Customer Testimonials

Just upgraded to a LV12R from an HSU and let me tell you, this things rocks in comarison to any sub I have ever owned. Completely supercharged my movies and music.

Just wanted to send an email and tell you guys how truly satisfied I am with this purchase. You just won over a customer.

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I got this sub last October to replace a Dayton Audio SUB-1200, which is also a 12" ported sub like the LV12R. Prior to that, the only subs I've owned come from entry level HTiBs (home theater in a box) which are not even worth comparing to the LV12R. Compared to the Dayton, the LV12R has a much cleaner, deeper, more powerful sound that doesn't sound like any other sub I've heard before. And by that, I mean it blends so well with my speakers (currently SVS prime bookshelves and center) that it seems more like the speakers extend down to 20Hz or lower.

Thanks to the bass extension switch on the back of the sub, I can go from intense, 'full body' HT sound for movies, TV shows, and video games to very clean, fast, 'articulate' sound for serious 2ch music listening. And of course, I can use any kind of sound for any kind of source if I please with this simple to use 3 position switch. I also find the LPF (crossover) slope switch to be a useful feature since it can help this sub better blend with my speakers based on content, preferences, and setup.

Anyhow, what matters most is that this sub provides a kind of bass that is unlike that found on most subs thanks to its unbelievable sound quality (thanks to direct servo) and flexible amp controls like bass extension/damping and LPF/crossover slope. Add to that excellent build quality and very impressive, fast and responsive customer service. I don't think I'll be needing another sub as long as this one works (it's that good!). And if/when I do, it will definitely be another Rythmik!"

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I didn't expect such a great sounding sub at this price point. I ordered and received the LV12R about six months ago and can't get over how big of an improvement it is over my old M&K push/pull sub. The bass is so much cleaner/ tighter sounding with plenty of power that you can feel. The tweaking options on the back are awesome too. The customer service is the best also. I picked this one over the HSU and Outlaw subs after much research. I'm a very happy customer. Thanks, Rythmik.

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Just wanted to compliment your product! Have never been so pleased with a sub as I have with this one! The song that best emphasizes such is "Janie Runaway" by Steely Dan. Check it out and thanks again. My hearing may have suffered, but that's my fault. Thanks!!!!

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I have had my LV12R Subwoofer for a little over a week now. I spent alot of time deciding between subwoofers. My choices were always from Hsu, Outlaw and Rythmik. One of these Makes, I was going to buy. After so many months of reading the same type of reviews of people saying flip a coin, they are all good. I decided to go with the rythmik LV12R, it being discounted when i bought it definitely helped persuade me as the HSU I was leaning towards was 699, well 639 for their summer sale. I have to say I am extremely happy with my purchase. Coming from an ancient Cerwin Vega HT-10PWR sub, it really only kind of filled the gap, and would bottom out alot. The LV12R obviously blows my old sub out of the water. I threw on some music from youtube that people had labeled bass test or sub breaker and laughed with gittiness from how the sub performed. You know, one of those laughs that are like, is this really happening, wow, almost sinister in a way. I have watched a couple of movies and played some games as movies and games are my main use for this sub. Max Payne, well i didnt realize how much bass/LFE was in this movie. Windows shaking, loose items rattling. Same gitty laughter from the amazement i felt with the youtube clips. Like being a kid in a candy store. No doubt i have to go around now and make sure anything that rattles is made rattleproof. Obviously if you look at the specs, you will see this is a large Sub. Let me tell you, it is large. Could be an end table for a couch. I dont mind the size now, but future apartments or living areas i will need to take into consideration my Sub and where it could go. As this will be something i will not ever want to part with short of winning the lottery, than i'll get one of my own personal IMAX theatres imax is selling now.

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Hi Brian!

It finally arrived! Box was a bit damaged, it had a hole on the woofer side, but subwoofer was intact.

I'll be playing with my new toy and so far I'm impressed how clean the thing is compared to my BIC F12.

Great Job and keep the good work!

Oscar S.

