What is the forums opinion of SVS subs?

I have owned at least 5 SVS subs, luckily they have an excellent customer service department for the warranty as every sub I got from them (two via one of their dealers stores) failed.   I took two of them apart to view the guts and I was not happy with the build quality from what I saw.

Another item, I could not get them to sound right in my large room when they were operational; the sound to me was very muddy and not musical at all; very boomy sounding.  

I ended up getting in a very nice sub from Axiom Audio (who owns Bryston by the way) and all I can say is what a nice improvement that was.  The amps are rated far lower in power than SVS, but trust me, they have a lot more power as they use linear power supplies with much more reserve.   You should see the capacitors and massive toroid transformer; it must weigh 30 pounds.   Plus they are super musical with a great amount of adjustment available on the variable phase controls and cross over points.   I ended up with 4 subs from them and the sound is just outstanding.    I'd suggest a look at what they offer on their webpage before getting anything from any other company; plus they have outstanding customer service and warranty support.   That's my input on this subject.

I believe that if anyone were physically open up a SVS sub to inspect the internals; you’d perhaps have a different opinion on buying them.

The electronics were a huge disappointment to me as was the construction in my opinion. They do a very good job with outside finish, which of course is what sells.

I had a total of around a half dozen SVS subs in succession with each one failing and being replaced under warrantee. One actually caught on fire internally and filled my room with acrid smoke which was choking. With each new sub, I tried a different offering paying the difference if needed so that I could see if there were better options to rounding out a muddy sound I kept hearing. Nothing I tried was satisfactory to me. I then brought home a monster Paradyme 15 inch power house sub which cost a small fortune and was lent to evaluate by a HiFi store. It was even worse! It was like SVS muddy sound on steroids and the dishes would fall out of the shelves in the kitchen due to excessive power.

I got my money back on the SVS subs, sent the Paradyme packing homebound and bought a couple of subs from Axiom who makes the Bryston speakers which I love. Voila! Perfectly balanced bass, musical, no nodes as they can easily be phased with the controls and best of all, no distortion at all with their DSP protection! I now have a total of 4 of their subs in my large room and the music is second to none. Keep in mind that I am all about music, not HT stuff; but if I do play a film, they are still fabulous. I actually opened up the subs to view the internals and they sport Bryston power amps inside :) massive linear power supplies with a huge toroid transformer. And very robust drivers all made in Canada.

I suppose this is all consistent as Axiom owns Bryston. The secret to great musical subs I found is to set the crossover frequency up high. I use the 150hz. setting and I cut off the lows at my main speakers (Bryston Model T Signature series) at around 80 hertz. I let the subs do the heavy lifting yet migrate up into upper bass/lower mids and have the big main speakers roll off below 80. It works very well. I find the most pleasing bass is in the upper ranges and this way the subs support it and the mains contribute.