Reliability

I have owned this product for almost two years. I can't remember the exact date I purchased it. So far, I haven't had any problems with it. However, a friend of mine purchased the same model a short time after I did and his recently blew up.

After reading all the reviews, I am convinced this product is a lemon. If anybody has any more information about symptoms etc., please email me at boje@mail.com.

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None

Strong, tight bass, very musical, couples to room very well.

Non-furniture cabinet, level control on front of cabinet.

I purchased this unit as the price was attractive and Vanns.com as the price on eBay was attractive. After purchase I saw the reviews and thought "Oops!" Forutunately the unit has work perfectly so far. It did take about two weeks to set it up to match my other equipment but I am very happy with the result. From rock to classical this sub works very well - not too punchy, not boomy, and nicely handles those very low notes on pipe organs, too. Movies are a great treat as well. (I don't use the video contour feature as this is unnaturally loud bass.) I'm crossing over at 100 Hz and feeding from my pre-amp outputs.
I did print the repair posted by HC in Watsonville describing the capacitor replacement so I'm prepared if my unit fails the same way. Mine's a re-furb so it may be fixed already. It has the same connection panel used in the D115 so perhaps that will help, although the D-115's longevity is also suspect.
Mine is working the low end for my JBL L20's which are powered by a Crown D150A-Series II (an eBay find), after a Marantz 7T pre-amp (which I've had for over 20 years). So far, so good, but I'm saving the box.

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Cerwin-Vega SW-12B (not too similar - prior subwoofer)

Decent Bass when it was working

terrible amplifier

I am on my third unit now(which by the way is sitting in the garage awaiting JBL to get the amp chip in)1st unit was replaced by Best Buy, 2nd unit was replaced by JBL(received a factory refurb)now the third unit, which lasted about 3 months is dead and JBL doesn't have the part and they will not replace it. Up till now I have always been very happy with them but the way I see it they know they have a design error and should take care of us.

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ARS112

Terrific movie bass for the cost.
Auto shut-off.
Front panel controls.

Pretty difficult to tune correctly.
Questionable reliability.

Reviews of this product in a number of different forums suggested to me that, while performance was exceptional in its price range, reliability might be a real problem. Consequently, I remained undecided for quite awhile and sat on the fence about whether to take a chance on this model or to resign myself to spending more money for something more reliable. Then about six weeks ago Mercata had the PSW-D112 for less than $200.00 with an additional 20% off for first time buyers; what was there to lose?

So not only did I buy one, but I notified a friend of mine of the special price and he jumped aboard as well. Both of our units worked out-of-the-box and continue to work today.

I feel that the PSW-D112 is an exceptional value in the less-than $300 price range if it is used exclusively or primarily in a home theater where it delivers deep, solid bass tones when properly tuned. The crossover adjustment is particulary critical because the sound gets very muddy in the PSW-D112s upper ranges- which may be the reason that I find it totally unsuitable for listening to music. Because the crossover is so critical, the unit takes quite awhile to tune correctly and tuning is best done with a variety of movies in order to acheive the optimum results.

Before actually buying the PSW-D112, I researched the reliability issue as extensively as my time would allow, trying to convince myself it was worth taking a chance on. Manuals for both earlier and later versions of the PSW-D112 are available on-line and I found some evidence that there might have been a problem with earlier versions of this same sub-woofer caused by confusing hook-up instructions in the manual. In later versions of the same subwoofer (mine), the terminal configuration was changed and wiring seemed more straight-forward. If JBL ever mistakenly provided the earlier version of the manual with the more current version of the subwoofer, miss-wiring might indeed lead to disaster.

If the price is right, I find this to be the exceptional value I believed it to be and highly reccommend it for home theatre- but only time will tell.

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Also own M&K and Audio Source subwoofers.

