I 've had this BEAST about 8 years and I love it. It has matching style ( top corner ) to my black Mission 752 Freedom speaker. I did some audition at that time between B&W and Sun Fire and decided to choose Microstar 12.1. It has very tight powerful deep bass, you can feel each punch this BEAST kick. I was able to pick the last one at A&B sound in Winnipeg 2002.
The Energy Microstar had two visions. Microstar 10.1 and Microstar 12.1.
The Microstar 10.1 has power output 1000watts 10 inch Kevlar woofer and the Microstar 12.1 has power output 1500watts 12 inch Kevlar woofer. Both are MOSFET Pulse Width Modulation . I did leave my review 8 year ago but it seem lost some where. I do have full manual of this power sub. Anyone interested, please let me know.

i am soo impressed with the accuracy and decibel level available from such a small enclosure. being an electronics tech. for the last 32.5 years, i have repaired many brands of sub's, but this one really impressed me!! in a small room it's going to be excessive, needs at least medium to large room to be fully appreciated, my personal rating is 8.5 out of 10. inclusive of flexibility in placement and, design, [i examined all particulars, including amp design and driver construction] this amplifier probably generates 1000 watts with 2000 watt peaks easily. my suggestion is go listen for yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised!!! maybe you haven't heard but you absolutely get what you pay for here, dependable electronics, good aural accuracy, small footprint.

Deep, deep bass below 18hz and very tight and clean without being punchy at any point. Gloss black finish, smaller size that outputs more than many much larger subs. Controls and inputs are excellent.

Only the price but worth every penny!

After reading some reviews I thought that I would give my 2 cents. I sub rocks! I replaced a $800 Velodyne and there is no comparison. Great tight, deep bass. High power to push that sealed sub and that is why some don''t think it has the power it does. Seems like they didn''t study the sub before they bought it! A sealed design is much smoother and less punchy but this little box ROCKS! It is soooooo smooth and deep. I had a 15" Klipsch with a 2400 watt amp and I liked the AEnergy more! It was smoother and deeper and not at all punchy. Great for movies and music. Very highly recommended. My wife also noticed the difference as I like to turn it up!

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne, Infinity, NHT and Klipsch.

Tight, powerful, and punchy bass. Very musical, good for multi-channel music.

Kind of expensive at $1,599 retail. Also, the fact that it is so punchy makes it discrete and localizable.

I auditioned this sub extensively for its sonic quality. This sub put outs out some of extremely tight, loud and punchy bass. While listening to the sub on some very bassy music, you better be careful, the pressure from this sub will cave your chest in. I would say this sub is more musical than movie oriented, because its so tight, in my opinion, tight bass is kind of localizable, thats what you don't want for movies. However it still performs well for movies, especially like Saving Private Ryan where bombs are droping one by one. Once again, be careful with this sub, it will knock you out, its so punchy, it will intimidate, ruff you up and just simply kick your ass.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne, JBL , Sunfire, M&K.

Power, wide range of system-integration features, sound.

My grandmother used to say about certian meals that you should eat them because they will, "...stick to your kishkas(ribs)." This is a sub that, like one of my grandmothers great meals, will really stick to your ribs.

As Ike Eisenhower used to say, "It's not the size of a dog in a fight, is the size of fight in a dog!" This small dog has a hell of a lot of fight in it. It just sits there, a pretty shiney small box, looking at you through its funny little black grille.

When you turn it on and up it will come at you with so much energy. It sounds great for music, and when you want to feel the sound during action movies, this shiney little box will jump on your chest with both feet - you feel it right in the center of your chest! I am talkin floor shaki'n, roof rattelin' bone crashing sound you will feel!

I like this guy.

Similar Products Used:

Energy XL-10

Seamless blend with mains, small footprint, accuracy

Can't hit low 20hz bass, limited output

I originally wasn't going to buy this sub. I was going to listen to the paradigm servo 15 but the dealer gave me a great deal on it for 1300 canadian plus tax. I was reluctant because I could not listen to it first but was told I could bring it back if I wasn't happy.

When I got it home, unpacked it and set it up I was impressed. It is was very musical. It kept up with everything I threw at it. Rap, techno, classic rock came through like it was supposed to. bass was articulate and to the point with no overhang or boominess. The sub never tried to overpower the rest of the music even with me having it set to 100hz lowpass. It blended seamlessly with my mains (paradigm reference 40's) and never localized the bass.

