely stumped me!Does this make sense?

Btw,wife just told me the lil blue light on the polk has gone off.....immediately put on star trek and woke up the sub!!!! lol

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Something is really bothering me in the subwoofer settings.

1. Denon amp- speaker config - front set to small- subwoofer - yes

2. Denon amp- crossovers- currently set to 80hz will set it to 90 hz eventually.

3. Denon amp- Bass - subwoofer mode set to LFE and LPF for LFE set to 120hz.

Point 1 and 2 I think are ok. Point 3 is where the confusion is. These settings are correct? The subwoofer mode can be changed to LFE (current setting) or LFE+MAIN.

The LPF for LFE frequencies can also be changed.

On the subwoofer itself, there is a lil knob which has settings for LOW PASS. The settings are 60hz 90hz and 120hz.

Someone please explain what I'm doing right and wrong.

Thanks!