Energy is an audio manufacturer that is fairly well known for developing quality speakers at a mid-range price and now they are slowly getting into producing a more high-end subwoofer product line starting with the ESW-V10. The list price for this 300-watt subwoofer is $800 and if you are looking for a speaker component that brings out detailed and concise low-end while you are playing video games or just for watching your DVD collection, the ESW-V10 might be just what your are looking for.
The rugged outward appearance of this model delivers a definite sense of strength with its high gloss black finish, squared-off corners and its 10-inch woofer cone. Even though this hefty subwoofer weighs in at almost forty pounds, the designers took great care in making sure that this speaker easily blends in with any speaker configuration you currently own, and that its overall size of 15-inches in height and 15-inches of width will not take up too much space in your listening room.
The ESW-V10 has 1,200 watts of dynamic power, a 10-inch woven composite fiberglass cone and a two-inch voice coil that delivers most of the mid-range associated with the higher end of this subwoofer's bass dispersion. The line-in/Sub-in and speaker inputs are all easily accessed in the back panel of this unit for convenient set-up that will take the average consumer about five minutes to hook up to their audio system and the equalization controls, sound controls and power on/off switch are all embedded into the rear panel as well.
In the audio configuration in which I was starting the demonstration of the ESW-V10, an Onkyo TX-SR506 digital A/V receiver was being used as the main audio component, and Energy's CB-10 bookshelf speakers were used as the Left-Right speaker combination. When playing back a wide variety of rock music using the ESW-V10 as the main sound component to drive the bass into my musical soundstage, I noticed how easy it was to perfectly set the low-end using the basic equalization controls in its back panel so that the bass elements complimented the music without overwhelming the mid-range emanating from the other Energy speakers.
While watching a few Blu-ray movies using this same audio configuration, I noticed that the ESW-V10 did an impeccable job of dispersing the low-end needed during the action sequences of all the movies I was watching, while at the same time, the subwoofer delivered a nice amount of bass elements during all of the movie's louder musical sequences. And while playing a few PS3 games, I made note that the ESW-V10 did a more than capable job of delivering the harder edged low-end that intense games like "KillZone 2" and "Borderlands" especially need to fully encapsulate the player in the two game's Cyberworld of hostile virtual landscapes.
Read about the high points and the low points of the ESW-V10 on Page 2.
High Points
• The ESW-V10 is one of the most attractively designed subwoofers on the market today and its size is nice and compact, perfect for the discriminating consumer who needs to save on square footage in his media room.
• This subwoofer does a great job of delivering clean low-end to the soundstage without overwhelming the listener with too much bass dispersion.
• The ESW-V10 is extremely versatile when it comes to bringing out the best musical elements during audio playback, no matter if you are watching a DVD, playing a video game or listening to one of your favorite CDs.
Low Points
• One of the weaker elements of this subwoofer is the ESW-V10's inability to spread out its low-end audio to exact parts of the room using minimal size correction implementation.
• While watching a movie during a more quiet film sequence, the ESW-V10 was not able to deliver the subtle bass elements to the listening area that was needed.
Conclusion
When it comes to designing an all-purpose subwoofer that will make the average audiophile happy while also insuring that the avid home theater fanatics and video gamers amongst us are getting the best low-end audio from their speaker configuration, Energy has delivered an exciting speaker that will not disappoint anyone who purchases the ESW-V10.
The subwoofer's ability to deliver pristine low-end to any listening area while also filling the musical soundstage with powerful dexterity more than makes up for the fact that room placement for optimal sound displacement is not an easy chore with the ESW-V10. Overall, this subwoofer performs well above its retail price of $800, without a doubt.