On HT it was good being able shake the paintings and pictures and blinds and just about everything else. It does have a few minor faults though. For one, I find it can't plunge the lowest depths(rolls off quickly after 27-25hz). I took my spl metre and did a little experiment. I set my sub to half volume and sent some test tones through it. it's pretty flat at 100,90,80,70hz,peaks at 62,60hz and remains flat at 40,35 and 30hz(after 60hz its hard to measure because everything shakes so much) though at 25hz it was down about 10db and at 20hz I had to increase the volume on the reciever from -20 to -10 to get a reading. though this little experiment was far from accurate it still showed the limits of the sub. The servo control on this sub seems to limit the sub in my opinion. when you start to push this little box the amp starts to condition the signal to prevent over excursion. neat little trick but I find it to hold back the sub's high output. This sub is also a little picky for placement it took me about an hour moving it about to find the best dispersion. Though at 14x14x15.5 it can go just about anywhere.

Similar Products Used:

listened to Monitor audio ASW-210, paradigm ps-1000, cheaper energy models

Nice piano finish, doesn't take up to much space

does not sound like a 1500 watt sub, starts to make a popping noise with heavy bass

This sub does not produce 1500 watts of power. Perhaps it peaks to 1500 watts,but the most I figure it goes is around 500 rms, if that. I really wanted to like this sub but my Psb performed just as well but cost me 600 dollars less. When I played tracks that contained heavy bass the sub began to make popping noises. Perhaps I'm not a "true audiophile" what ever that means, but to my ears this sub is not worth the money. It's a nice sub but I think you can do better for the money. I'm still looking for the perfect sub. I'm going to audition the 15" definitive, and the sunfire subs. I let you know how that goes.

Similar Products Used:

PSB

Extremely tight, punchy bass. Excellent definition. Ablw to belt out brute power and subtle musical cues at the same time.

A bit expensive in absolute terms, but a true bargain when you consider what you get for the money

This is by far the most articulate, tightest, and fastet sub I have ever heard. My custom built monsters produce more volume and impact (not by much, however)but can not match this sub for its musical, natural qualities.

I was auditioning an Anthem MCA 5 channel amp at the dealer and stopped in their "reference" room where they were running about $25,000 in equipment. The low end was being handled by the Microstar 12.1. They had me set down and they plopped techno artist BT's new album, "Movement in Still Life" into the Oracle CD player. They cued up track 7, "Godspeed". About 15 seconds into the track, the bottom flat drops out of the bass line and falls into oblivion. It was like a herd of horsed knocked me over. The wall of bass energy swept through me like a wave. This song is absolutely full of different levels, pitches, and syles of electronic bass and is utter torture for any speaker or subwoofer. With the Microstar, you could easily follow every note. I auditioned this sub for over an hour and can honestly say I've never heard a sub like it and I've spent time with some pretty good company. They must have had that baby positioned and dialed in perfectly. They had it positioned about 7 feet from the left wall and about 5 feet from the wall behind it in a room approx 18 x 25 with a 10-12 foot ceiling

If you can afford this sub, don't hesitate...go buy it. It has incredible gut socking tightness and speed and is said to have usable output to below 20hz. Like the prior reviewer said- it will chew you up and spit you out. Phenominal!!

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch KSW-12; Custom built subs (pair) with 15" woofer and 6 cubic foot walnut cabinets powered by 750 watt amp running in parallel. Velodyne, Paradigm, Sunfire, Def Tech, Infinity

size,power and performance with movies and music.

price

tight, tight, tight, tight BASS!!!! this little box rocks!!simply put,this thing is great for movies and music.If you like DEEP BASS with your movies and tight bass with your music.GET OFF YOUR A.. and GET THIS SUB.

Similar Products Used:

rel,sunfire,b&w,deftech

size,power and performance with movies and music.

price

tight, tight, tight, tight BASS!!!! this little box rocks!!simply put,this thing is great for movies and music.If you like DEEP BASS with your movies and tight bass with your music.GET OFF YOUR A.. and GET THIS SUB.

Similar Products Used:

rel,sunfire,b&w,deftech