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Just got my LV12R and I love it. So much cleaner sounding than the pb1000, that is pretty much it. I would recommend this to anyone that cares about the fidelity of their bass.

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So I finally Got my speakers and sub hooked up and calibrated. I have a LV12R and I just HAD to come here and rave about it. This thing HITS! I put in Fellowship of the Ring with the Balrog roar and steps that follow and good lord my clothes were literally flapping on my body. My wife and I have seen the movie dozens of times and she said this was the first time she actually felt intimidated by that scene.

I used this scene as a demo for her sister and husband. I had it paused right before the Balrog comes out of the fire and roars. I sat them down and made sure they were comfortable then turned off the lights and hit play and she jumped almost out of her chair. It was great.

VERY happy with the sub. Probably my favorite purchase I made for my HT.

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So here is my highly anticipated by no one, yet long winded review of the LV12R¡­

First, I should preface this review by saying that I am a noob. My only experience with HT prior to my new setup was with a Bose Lifestyles system. (Now take it easy - this was purchased by the wife pre-Sumpwitch, so put the torches and pitchforks away). However, I am an avid fan of live music and have played bass for 20 years, so I'd like to think I know what decent bass sounds like - just not necessarily below 30hz.

My room is a very modest 1500 cu. ft., so I knew that this sub wouldn't have any issues with room size. I will be using this for at least 50% music though so I was a bit worried that this sub would be way too much for my Infinity Primus setup and end up boomy or obnoxious - especially since it has the capacity to go below 20hz. I'm a sucker for a sale though -hence the 65 inch tv that left me with a smaller budget for speakers ¨C and it seemed like Brian extended the price just for me. So after a few days of wife convincing - I pulled the trigger on the LV12R.

I ordered late on a Thursday night - so basically Friday - and it showed up the next Wednesday. Unboxing and setup was a breeze. I appreciate that it was packed in an extra thick box with sturdy foam inside, yet I didn't need a contractor, team of horses or a plasma cutter to get into it. The sub is shipped upside-down so you can screw the feet on and just flip the box over which is a nice touch. I set it up as recommended by the settings sheet included in the box and was ready to go.

The timing of its arrival ended up perfect for me because the Wed. thru Fri. evenings were spent doing some final touches in my room, so the sub was able to get 20-25 hours on it (mainly music at moderate to slightly above average levels) before I was really able to focus on what it could do. I ran Audyssey on Saturday morning and was ready to go.

THE FIRST MOVIE
So apparently my wife was on another planet (probably visiting her mother) at the beginning of this century and never saw any of the Lord of the Rings movies. What a perfect way to initiate the new room. I fired up the extended Blu-Ray box set and cleared our schedule for the rest of the day so we could dork out.

The accuracy of some of those sounds was amazing. For instance, in ROTK when the trebuchets are launching giant chunks of stone ¨C they land with a nice deep THUD. And that¡¯s it. No lingering overtones or rumble. It's exactly what I think that would sound like if I were on that field which is a testament to the quality of that soundtrack and the ability of the LV12R to reproduce it. I won't go into a scene by scene review, I'll just say that the LV12R exceeded expectation. I could even feel the bass through my giant hobbit slippers (told you I was going to dork out).

The most impressive thing to me is that the sub blew Mrs. Sumpwitch's mind. Her exact words after the Balrog scene were "WOW! That was pretty f#$%ing cool" Now, this might not sound like a big deal, but this is NOT her thing at all. Here's an example: One of my other hobbies is racing a blown-alcohol drag boat with some friends. I invited her out to one of our races because the top fuel boats were in town. Now I'm not sure if you guys have ever seen a top fuel car or boat in person before, but those things are ROWDY. 16,000 HP going off at once has crazy low frequency at insane dB. Pretty cool to see even if racing isn't your thing. So after the first round of top fuelers go off, I looked at her to get some sort of approving nod or gesture to legitimize my hobby... she was shoulder-shruggingly unimpressed. Cue the sad trombone. So for her to dig a sub like this is akin to Paula Deen saying "Wow, that low-fat salad was pretty f#$%ing delicious¡±.

