Polyfil and modpodge modification didn't work for me ln the past.
So, I changed the cone of the SA-WM40 with a 70 euro 8ohm cone of Rockford Fosgate, for car audio.
The Rockford Fosgate cone was 3mm larger, so I cut off the wood a little around the hole.
Then I screwed the cone on the board, and ........ouaaaaou, what a superb, unbeliveble sound. This was a really extra good modification. Now It sounds so extra good in both music and movies. At least 10 stars, not only 5, in value and overall.

I was reading another reviews about this subwoofer, also I've heard a lot of state-of-art hi-fi brands who offer nice and expensive audio components, but nothing to do with this Sony sub.

I had my impression just before buy it that Sony wasn't a serious audio manufacturer, because they are a lot commercial brand just for the common market and when I meet this sub I thought well, I'm going to proof it and just nothing else, and when I brought this sound box to my home I've connected to the amp with a common RCA cable and I had a nice bass sound.

Never mind with this cheap cable, I confirm that a correct and finest cable makes the difference in sound and quality and I bought a free-oxigen and 24k gold covered AR cable, just I've connected this cable to the subwoofer so ... THE MAXIMUM DIFFERENCE, incredible deep-shake sound, powerful and strong bass, totally amazed with the experience.

No way about it this model is cheap of different in comparision with another manufacturer, Sony made the best when they produced the SA-WM40 model, this one has rear controls for power and frecuency, the switch for normal and reverse, auto on when this captures a sound signal (stand by mode), and the true deep sound comes from the rear, there is nothing in sound as like if it would be "winding", the bass invades the room and is a terrific complement for a home theater system.

I'm very happy with this sub, because I use to enjoy movies and music in the same scale so I have to say this subwoofer is one of the best in its class just for quality and price, isn't the state-of-art article but kick a lot of .... well just for enjoying as well as you can, no more.

i just bought this sub off a mate. well i got a 5.1 sony reciever with all 5 speakers + sub, a dual tape deck and a 5 disc sony cd player for $300 aus. so i got a pretty good deal. the sub is good. loud but boomy. i just read some of the mods and think i might drop in to the local craft store. if it can become tighter/cleaner that easy then i can't wait. i am planning on buying the jensen qx 95 sub. which runs 2 10" drivers at 250 wrms. but i have something im happy with and to fill my bass needs for now. i might come back on a write up a comparision after the mod

Deep bass, cheap only £55, easly moded,

?

After thinking about getting a subwoofer for a long time i went for this one because of the price. I didn't expect it to be a top range woofer (SONY) but when i first used it i was realy suprised. It got far below my B&W 601's 70 Hz with an amazing deep bass efect. I didn't know you could make it better by moding it either, but after reading the reviews on here i did the mod podge and polyfil thing to it. The bass caricter is now more defined, lower and it packs even more punch. So if your looking for an affordable sub this realy is the one to get.

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none

sucks

breakes up

The subwoofer sucks a waste of money

Low price, not too large, good volume for a smaller room. Can be modified to give more musical bass.

Needs to be modified for cleaner bass. No automatic power on.

I bought this subwoofer2 weeks ago to add bass to my stereo which has 2 Paradigm Monitor 5 Speakers. I felt that a small 8 in. subwoofer would handle the size room our speakers are in, and that I only needed to add the lower frequencies below 100 HZ to enhance the sound where the Paradigms start to roll off, more the idea of a woofer than subwoofer. The subwoofer put out bass with plenty of volume but lacked definition. I could hear and feel the bass, but it did not sound like the instrument that was playing the bass line, very muddy. I read the review about adding sound deadening to the cabinet, and mod podging the speaker cone. The speaker had no sound deadening in the cabinet at all, so I added polyfill, with sheets of polyfill quilt batting, layered up to about 2 inces thick, and attached to all inside surfaces, leaving a clear space around the resonance tube opening. This improved the sound some. I was reluctant to add the mod podge, until I found several other sites that confirmed the effectiveness of this treatment for all kinds of papercone speakers. I guess people have been using this for years. The improvement for the speaker in the Sony Sa-WM250 was dramatic. It cleaned up the muddiness, and the bass is now a lower extension of the bass line from the Monitor 5's. Am happy with it for all kinds of music, from classical to rock. The subwoofer is a good value if one is comfortable taking it apart to do the tweeking and not worried about possibly voiding the warranty, which the modifications might do.

Customer Service

Have not used Customer service

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Decent amount of bass. It shakes my house. It sounds pretty good after being modified. Low price to buy and modify the speaker.

Had to modify the speaker to get it to sound better. Sony should have done those things from the start.

