Polk Audio HTS 10 Powered Subwoofer with Power Port Technology | 10” Woofer, up to 200W Amp | For the Ultimate Home Theater Experience | Modern Sub that Fits in any Setting | Washed Black Walnut

Well folks, without getting too technical... if your music source contains sonically clean bass, this Polk will exactly reproduce what you feed it. Now that the price hovers around, $250., it's a sound money decision.Enjoy That Thang...This is being written, Tuesday - 11/5/2019, roughly two weeks after the last review.I first told you the source feed to this subwoofer is the criteria to check first. I feel what you source though this speaker, is what you'll faithfully get out of it. I feed it cable TV, without a surround sound system receiver, and USB preloaded compressed music of the mp3 and wma type. These are lossy, as opposed to lossless, codec transfer storage music application programs. This means your not getting the fidelity of the best source... 24/196,(?) or presently, as far as I know- CDs... SACDs-an esoteric CD. Even CDs greatly vary as to sonic quality. The CD commercial world is a crap shoot, as far as I'm concerned. I mean you will sometimes find CD variations as to track to track fidelity. Yet, when you find a superior sounding CD of one of your favorite music venues, you have a jewel to treasure.Let's face it, the sound reproducing equipment is so far ahead of all the sources out there, it's difficult to get it wrong at the level of this subwoofer's price category. If you disagree, your in the esoteric neighborhood of the absolute sound and extreme stereophile quality, which I find an insult to my intelligence. If it wasn't for reviews similar to these, we would be almost lost discerning the honest opinionated story.I reiterate... This subwoofer, after a week or so continuous use, 'break-in,' will faithfully reproduce the source you play through it.On another note, and one that can't be overlooked or overstated... :The small rubber feet are well rendered, yet not very dense or thick... Vibrations that travel to the floor surface will create extraordinary extraneous sound distortions.I have mounted, by sliding underneath, thick Wagner isolation pads slightly inboard of the HTS10'S pads. What a difference! eBay has these pads... 12 for $16.Well that's all except enjoy this good looking, good sounding subwoofer by Polk.

If you are looking for a good sub to go with the great-value Pioneer Andrew Jones-designed AV speakers (SP-FS52, SP-C22, SP-BS22) then look no further. The 10" version of this sub sounds great with those speakers, great clear bass without overpowering the Pioneers and power to spare. The black finish matches the Pioneers very well. I chose this one over the actual matching Pioneer sub because I wanted a little more power (didn't want to have to push the sub amp too hard to keep up with the other speakers) and preferred having a front-firing sub. Nice clarity to this sub, mixes well using a 100Hz crossover in the audio receiver, and you aren't having to drive it hard to get a great movie bass sound. Price is also consistent with the Pioneers. As with the Pioneers, nothing fancy, not too pricey, great sound for the money, visually sits well with them.FWIW the auto setting worked fine with my Yamaha AV receiver (no drop-outs in bass) and I used it in that mode for a week or so, but since the receiver supported the standard 12v-trigger-out I opted in the end to plug in a trigger cable and use the trigger setting instead of the auto setting to avoid any future issues. But there were no issues with auto driving that choice- if the amp hadn't had the option, I would have been happy using the auto setting.Very happy with this speaker!

The good:Wow, rocking bass!Good controls for adjustment.More attractive than anticipated.The Meh:Horrible instruction manual.BIGHad to fiddle with them to get great sound (but it sounds fantastic now)I had a comparably priced Paradigm 10" subwoofer that was fine for years until Westworld season 2 with its amazing low bass music blew it out. I thought it was a great sound effect until I realized it was my shredded subwoofer breaking up. It had a good long life, but I'm not overjoyed I had to replace it. After reading the reviews I opted for this speaker, worried that maybe I should be ordering a 12" this time so I wouldn't be over stressing the speaker.When it arrived I was kind of shocked how big it is, I'm assuming it's also the cabinet for the 12", but with the 10" inside instead to save on production costs. The instruction manual is a typical nightmare of no information about setting it up properly with my system, including illustrations that don't label the parts they are showing, with really unhelpful hints. I simply plugged it in and was rather dismayed that I might have made a bad choice, whomping bass with terrible crossover. So I started searching the internet for how I could use the controls available to help.Luckily there are a number of audio magazines that have online articles about subwoofers! After fiddling with the Low Pass and Phase Switch, I'm getting great sound out of them, I've even turned the subwoofer down a little so I won't rattle windows in a 16' x 25' room. Unfortunately, I'm scared to watch Westworld S2 again in fear of blowing out another speaker...I have to say so far this subwoofer is far superior to a similarly priced (but older) Paradigm it replaced, I really couldn't be happier, but I'm sure the purchasers who don't take the time to play with them, or just give up after reading the horrible instruction manual, may not be enjoying the sound they could be giving. Why companies who put out a good product seem to consistently put out useless instruction manuals, I'll never know, it's a waste of paper.