SOME TUNES
This is the area I was a bit concerned about. Most of the bands I enjoy either provide an HD stream or allow fans to stream or record their concerts - so I listen to lots of music and was concerned that the sub wouldn't perform as well here. Some of my worries were put at ease by the accuracy of the movie soundtracks, but I am real picky in this department.

I was having some AVR connectivity issues at first so I had to start with a few DVDs. I started with a few tracks off the Black Crowes - Cabin Fever, followed by the Allman Brothers Live at the Beacon Theater. My initial impressions were just OK. The Black Crowes cover of the Velvet Underground song "Oh, Sweet Nuthin" has a nice melodic bassline that the LV12R handled fine. The Allman Brothers version of "Rocking Horse" was a bit more impressive. Oteil Burbridge has some nice low pedaling in this song that the sub played tight and accurate. Hindsight being 20/20 allows me to realize that the mix on these DVDs is not very bass heavy so it is hard to make a fair judgement based on them.

The next DVD I tried was Phish - IT (disc 2 - it has no interviews interrupting the music). I could tell from the tune playing at the start menu that this was going to be much different, the bass mix is a lot heavier on this DVD than it was on the last two. Mike Gordon plays with a pick on a Modulus bass that has a graphite neck, so the attack has a very distinct tone. On the intro of the second track (Limb by Limb), when the kick drum and bass come in is a great example of how accurate the LV12R is. It is a simple moment musically, but the kick drum punches in and the simple thum-thum-thump of the root note at 44hz comes through tight and clear with every characteristic of that Modulus bass recreated perfectly. I really only meant to play a track or 2 off this DVD, but I didn't stop listening for 2.5 hours (and I have seen this DVD a number of times and was at this festival). All I can say is "WOW". I don't quite know how else to describe it other than it felt like my ears had just got laid. Maybe THAT should be the Rythmik slogan.

I have since fixed my connectivity issues and have thrown all kinds of stuff at this thing. Flea, Claypool, Steve Harris, Victor Wooten, Bootsy¡­the LV12R just shrugs them all off. Drums sound amazing through this. Put on Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and you'll swear you are standing in that stairwell where Bonham recorded it.

I did not put any rap, dub-step, or bass competition tracks through it because, well frankly because I don¡¯t care if it can handle those or not. Just not my thing that¡¯s all.

CONCLUSION
I realize that my setup and room are very modest and that it wouldn't be hard to fill my space with good sounding bass. There might even be other subs in this price range that are comparable, but if there is a non-DIY sub out there that is better, goes lower, or is more accurate for what I paid ¨C I¡¯ll be a monkey¡¯s uncle.

I love the LV12R. I'd let it date my sister if it wanted to. My only regret is that this sub may have opened a can of worms on another expensive hobby (like playing in bands and racing boats).

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Okay so I've put over 20 hours on my new rythmik lv12r and I'm ready to do a final review on it.

First of all my room is 12x13 and has pretty crappy room acoustics. My corners grab most of the bass so when I did my demoing I sat in a specific spot in the room where the bass is good but not crazy overpowering like it is in the corner

I ordered my sub on a Saturday and it arrived to my house on Wed so it was pretty quick.

When I received it the box was slightly beat up and a hole in the middle corner of the box but there was no damage to the sub. It was not double boxed but shipped with nice thick foam on the inside to keep the sub away from the box invade any punctures or damage was to happen.

Setup was realitivly easy just a power cord and an lfe. Although I really didn't know how to use the sub at first (there were options such as lpf slope and bass extension I was not used to. However simple reading of the directions made it easy to understand what theese options did and even recommended a setting for music and movies.

My intitial thoughts of the sub after running yapo were actually not the greatest. I had to turn the volume level on the sub to about 80 percent and +5 on my avr to get significant power gain results over my dinky pro.sub 600. I continued to play a little rap music to let it break in for a few hours and then re ran yapo.