I bought the SA-WM40 because my original stereo had absolutely no bass when in surround mode. At the time, I was on a fairly tight budget so I decided I would take a chance. I am by know means a Sony fan especially for audio stuff. When I hooked the sub up, I got what I expected from a Sony product/speaker. I am currently upgrading my stereo, and I was in the process of getting ready to list the sub on eBay. I was going to purchase a new and better sounding unit. As a starting point in the purchasing process, I started checking reviews of different subs to see which one sounded the best. For laughs, I went to see how the Sony I bought had rated. I read a few reviews, and I found out that is easy to modify the sub to make it sound better. I followed the modifications (treating the speker cone with Mod Podge and insulating the interior of the enclosure with poly-film), and I have to say that I am quite impressed. The sub got a second lease on life at least in my eyes. It sounds good with all of my other speakers which are Cerwin Vegas (RE-25 Fronts, CLS-6C Center, VE-5M Surrounds).

Customer Service

N/A

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First powered sub

Cerwin Vega speakers
Harman Kardon 7.1 receiver

Plenty of grunt for the money
Cheap to modify

Ordinary without the mods

I was on a tight budge when purchasing my sub and couldn't afford something I wanted after the Mrs put her foot down. After reading so many good reviews for this sub, I was able to purchase a second hand unit. I was very sceptical, Sony in my opinion are good for PlayStation and TVs, and not much else. When first hooking up the sub..........yeah it made a few loud thuddy booms, made the windows rattle, but he sound was very ordinary. The old story, you get what you pay for. All was not lost, after getting a sheet of pollyfill, some mod podge and four wood screws to use for carpet spikes (costing about $10) I went to work on the sub. I lined the inside of the sun with 1 inch pollyfill, covering all the inner surfaces levels, leaving room around the port. Four wood screws through the bottom for carpet spikes, then coating the driver with three layers of mod podge (the paper cone only) on both sides. The difference was quite amazing. It does add a lot of punch to my system, and surprisingly sounds quite good, even musically. I have a RXV1300 Yamaha amp, yamaha dvd, yamaha cd, JBL L3's for mains, the center and rears are paradigm The neighbours certainly know about it! Out of the box, this sub is very typical of a sony speaker, pretty ordinary, maybe ok to satisfy the masses who have not used half decent audio equipment. After the mods it was able to do it's job very well, for a bargain price tag. Sony still don't score any brownie points from me becuase of the mods that had to be done. When all of the mods have been done you will have a whole new sub.

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JBL, Paradigm

Cheap. Easily modded to fairly high performance.

Quite boomy and unpleseant without Poly-fill.

I am fairly pleased with this second hand sub that I got from a guy who had completely upgraded his entire system. Because of my budget, I knew I needed a used sub and I have been mostly happy with the performance compared to other subs I auditioned costing 5-10x more. (5-10x more than $85 that is... ;-) Out of the box (the seller had original box and packaging) I would concur with the opinion of a previous reviewer who called the WM40 a "boomy piece of crap". The tonal quality was all over the place with what seemed like delayed response times and a mushy non-musical feeling even with DVDs. The sub was moving alot of air, but it wasn't on pitch at all on anything. The mods suggested below have worked wonders and have elevated the performance of my WM40 tremendously. Four-ply Poly-fill sheets were applied to all internal surfaces using double sided tape. The only poly fill sheets I could find at Michael's were one large sheet appx 60"x72' for baby quilts so I simply cut the 'quilt' into strips, folded into panel sized pieces and applied to the MDF with 3M double sided tape. This made a huge difference in cutting down the mushy boom caused by harmonic resonances. I also purchased a 4 oz bottle of Mod-Podge for $1.99 from Michaels. I diluted the Mod-Podge with tap water (Brita filtered of course... ;-) approximately 40% to the consistancy of paint instead of glue. I applied 3 coats to the front and 2 to the rear waiting twenty minutes between coats. Maybe I should have waited more between coats but the surface looked and felt dry and I was antsy... I did not coat the dust cover (the round piece in the middle of the driver) or the rubber seal surrounding the cone. Only the paper cone. The rear is slightly tricky to coat since you have the metal casing and magnets in the way but I made do. Wow. What a huge difference. The sub still rocks for movies with room shaking booms when appropriate. But the real difference is with music. You actaully hear the bass lines instead of 'boom-boom'. If you can find a second-hand WM40 you can quickly, cheaply and easily turn it into a very respectable, moderately musical sub that cranks out the power.

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best bang for the buck good beginner sub. good power but please use the monster cable thx monster standard that you can buy from circuit city or the thx ultra you can buy from best try, i ment best buy. i hate best buy!!!!!!!!

distorts sometimes but with new cables it will sound better. now i want my sub back!!!!

This is my first subwoofer i bought while i was working for Best try. I truly think that this is a great beginner sub. but now i do not have it any more due to my cousin has now bought it from me.

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i had a cambridge soundworks psw II sub after i bought the sony and the sony sounded a whole hell of a lot better!!!