3 of the 10 subwoofers whose manufacturer publishes a US list price fall in this band. Every figure below is the manufacturer’s own, linked to the page it came from.
Last verified: 2026-08-09
What “high-end” means here
A price band has to be drawn somewhere, so we draw it on manufacturer list price and say where. This page is $1,200 and above. List price is not street price. These models discount, some of them heavily, and a model at the top of one band is often bought for less than one at the bottom of the next. We do not publish retailer prices, because a price we cannot keep current is worse than no price at all. Use the band to narrow the field, then check what it actually costs today.
We hold 11 subwoofers in the database. 10 of them have a list price published by the manufacturer; the other 1 do not, and are named at the foot of this page rather than guessed into a band.
How big these actually are
Every cabinet is drawn to the same scale from the dimensions its manufacturer publishes, front elevation, standing on a common floor line. The 300 mm bar underneath is the reference.
We draw these rather than reproduce product photographs, because the photographs belong to the manufacturers and we have no licence to republish them. The outline is the cabinet and nothing more: the circle is schematic and no port is drawn, because none of these manufacturers publishes where either sits on the baffle. The one thing the drawing does tell you is the thing a press shot never does, which is whether it fits.
The 3 in this band
A subwoofer publishes a different set of figures from anything else on this site. It carries its own amplifier, so there is no sensitivity figure to convert to a common basis and no impedance for your receiver to drive. What it publishes instead is amplifier power, driver diameter, the cabinet the driver is loaded in, a frequency response that means nothing without its tolerance, and outside dimensions. Those are the lines below. Where a manufacturer quotes the response once per cabinet mode, we say so and we say which figure we used.
product listing
SVS SB-4000
- List price
- $1,400 (each)
- Amplifier power
- 1200 W RMS, 4000 W peak (Class D)
- Driver
- 13.5 in nominal
- Cabinet
- sealed
- Frequency response
- 19 Hz – 310 Hz ±3 dB
- Maximum output
- not published
- Cabinet dimensions
- 465 × 452 × 531 mm (H × W × D)
What the published figures favour
- Amplifier published at 1200 W RMS against a median of 550 W across the 11 subwoofers in our database, so it has more continuous power than most of them.
- 13.5-inch driver against a 12-inch median for this category — roughly 27 per cent more radiating area, on the nominal diameters the manufacturers publish, which take in the surround rather than the moving cone alone.
- It is 48 per cent smaller by external volume than the SVS PB-4000, the same 13.5-inch driver and the same 1200 W amplifier in a ported cabinet — 112 litres against 214, computed from the two published sets of outside dimensions. That is the figure that has to fit in the room.
- Frequency response published with its tolerance: 19 Hz – 310 Hz ±3 dB. A range quoted without a ±dB window does not tell you how flat it is inside it; this one carries the window.
- Cabinet dimensions published: 465 × 452 × 531 mm (H × W × D), about 112 litres of external volume, so you can check it fits before ordering.
What to check before buying
- Sealed cabinet, published 3 Hz higher at the bottom than the SVS PB-4000, the same 13.5-inch driver and the same 1200 W amplifier in a ported cabinet: 19 Hz against 16 Hz.
- Published down to 19 Hz at ±3 dB, against a median of 18 Hz among the 9 models in our database quoted to that same window.
- No maximum output figure published. 1 of the 11 subwoofers in our database publishes one, so the omission is this manufacturer’s choice rather than an industry-wide silence, and amplifier watts are all you have to go on here.
product listing
SVS PB-3000
- List price
- $1,500 (each)
- Amplifier power
- 800 W RMS, 2500 W peak (Class D)
- Driver
- 13 in nominal
- Cabinet
- ported
- Frequency response
- 16 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB in standard mode; 18 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB sealed
- Maximum output
- not published
- Cabinet dimensions
- 556 × 465 × 660 mm (H × W × D)
What the published figures favour
- Amplifier published at 800 W RMS against a median of 550 W across the 11 subwoofers in our database, so it has more continuous power than most of them.
- 13-inch driver against a 12-inch median for this category — roughly 17 per cent more radiating area, on the nominal diameters the manufacturers publish, which take in the surround rather than the moving cone alone.
