B&W ASW610 Subwoofer
B&W ASW610 subwoofer is made in closed body with quite a conservative design. You can install the sub both on spikes or special soft legs (all is supplied in the kit). The choice depends on material of the floor of a particular room, as well as on personal preferences of the consumer - depending on type of installation the character of bass can change.
All controls are located on the back wall, on the front there is the driver with a 250-mm diffuser. The diffuser is made of woven Kevlar fibers. This allowed to create hard, but lightweight diffuser, capable to move solid air masses. A powerful 200W digital ICEpower amplifier controls this driver. This unique development allows getting very high (for amplifier) efficiency with very modest sizes and minimal heat generation - more than 90%.
You can connect B&W ASW610 in any way - both linear and high-level inputs are provided. Quite an interesting feature is the presence of two volume controls, one of which is provided to adjust the signal from linear input, the other - from high-level one. In addition, the sub is equipped with a bass deepening circuit, which has three fixed positions and extends the lower border by 5 Hz with each sequent switching. Also there is a two-position equalizer. Surely, there is the automatic on/off system, but the digital amplifier consumes little electricity even in an active state.
The sub performed well, working in the system of home theatre, aided by uncompromisingly deep bass, excellent dynamics, sufficient power, good functionality. ASW610 has wide range and smoothly works it out, so its companions in front may be both floor and shelf speaker systems.
Based on the tests of the model in combination with different loudspeakers, we limit the scope of B&W ASW610 mainly by mid-level home theatre system. The tests on musical material showed that the translation of LF-material by the sub sometimes has a lack of intonational certainty (pitch of sound is not clear); the model simplifies the transmission of acoustic timbres and articulates the material a bit slow.
