SVS 3000 Micro subwoofer review

Description

 Since launching in the late 1990s, American company SVS has developed a character for home cinema subwoofers that blend high performance with bargain price markers. And the 3000 Micro, its diminutive model yet and priced£ 900, continues that trend.

First however, I will admit that the idea of a compact subwoofer, specifically designed to take up lower bottom space than a traditional model and thus be more suited to installation in a living room or gaming den, does not relatively fit my image of the SVS brand. This, after all, is the company that sells 16in ported subwoofers that nearly bear a forklift truck, perpendicular- standing cylinder models nearly a metre high, and'Ultra Tower'floorstanding loudspeakers that make no attempt to hide their megalith-from-2001 style.

Yet, actually, SVS's cylinder subwoofer models, similar as its PC-2000, are evidence that the brand puts some allowed into the apartments its products will end up in. So perhaps I should not be surprised it's been stunk by the compact bug. Company present Gary Yacoubian indeed sees it as a noble bid, telling me' Maybe it could open up the world of great bass to further people.'

Build

The 3000 Micro, as the name indicates, is part of SVS's 3000 Series. This means it shares the same 800W Sledge DSP amplifier unit as the SB-3000 and PB-3000 models. Only then it's used to power lower motorists, in a lower press, at a lower price.

The new motorists are 8in aluminium cone designs, mounted on reversed surrounds to boost excursion eventuality. They are connected in resemblant to the sub's singular amplifier, a configuration that SVS says means they admit the same quantum of current'to insure precisely controlled and imaged operation.'

As announced, the 3000 Micro really is rather small, just 27 cm deep and only a toucher high and wider. It sits on a quintet of small rubber bases and limits design indications to just a modest'SVS' emblem.

Finish options include piano buff white, which Yacoubian reveals is further of a bribe to the European request than the company's native US. There is no price decoration for it, so clearly give it consideration, but I'd be impeccably happy with the luxurious piano buff black dressing of our review sample. There is no sign of SVS's traditionally more affordable (and lower agreeable) black ash finish.

Micro machines

Now, if you are getting a sense of deja vu, I do not condemn you. We lately looked at KEF's KC62, a fellow binary-opposed sealed subwoofer with a miniaturized design. It's tempting to consider them as direct rivals, but I'd argue that is really not the case, because while the KEF model is vastly further swish and indeed more compact (by virtue of its lapping voice-coil technology), it's some£ 500 more precious. They're different nags for different courses.

As with all of SVS's current subwoofers ( following the recent appearance of the 1000 Series Pro range), the 3000 Micro can be controlled via smartphone app. This connects to the subwoofer via Bluetooth, rather than Wi-Fi, which probably makes for a hastily setup.

Numerous will have little or no need to do anything with this app beyond maybe conforming volume if their AVR handset has gone walkies, and conforming the woofer's phase during original setup. Yet for the further experimental/ knowledgeable, there is some intriguing stuff then, including Movie and Music preset modes; a parametric EQ tool with three stoner places (and a neat, visual representation of the response changes your cutlet gates will bring); and Room Gain Compensation point (which covers 25Hz,31.5 Hz and 40Hz, enabling you to smooth affair at a targeted frequence that your room confines have a problem with). The app itself is veritably responsive, and includes pop-up tutorials to describe what each point does.

Sonically appealing

After spending a week with this woofer, one thing was egregious it performs veritably much like SVS's more regular models. Slam, depth, and affair all beguile. The pursuit of a tidy form factor hasn't redounded in egregious concession.

Using the Bluetooth app to make an easy volume tweak – after my AVR claimed during setup on going below my favored hooligan position – I was soon feeling battered and bruised by the performance of this cute cell. The trace chase sequence in Sonic The Hedgehog (4K Blu- shaft) plant the 3000 Micro happily throwing its weight around. The machine ofDr. Robotnik's armoured truck has a throaty scowl, but under there are important deeper notes that signify the vehicle's power and size. The soundtrack thumps ominously, and when the dart crashes through the auto window it slams into the SatNav with a tight, sharp thud.

Latterly, during the film's apocalyptic road battle between old spiky and Robotnik, the sound of the hovercraft's thruster, and the low- frequence swell when Sonic smashes into it, hit with astounding volume and weight, before easily decaying.

I dug out Ready Player One (4K Blu- shaft) and its race sequence. This did punctuate the limits of the SVS's low- end extension (it's rated down to 23Hz) as the footfalls of first the T-rex and also King Kong missed out on the scale and depth that I have heard on larger subs – but for a£ 900 woofer intended for small surroundings, it's hardly lacking. Meanwhile, its running of theM.U.T.O-by-the- ground sequence in Godzilla (2014, Blu- shaft) was thrilling – a smorgasbord of low-andmid-bass goods and snaps that stopped and started, rose and fell, with pleasurable perfection.

During quieter, more thoughtful chow, the 3000 Micro does not just shut up shop. With the Dolby Atmos blend of Promising Young Woman (Sky Cinema) it demanded to show a lighter, more nuanced touch, adding an easy-does-it sense of air ( including the background music of the café and coffee shop scenes), and helping the film's oddball soundtrack hit new lows. Its upper- range bass performance felt spot-on – rich and textured. And also the sound platoon throw in a huge, room- rattling LF grumble when Cassie arrives at the bachelorette party, and I realised my AVR was right each on and had to dip the volume a bit.

SVS no doubt wants hi-fi suckers to enter the world of subwoofers, and the invisible 3000 Micro is an egregious implicit mate for a stereo loudspeaker brace. With Michael Jackson's Beat It (Tidal Master), it invested the kick drums with a lovely sense of physicality, and bounced along tunefully to the track's iconic bassline. I dutifully switched to the sub's Music preset for two- channel listening, and the effect of its acclimated response, in my room, was a minor but welcome fresh position of bassline body.

Importing up

Ultimately, just as with KEF's KC62, interested parties will have to weigh up the benefits of the 3000 Micro's size and styling, versus its price and performance. SVS itself sells a range of larger models that go deeper and stay louder, and pack the same connections and slick control options. Maybe this model's biggest rival is SVS's own single 12in- motorist SB-2000 Pro, which sells for the exact same price and has further implicit to range below 20Hz.

Judged entirely on its own, still, this can be considered a first- rate woofer, mixing a veritably high- quality finish with customisation eventuality and a performance that only a total bass- head wouldn't love.

SVS 3000 Micro specifications

DRIVE UNITS 2 x 8in aluminium cone woofers

Quadrangle Sealed, with binary-opposed motorist configuration

. Frequence RESPONSE ( CLAIMED) 23Hz-240Hz (3dB)

ONBOARD POWER ( CLAIMED) 800W (RMS) Sledge amplifier

REMOTE CONTROL No.

Bluetooth app rather DIMENSIONS 278 (h) x 297 (w) x 271 (d) mm

WEIGHT10.2 kg

FEATURES Stereo/ LFE line- position input; stereo affair; Intelligent Control Interface (ICI); 50 MHz Analog Bias Audio DSP; 12V detector; bus buttress/ on control; low pass sludge, phase, opposition, room gain compensation and parametric EQ on SVS control app; structurally corroborated MDF press