Good for the price if you have an absolute limit of $200.

This is no Subwoofer. Getting rid of it was the best thing I ever did. Pretty low tones at low volume, but can't handle real life

I bought this on an internet price match (didn't have time or patience to find lower than $206 on the net). At the time I was a mental case - thought I MUST have a 12" driver since my fronts had decent bass - so I rejected the Polk for this thing (hoped wife would love the $50 savings too).

Then I struggled for two weeks - essentially trying to keep it from sounding bad. It was ok at level "X" for HT, but then I had to reduce by 8DB to keep it from screwing up the music with it's floppy bass. All it did for music was add a low SPL hum/rumble - not much.

After lots of research and soul-searching, I decided to take it back today, and I bought a Velodyne CT100 (they are in the box at Circuit City for $399 - mine was open box for $339).

Anyway, if you bought this AR sub, and are looking here for validation that it was a good buy - well maybe it was if you can DEFINITELY only spend $200. It is probably the best in class at that price.

If you can scrape up $400 - you will get 10X your money's worth from a Velo. I understand HSU and Mission also have great subs around that price - but I didn't want to a) wait or b) deal with a mail order nightmare.

I am happier that I have been in two weeks, now that I've replaced that AR with a Velo.

By the way - the AR says it does 20Hz, has 120 Watts. The Velo says it does 28Hz, has 100 Watts. ha ha ha ha....

I'm telling you these numbers don't mean a single thing.

I'm going to give it a 5 for value, but either a 2 or 3 for overall - it just isn't a real subwoofer...

Similar Products Used:

JBL 8" from Costco, Polk PSW250, KLH 10" from Costco,
***VELODYNE CT100***

Great bass for the $$

I bought this subwoofer as a demo just after xmas of 99. I use it as a filler sub for my surround speakers. For what I am using it for it is very good. Also I have found that in my theatre it sounds the best when the port is aimed at a side wall instead of head on. I have it sitting to the side of my mains and about 1 foot from the backwall and firing at the sidewall 4' or so away. I think for the money it cant be beat.


My System: (Subject to change at anytime :) )

Sony TA-E900ES Surround Processor
Adcom 5500 Amp
Adcom 5503 Amp
Mirage OM-7 Main Speakers
Mirage 895is Surround Speakers
Mirage Substrata 1000
AR S112PS Subwoofer (for rear channels)
Boston Acoustics VR14 THX Center
Sony KP-61V80 Projection Television
Sony DVP-S530D DVD Player
Harmon Kardon HD-710 Cd Player
Monster 2500 Line COnditioner
Monster Interconnects and speaker wire
Phillips Pronto Remote

Similar Products Used:

Mirage Substrata 1000

Performance/Price Ratio, Low volume performance, Solid/Attractive cabinet, Ease of setup/use, Performs very well in my midfi HT system

Deceptive listing of range, stated 20-200 but with no +/- figure listing: actually drops off quickly below 30hz

I use this subwoofer exclusively for Home Theater and it performs quite well in my budget system.

I installed my friend's Infinity sub into my system and I prefered the AR over the 12 inch Infinity.

Excellent value, down-firing slot-port woofer.

Frequency response statistic can be misleading...

For those who want tight, solid bass for a small to medium sized room, this is the best sub in the price range (usually advertised for $250-$300)--the Infinity BU-120 (about the same price) is very close but the slot-port design of the AR model is more impressive, especially if you plan to put the sub on a carpet. The AR model and the Infinity model have virtually identical frequency response, although AR misleads consumers somewhat by printing 20-220hz because it does not produce "flat" bass tones (+-3db) below approximately 31hz, when, especially when watching big hollywood movies, is a big difference from 20hz (20 hz is more than half an octave deeper than 31 hz). I suppose it doesn't matter much for most non-electronica or non-hip/hop music, however. I placed the sub in every possible position in my medium-sized room and used disc two of "Bass Mekanik 'Sonic Overload' (1998)" (the disc has tracks specifically designed to verify the frequency response of your subwoofer) along with the aid of an oscilloscope to verify this. AR needs to list frequency response as +-3db like almost every other product it offers and like virtually every other high end speaker brand (namely Infinity). Does AR consider this sub to be unworthy of a +-3db frequency response rating? Who knows, but it is still worth the $250 I paid for it--I used a decibel meter in my room and determined the sub to produce approximately 117 db before audible distortion set in (measured @ 1 meter, 5" from plaster walls in a corner, directly on hard-wood floor, sub volume @ half (middle), receiver cranked w/ sub output level control on receiver @ 0 db). For SERIOUS bass, go with AR's more expensive models but for most people, this sub will produce enough happiness to surpass the $2-- paid for it! You won't beat it at it's price, although Infinity's BU-120 does come very close (for hardwood floor use). Thanks for reading my opinion, I hope it is helpful!