- Ported cabinet, published 2 Hz lower at the bottom than the SVS SB-3000, the same 13-inch driver and the same 800 W amplifier in a sealed cabinet: 16 Hz against 18 Hz.
- Published down to 16 Hz at ±3 dB, against a median of 18 Hz among the 9 models in our database quoted to that same window.
- Cabinet dimensions published: 556 × 465 × 660 mm (H × W × D), about 171 litres of external volume, so you can check it fits before ordering.
What to check before buying
- It is 147 per cent larger by external volume than the SVS SB-3000, the same 13-inch driver and the same 800 W amplifier in a sealed cabinet — 171 litres against 69, computed from the two published sets of outside dimensions. That is the figure that has to fit in the room.
- The response is published once per cabinet mode — 16 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB in standard mode; 18 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB sealed — so the figure worth comparing depends on which configuration you actually run it in. The low corner used above is the first one the manufacturer lists, which they label the standard configuration.
- No maximum output figure published. 1 of the 11 subwoofers in our database publishes one, so the omission is this manufacturer’s choice rather than an industry-wide silence, and amplifier watts are all you have to go on here.
SVS PB-4000
- List price
- $1,900 (each)
- Amplifier power
- 1200 W RMS, 4000 W peak (Class D)
- Driver
- 13.5 in nominal
- Cabinet
- ported
- Frequency response
- 16 Hz – 200 Hz ±3 dB standard; 13 Hz – 200 Hz extended; 18 Hz – 200 Hz sealed
- Maximum output
- not published
- Cabinet dimensions
- 648 × 490 × 673 mm (H × W × D)
What the published figures favour
- Amplifier published at 1200 W RMS against a median of 550 W across the 11 subwoofers in our database, so it has more continuous power than most of them.
- 13.5-inch driver against a 12-inch median for this category — roughly 27 per cent more radiating area, on the nominal diameters the manufacturers publish, which take in the surround rather than the moving cone alone.
- Ported cabinet, published 3 Hz lower at the bottom than the SVS SB-4000, the same 13.5-inch driver and the same 1200 W amplifier in a sealed cabinet: 16 Hz against 19 Hz.
- Published down to 16 Hz at ±3 dB, against a median of 18 Hz among the 9 models in our database quoted to that same window.
- Cabinet dimensions published: 648 × 490 × 673 mm (H × W × D), about 214 litres of external volume, so you can check it fits before ordering.
What to check before buying
- It is 91 per cent larger by external volume than the SVS SB-4000, the same 13.5-inch driver and the same 1200 W amplifier in a sealed cabinet — 214 litres against 112, computed from the two published sets of outside dimensions. That is the figure that has to fit in the room.
- The response is published once per cabinet mode — 16 Hz – 200 Hz ±3 dB standard; 13 Hz – 200 Hz extended; 18 Hz – 200 Hz sealed — so the figure worth comparing depends on which configuration you actually run it in. The low corner used above is the first one the manufacturer lists, which they label the standard configuration.
- No maximum output figure published. 1 of the 11 subwoofers in our database publishes one, so the omission is this manufacturer’s choice rather than an industry-wide silence, and amplifier watts are all you have to go on here.
At a glance
| Model | List price | Amplifier, RMS | Driver | Cabinet | Frequency response | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SVS SB-4000 | $1,400 | 1200 W | 13.5 in | sealed | 19 Hz – 310 Hz ±3 dB | source |
| SVS PB-3000 | $1,500 | 800 W | 13 in | ported | 16 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB in standard mode; 18 Hz – 260 Hz ±3 dB sealed | source |
| SVS PB-4000 | $1,900 | 1200 W | 13.5 in | ported | 16 Hz – 200 Hz ±3 dB standard; 13 Hz – 200 Hz extended; 18 Hz – 200 Hz sealed | source |
What this page could not include
These subwoofers are in our database, but their manufacturers do not publish a US list price, so there is no honest way to say which band they belong in:
- Klipsch R-120SW — no list price on the manufacturer’s US page
We will not take a price from a retailer listing to fill that gap. Retailer prices move, and a band built on one would be wrong within the month.
Related
- Subwoofers Under $700 — the same category, lower band
- Subwoofers From $700 to $1,200 — the same category, middle band
- The gear database — every figure used here, with its source
- How we work — the method, and where it breaks