Energy products are manufactured by the Klipsch Group. Energy ESW-C10 home subwoofers receive excellent ratings from their owners and live up to the quality standards expected of Klipsch subwoofers.
Energy subwoofers are beautifully designed and look great with or without the speaker grill. The black and white 10-inch woofer looks stunning set in the black ash cabinet that sits atop solid angled legs for a look that’s distinctive and hard to miss. Be sure to read the reviews of our top-rated home subwoofers, the BIC F-12 and the Emotiva Ultra Sub 10, before purchasing the sub that fits your style and budget.
Energy home subwoofers have built-in amplifiers that are manufactured to the engineering specifications of the Klipsch Group by outside proprietary sources. The amplifier in the ESW-C10 has a continuous output of 150 watts with a dynamic peak output of 400 watts. It is capable of reaching a maximum volume output of 102.6 decibels at 30Hz.
Its frequency-response range is between 32Hz and 140Hz, with a low-pass crossover of 40Hz to 120Hz that is controlled by a rotary dial on the rear panel. For the best results, you should run Energy home subwoofer speakers at 65 to 70 percent of full volume to maintain the clarity of the bass frequencies, especially when using the sub for music.
The home subwoofer’s cabinet is available in a black ash finish with high-gloss black baffle trim, and has an LED power indicator light directly below the removable grill that covers the woofer. The cabinet is similar in size to the other audio subwoofers in our lineup, but at 28 pounds, it weighs less than most. The most stunning aspect of the ESW-C10’s design is the color contrast created by the woofer’s distinctive black cone and white elliptical that sets it apart from other subwoofer speakers.
As an active, ported subwoofer, the ESW-C10 home subwoofer’s capable of producing dramatic low-end sound effects with power and precision. It has been designed to offer increased fidelity in the low-end spectrum by coupling a bass-reflex design with an injection-molded cone set in an elliptical speaker. Energy’s patented, ribbed elliptical surround that encircles the woofer cone reduces the amount of sound distortion. As a result, the ESW-C10 is also excellent for musical applications.
Energy home subwoofers have a number of inputs and controls in addition to the rotary-dial volume and low-pass crossover controls that we discussed in the performance section of this review. The ESW-C10 has a signal-sensing automatic on-off function that puts the sub into standby mode in the absence of a signal. The LED power-indicator light turns off when the home subwoofer’s in standby mode. The phase is controlled by a switch that toggles it between zero and 180 degrees, but the switch provides fewer options for phase optimization than a variable phase dial.
There are several ways to connect these audio subwoofers to your sound system. If your audio-video (AV) receiver has an LFE sub out connector, you can run a single RCA cable between the receiver and the sub’s left line-in terminal. You can also use a stereo RCA cable to connect both the left and right inputs on the sub to your AV receiver’s stereo sub out. If your receiver does not have an RCA sub out, you can connect it to your sub’s speaker-level inputs via the main speaker outputs on your receiver.
The ESW-C10 is only covered by a one-year warranty for parts and labor, which is far less comprehensive than the warranties for the other home subwoofers we reviewed. The Energy website has a number of resources for technical support including: a FAQs page, user forum, online product manuals and phone or email support. Energy’s tech support team responded to our email quickly and answered most of our questions.
The Energy ESW-C10 has a lot of great features and design elements. While they are excellent home subwoofers with a great price-point value, you may still want to check out our higher-ranked home subwoofers before you make a decision.
