Blog

The Next Evolution of Sealed Bass Performance.

By Joe Finn

Having a great sounding subwoofer (or two!) in your 2 channel or home theater system can make the difference between good sound, and thrilling, concert-style sound. Let’s look at the eagerly anticipated SB 3000 R|Evolution subwoofer from SVS, who have been building subwoofers for decades, and have won a slew of industry awards for quality and value.  

A year ago, SVS set a new benchmark with their flagship SB 17 subwoofer, featured in our Timonium theater system, which sounds terrific. At AXPONA 2025, SVS brought that technology down to a more affordable price with SB and PB 5000 subs. 

Now they’ve done it again with the 13-inch SB 3000 R|Evolution subs. We’re excited because SVS has upgraded a really popular subwoofer that’s barely larger than the driver itself, and great subwoofers can get both physically big and costly.  

What are the upgrades in the SB 3000 R|Evolution vs the prior SB 3000? The box size is still compact, a roughly 15” x 15” x 17” deep cabinet with useable output all the way down to 17 Hz. The amount and depth of bass content is impressive for this size cabinet and price, and it’s loaded with features, including a brand-new driver. 

A big driver can mean more output, deeper bass, notes or both, as long as you keep it under control, so you don’t have boomy, one-note bass. This new driver was developed in-house by SVS.

It has a beefier motor structure with twin toroidal ferrite magnets, and an aluminum cone similar to SB-3000. The aluminum cone is a wise choice, as it won’t easily buckle when moving fast and creating powerful, deep bass.  

SVS is using a sophisticated, flat-edge wound, split-wind voice coil. When compared to standard round-wound wire, flat edge wound copper puts more copper in the gap. A voice coil ideally moves back and forth more like a piston, with linear travel, as it makes bass notes. But on entry level subs, the voice coil can wobble in the gap, causing audible distortion.  

Another upgrade: SB 3000 R|Evolution has a solid cabinet, heavily braced inside, to minimize vibration when we’re pumping big bass energy. A thick front baffle helps keep vibration from feeding back from the cabinet into the driver.

There is also a huge leap forward in DSP processing power. The prior SB 3000 had a 50 MHz Analog devices DSP processor to keep driver movement controlled. It’s upgraded to the 295 MHz Analog Devices processor, or six times the processing power. Unlike a passive crossover network, DSP is constantly managing the subwoofer, so you get clean, tight, musical bass notes even when heat starts to build up

There is a new Sledge amplifier, with 1,200 watts continuous power, 50% more power than the 800-watt amp used in SB 3000. Mating a MOSFET output stage to this class D amplifier gives you the best of both worlds. You get the power that enables powerful bass from a small cabinet, yet a class D amp runs cool. You don’t want high heat in an enclosed cabinet. 

What are MOSFETS, and what problem do they solve? A MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) output stage can deliver huge current when needed, and with a 13” driver, we must keep movement under control to avoid the artificially booming, one-note bass of lesser subwoofers.

But some cool-running class D amps just don’t sound as good as a class A/B amp.  Adding a MOSFET output stage to a class D amp results in a fast, sweet sounding, musical subwoofer that still runs cool.

A huge SVS strength is their mobile app, which includes a 6 band EQ. This app allows you to adjust volume, phase, crossover point, and tame peaks in the response curve from your favorite listening position. This is the best place from which to compensate for room issues, as our sonic memory doesn’t work well enough to let you run from the sub to the chair and make such adjustments. SVS plans a Q1 release of their auto-EQ option, which will make it even easier to get the most from your subwoofer in your real-world listening.  

The back panel includes connections for single-ended RCA  cables, or the quieter, balanced 3 pin cable connection. You can use SVS’ handy wireless audio adaptor if you must position the sub in a spot where you can’t easily run a connecting cable. 

Let’s also discuss the companion sub, the ported SVS PB 3000 R|Evolution.  It has a bigger cabinet to accommodate twin ports, and it is capable of filling an even larger space with powerful bass. In a music – based system, we usually recommend the sealed box SB subwoofer.  But if you can handle a larger cabinet, and you want more bass output, the PB 3000 R|Evolution is the way to go. 

Summing up: SVS SB 3000 R|Evolution is priced at $1,399 in a beautiful black gloss, and $1,299 in an attractive ash finish. This subwoofer is a must-hear if you want a lot of controlled, clean, deep bass output from a reasonably compact cabinet at roughly 15 x 15 x 17 inches, while staying under $1,500.  

Thank you so much for spending time with us. We hope you can visit us in Timonium, Columbia, or Gaithersburg MD to audition this excellent subwoofer. To learn more about SVS, and our broad assortment of brands, or to purchase product, just visit skybygramophone.com, where you’ll always get a secure check-out with fast and free shipping. 

Thanks again and we’ll see you soon.