Similar Products Used:

Infinity BU-120

Great sounding bass, a real thumper

Auto shutoff

Great little sub..made my movies come alive..popped Godzilla in and played chapter 9....every step he took shook the dishes in the kitchen...I was very happy with the subs performance....now the bad news.....the sub wouldn't switch to standby when not in use (was supposed to go to standby in 17-25 minutes of non use)...it would stay in the power mode most of the time..occasionally switching to standby and then coming back on line. I called the tech support and was told that the switch in the sub was probably extra sensitive and was picking up some line noise or feed back from my amp (HK). Can't live with this so it goes back to Sears today.....Other than that this is a great sub for the money. Guess I willtry either the Velodyne CT100 or the Paradigm PDR12 and see how they perform.

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin Vega Passive 12" sub

Tight bass, no distortion, great value.

None

Can't really add much to all the great reviews below. Thanks to all for the tip of using Sears for their internet price matching. Got mine for $100 off at $199. I'm very impressed with the quality and performance. My primary use is HT with a Sony STR-DE845. I used it's installation to try out my new "ID4" DVD and it sounded absolutely fantastic. Not sure how my neighbors felt about it.

I was originally going to buy a JBL PSWD112 for more money at Best Buy. Happened to run across this site and read the reviews about blown amps and angry customers, boy that was close.

Similar Products Used:

JBL

Excellent Value

Owner"s Manual could be better for , especiaa
User's manual and Documentation could be better


lly

A very good performing sub for home theatre and music at a very competitive price. A nice combination of features ; line in line out or speaker level connections,auto turn on , moderate size and good build quality combined with solid musical performance ' clean sounding electronics no hum or buzz. I am using it with a Sony es receiver and B&W compact monitors and it has added a added a sense of depth and ease to playback without "mucking" things up, Sound is still very clean and detailed . The user's manual is thin and not very informative nor is the acoustic research web site much help . So experimentation is needed to find the best setup. All in all I am more than satisfied and would recommend checking out this subwoofer .

Price. Very good bass response.

None, but as with any subwoofer, placement is critical.

I bought this sub last year for $199. Wow, this sub is way underpriced. I don't know about all the people on this site who complain about only 120 watts, but I have the level set to about one third for most music, and about 45 - 50% for home theatre, and this is more than enough bass. Do any of you out there know how much more power is necessary to double the loudness level? I believe it requires 10 times the wattage. So an increase from 120 to 150 watts is nothing.

For home theater, this sub is great. AR recommends placing it deep into the corner. I found this to not be the case, otherwise the bass is too muddy and overblown. I have mine out about 15" from each corner suface in the right-hand corner of the room behind the speakers. As with any sub, placement is very critical. Those idiots who advertise that their subs can be placed anywhere in the room could not be more wrong. If you do that, the bass will be awful. It won't integrate well with the main speakers, and will have usually overpower them. It took many days (about a week) to properly set up my sub. This is not to say it didn't sound good right away. However, it needed the additional time for me to adjust the placement and for it to break in. (That's right, I said break in. My unit produced deeper bass after several hours (2-3) of playing, and it definitely requires some tweaking of the placement.

For music, I have to set the level down to about one third, or the bass is too boomy. It is not the best out there, but it works well with most speakers, especially mini-monitors.

This sub definitely adds some nice fill out on the bottom end for either home theatre or for music, but it is better for HT.

For the price, it is hard to imagine going wrong with this unit.

Similar Products Used:

JBL PS112

Bang for the buck, deepness of bass, blends in with ease, good compliment to any system

none!!

I got this sub price matched at sears for $170 plus tax, one great deal. I got it home, crossover was 80-220 hz. as i expected (different from their website though). This sub has very dep bass, as with any sub placement is critial. Great for movies and basically everyday music listening. The down firing ported slot design works great with this sub, it really throws the bass out, go and get one!!

Similar Products Used:

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