I bought this sub at Shopping.com's online auction (two days before they stopped running auctions) for $211.00. I already had JBL HLS820's (front) and an HLSCenter. Since I had HLS speakers already I figured I might as well replace my surrounds with HLS410s. My previous sub was only 75 watts (which was great with my old satellite system), but once I replaced all my other speakers with HLS speakers I didn't get that room SHAKING bass I wanted (my brother came over one night to watch Armageddon and asked if the sub was on). Thats when I knew it was time to get a new sub. I looked at the PSW-D112 because I thought it might blend with my other JBL speakers. Before I went with the JBL I checked out the Advent 550. The Advent was a beast, but it didn't blend very well and was really cheaply made. Don't get me wrong the Advent really rocks, but I just wanted something that was better built. Next I got the PSW-D112 and was very happy. After about a week of playing around with the level and crossover I was able to get a really well blended setup. The sub blends so well you can't tell where the bass is coming from (if you didn't see it you would think the was coming from the front speakers). As for bass, this thing will LITERALLY shake your room apart. It goes so low that my brother came over again to watch the "shuttle launch" and "burn around the moon" scenes in Armageddon and could not beleive the way the sofa was shaking. My brother says his heart was racing so fast it was like the aenaline rush you get on a ride at Great Adventure. This thing really really kicks butt. I'd give it six speakers, but they only let you give five.

Really cranked in the store.

Unit DOA when I got it home.

I bought the sub at Best Buy after checking out the competition at BB and Circuit City. I was very impressed with the styling and the features (high pass filter, five-way binding posts), and the display unit pumped out gobs of deep bass at the store. Unfortunately when I got mine home it failed to make a sound. The power LED turned red and then green, indicating it was getting a signal, but there was no response from the woofer cone at all. Also the video contour button LED didn't light when pressed. I unplugged one of the satellite speakers and attached it to the sub's speaker inputs -- nothing. I used an old walkman to feed directly to the sub's line level inputs -- again nada. I'm taking it back later today and don't know if I'll take a replacement or credit. May fork out the extra bucks for a Paradigm, especially after reading all the problems here. Very disappointed that a JBL product made in Canada would have so many problems.

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none (first powered sub)

Loud, Price

Sometimes to boomy

I purchased two of them from OneCall for $240 each including shipping and I have not had any problems. Like a previous reviewer I do not have a direct input but left and right inputs. The are on constantly and I have played DVD's and CD's with no problem. They are well worth the price. I am using one with an Onkyo 777 and one with an Onkyo 676.

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Yamaha, JBL

What a piece of junk...Broke after 2 Months

What a disappointing piece of equipment from JBL. They should be ashamed of themselves for selling a piece of crap like this!!!!...I purchased the PSW-D112 about 2 months ago, and have used this thing for about 20 hours (at normal volume), and it sounds like a farting machine instead of a subwoofer...JBL is going to fix it, but for what, another 2 months?(I wanna Rock, not wait!!!)

Just bought this sub based on Sound & Vision review (and comments on this site)from J & R. They had it on sale for $299 which seemed to me to be a very good price for a 12" 250W subwoofer. I bought it without auditioning it, as J&R's sound rooms are usually jammed and not conducive to an objective evalauation (besides which, I knew that it would sound completely different at home). Anyhow, when the clerk unloaded this unit from the dumbwaiter I was completely unprepared for the size of the box that greeted me. The photos I've seen in magazines or on JBL's own site lend no sense of scale to this beast. It is much bigger than it looked on screen. While this may not seem like much of a problem, it does make moving it around to find optimum set up position somewhat difficult. Once set-up, size became a bit of a non issue (although I gained a new end table and Sub woofer all in one!). As far as sound goes, I have not listened to much music yet, but on dolby digital DVD's it sounds great, rattles the windows, and scared the shit out of the dog the first time I fired it up. So far, I'm very satisfied. For $300 I don't think I could have done better.

strong powerful bass, price

size?

ihave used this sub for about two months with no problems what so ever. this is my second jbl sub, the first being a psw1000 a 10 inch, 100 watt unit, that worked perfectly for five years. when i saw the price i jumped at the pswd 112 because i have my ht in a large room and felt i could use a larger sub. i have this unit placed in a corner and it rocks the house. i find it great on music as well as movies. its only possible weakness could be its size, but thats not an issue for me. at the price i paid, it cant be beat....

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JBL psw1000