The second time was a little better as I had the sub volume to 70 Percent yapo put my sub at about -1.5 on my Avr. I could feel the opening up more around the 40-90hz range (I'm guessing I don't have an spl meter yet but I will soon) at mid level listening. The sub seemed to be getting more punchy and slightly more noticeable or maybe better worded made a nicer presence. I listend to it like this playing different movies and music for about 10 hours. In this time I realized it also takes time not only for the sub to break in but my ears as well and just as importantly. Ill explain that next

The sub I was previously using is a little deftech pro sub 600. When I first got it I thought it was awesome! And still.do think its a nice little sub for its size. Anyway when I first got my Rythmik I thought it was underpowered because I was used to the boomy sound of my pro sub. It took time for me to get used to how amazingly the lv12r blended with my speakers. It blends so well that its really was hard to tell it was even on at times of low and even medium lfe. That's exactly what I wasn't used to and its exactly why I thought the lv12r was underpowered. Its cause I was used to the boomy obnoxious pro sub. Also remebet that at the same listening.g levels the pro sub was at 90 percent cap where the lv12r is at 30.

After 20 hours and and running yapo for the final time the final results were 55 percent on the sub and 0 on my avr which I bump to +3 for movies. After whatching some blues rays that consisted of hulk,the avengers,looper, lord of the ring 1, and many others I have to say I am in love with sub. It has opened up sooo much and I now realize the deep quality tight bass of has. My ears are used to it now and I wonder how I ever called this sub underpowered.

On thing I love most is how just when u think this sub is close to being.g maxed out its not. It keep powering through even the hardest lowest hitting lfes without any sign of distortion or loss of control. Honestly I have never heard it distort yet even in my torture tests where I thought it would for sure.

Also this sub is the most accurate tightest sounding bass I have ever heard. Its very fast and I belive it can keep up with anything and probably put anything to shame in its price range.

Hats off to rythmik I don't thinks there is a better sub for 550 dollars out there period. I love it.

If I missed anything let me know guys! Its my first ever sub review so go easy on me hahaha:)

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I recently purchased an LV12R for my similarly sized basement room (3100 cubic feet, fully closed). I was upgrading from a Boston PV800, which from what I can tell is similar in output to the BIC PL-200. It's a 12" 300 watt ported sub, ironically the same as the LV12R. I examined the spreadsheets from Audioholics to compare what I had with what I wanted. The Boston has been a durable sub for 10 years (I always use my sound system for TV watching) but it was not really able to produce the output and extension I wanted in my new basement. My target was something on the spreadsheet that produced >100db at 20Hz whereas what I had could manage 85db at 20Hz.

The comptetitors I looked at in this price range included Outlaw, Epik and SVS (among others). What impressed me about Rythmik is that it uses a servo amplifier (a unique kind of servo at that), Brian posts all the time in this thread with advice and the reviews of the sound quality have all been glowing.

Now that I have the LV12R in my room I can see what everyone was raving about. Quality AND output. Wow it is really nice. I struggled for awhile trying to decide if I should get an F12 instead but from what I read even the ported Rythmiks are quality enough for music and when it came down to it I watch more movies than listen to music so I need the output. I actually had 2 subs running in my room before (the second was a Mirage LF100, 8" ported) to smooth the standing waves but this single Rythmik has much more output and extension than the other two combined.

I queued up one of my favorite bass scenes - SW Episode 2 when Amidala arrives on Corruscant. The LV12R was able to play the ship's engine noises/sonic boom and the explosion effortlessly where my previous subs would chuff and bottom. The explosion actually flapped my jeans and jiggled my couch! I can see the benefit in having a second sub to smooth out the standing waves but the output of this thing in my room was definitely satisfying and exactly what I was hoping for in an upgrade.

My only problem now is that I can appreciate having the extension switch in medium or high for music and low for movies so I am frequently getting up to flip that. If the LV12R didn't have the option I'd probably be blissfully ignorant but since I've heard the difference I find myself prefering different settings for different things. In the med or high extension setting it is completely satisfying for music. This is definitely not a one note subwoofer. Well done Rythmik!

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