Yamaha YST-SW205 Powered Subwoofer - Product Review

Is your home theater or audio system a little short on the bass end? Then consider the addition of the Yamaha YST-SW205. This is one compact powered subwoofer that may just fill the bill.

The Yamaha YST-SW205 is a very compact powered subwoofer sporting 8-inch front-firing driver, coupled with a 150-watt amplifier. The 205 features "Active Servo Technology" for optimum linear speaker motion, providing less distortion between higher and lower bass frequencies. Low frequency response is listed at going down to 23HZ and upper bass frequencies to 170HZ. The subwoofer has an adjustable crossover from 40 -140HZ, which can be adjusted from an easily accessible front panel control.

The front of the subwoofer consists of the low frequency driver and upper bass frequency port as well as controls for Standby Power, Movie/Music Mode, High Cut (crossover frequency adjustment), and Volume.

The rear panel of the 205 consists of the main power switch, line level input for amplifiers with a line-level subwoofer output, traditional speaker connections for amplifiers with no line-level subwoofer output, speaker connections for pass through to main or satellite speakers for mid and high frequencies, auto standby setup switch for automatic operation, and phase switch to compensate for speaker polarization issues.

I tested the 205 using the line-level input connection option. I employed two different speaker setups: one setup using small bookshelf front L/R main speakers and the other with large floor standing main L/R main speakers. The AV receivers used in this test were a Yamaha HTR-5490 and a Marantz SR-7300ose. Other components used were a Denon DCM-370 CD/HDCD Changer, Panasonic LX-1000 Laserdisc Player, Pioneer DV-525 DVD player, and Philips DVDR985 DVD Recorder. All line-level (including subwoofer) and digital audio connections between components were made with Cobalt interconnect cables.

A sampling of the software used included standard CDs: HEART - Dreamboat Annie, Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon (2003), Nora Jones: Come Away With Me, Blondie: Live (HDCD), Telarc: 1812 Oveture. One Laserdisc was used: Godzilla 1998. DVDs used included: Godzilla 1998, Jurassic Park III, The Mummy/The Mummy Returns, and U571(DTS). DVD-Audio/DTS music discs: Queen: Night At The Opera/The Game, Eagles: Hotel California, Alan Parsons: On Air. Portions of other software titles in the above categories were used as well.

In addition, the floor was carpeted. Room dimensions were aproximately 15x15 feet. The listening position was approximately 12 feet from the front main speaker and final subwoofer positions.

I found that the combination of the larger L/R main speakers working in combination with the YST-205 gave a slightly better result than using it with smaller bookshelf main L/R speakers, as the 205 was great at reproducing the extreme low frequency information and paired well with overlap in the higher bass frequencies with the upper bass frequency output of the large mains. In addition, the positioning of the 205 on either the side of the L or R main speaker gave acoustically better results than positioning it in the rear or side of the room as the waves were in phase and reflecting in the same manner of the walls and floor, as the mid-low frequencies from the mains. Lastly, the 205 worked well with both the Marantz and Yamaha AV receivers listed above and never showed signs of any unusual disortion at either low or moderately high volume levels and did not elicit listening fatigue over long periods of time.

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