Yamaha NS-SW050

Yamaha NS-SW050 Needed a small active sub-woofer to enhance a small bookshelf speaker setup for playing vinyl records – Denon amp, Dali concept speakers, and Audio Technica turntable. As good as the sound was, just need that little bit more bass fill without overpowering it. The NS-SW050 50-watt 20cm Yamaha sub looked like it would fit the bill nicely – I also did not want to pay hundreds of dollars for a big sub, so finding the sweet spot was the challenge and this woofer did the job.

The overall dimensions of 291mmx292mmx341mm make it compact and it sits discretely next to the cabinet at the rear and is not intrusive. Key features of the design are the 20cm driver is mounted on the front of the cabinet and disperse sound forwards, and a side firing, twisted flare port on the right side of the unit which is designed to help produce tight clear bass by smoothing the airflow and removing extraneous noise (according to Yamaha)

My real-world experience after firing the woofer up is that it filled the “gap” nicely on my sound system and has certainly enhanced the bottom end bass experience without overblowing the sound, though it will distort a bit if you put the volume too high – the controls on the woofer are basic, on off bottom and volume control. The woofer is rated at 28-200Hz and I have set the amplifier at 120HZ which seems to work well enough. The woofer is connected by 1 std. RCA input directly from the sub-woofer output on the amplifier. The output is 100w dynamic power, 50w output power, 100HZ, 5 ohm, 10% THD.

All in all, happy with this sub-woofer – It is not going to run a very big home theatre system, its horses for course and as an enhancement to a bookshelf speaker system is very good, fit for the job. Its also not heavy, 8.5kg

If you want to buy one of these, recommend you shop around, the price varies considerably.

PROS: Compact sub, good for bookshelf system to enhance bass; Good build quality like most Yamaha equipment; Simple to use, only has volume control and no complicated adjustments; Front firing sub - easy to place near a wall for space saving Good quality at this price point

CONS: Only has volume control, no input frequency adjustment or any other adjustments No remote control to turn on/off if behind cabinet (added arlec remote control power adapter)