I have purchased all my Audio equipment for over 35 years now from Natural Sound In Kitchener Ontario , Canada and am proud to say am never going to hook up a powered sub to any of my systems because thats not how music sounds. I am 50 yrs old been playing drums since 7 and have a lengthy resume under my belt , from Iggy Pop to Tina Turner and everyone in between. i recommend a quality amp, and keep it in the same price range per component and you'll be more than happy with this sub system actually the older it gets the better the sound , i have one hooked up to each Paradigm s7 loudspeaker and run them on a NAD integrated amp at 70 watts per channel , stereo , not 5.1 or surround , , you want a natural true sound, go 2 channel and you will be like me keep the subs , upgrade everything else. as far as i am concerned anyone giving these subs any lower than a 3 star should just listen to an am transistor radio , just saying !

Nice strong bass Goes fairly deep (I measured down to about 35hz useable) Powerful!

Needs seperate amp, but gives better control if you ask me!

Well it was kind of a steal as I picked it up at a garage sale. Nearly in perfect condition, just needs a little cabinet work to get out some scratches and dings but no big deal. I brought it home and eagerly hooked it up to my moderatly powered pioneer sx-780 amplifier (I love the oldies, I have 2 sx-780s) Anyway sence it's already broken in I just turned it up nice and high and wow was it powerful. The needles on the amp were showing at 100 watts peak per side and my house was literally shaking (was playing "digital bass" and only through the sub) Literally no distortion, you could feel and hear the sub perfectly, minus the windows that were shaking! Anyway I've sence turned it down and wired it on the second channel of my amp, with a small set of full range 8"ers on the primary channel. Nice clean full sound, no real complaints about it as of yet. My current system: Better SM-3080 7 channel mixer (4 dual input channels, 3 mic channels) w 7 band eq, fader starts. RadioShack (lol) SSM-8030 4 channel mixer (pos) Realistic 10 band EQ JVC SEA-33 10 band EQ Technics EX-140 Receiver (100watts rms X 2 channels @ 8ohms) 2x Pioneer SX-780 Receiver (45watts rms x 4 channels @ 8 ohms) Merak MT80 8" 3 way floor standing speakers (100watts rms, 150peak X 2 speakers) Realistic el-crapo 8" 2 way bookshelfs (15watts rms, 30peak X 2 speakers) Paradigm SB-80 Bandpass, dual ported passive subwoofer (150watts rms) Creative Labs PCWorks 2.1 Creative Labs FPS1000 Technics RS-B207 Tape Deck All connected with gold plated interconnects. Connected to my computer system :) Total Wattage: 421 RMS, 742 Peak. It's a bunch of mismatched stuff but the sub has really added to the overall range and power of the system.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic small sub on a home theatre unit. Peavey high power DJ sub!

Overall, a poor product where serious listening is desired. Tried mating this sub with a pair of Paradigm Atoms and was very disappointed with the bloated boomy sound, in spite of Paradigm recommending such a combination in a low cost system. The lack of volume and cutoff control on the sub appear to be it's downfall. This model has been discontinued and perhaps the newer versions are better but I doubt it. I would only recommend this sub for teeny-boppers who want lots of dance music bass regardless of the overall sound quality. Which means I don't recommend it at all since I doubt such people would be involved with component systems and subwoofers.
Go for powered subs with integral controls instead.