Good Sub for thoughs that do not need loud volume from their subs.

Only way to get loud volume is to crank it almost all the way,with causes distortion.

First of all,this is a good sub for bookshelf systems. As long as you dont have to crank the poor thing it does quite well with smaller bookshelf speakers..if distortion sounds "awesome,then by all means CRANK this sub. To say that a "paper" woofer has to break-in is a silly statment...its more like your "ears" have to break-in. My review is not to pan this sub,its a great value for its INTENDED use,but AR108PS is a better sounding sub with only n 8 inch woofer/120 watts.And its $100 dollars cheaper.It may not go as low as the Sony(30hz)but the upperbass is where you hear most of the punch in movies and music anyway.A note to some of the "over protective people" in this group....Every person has the right to express thier opinions ....your review on the PRODUCT is what people want to read...NOT your reviews on other posts. If you are very happy with the Sony,great! But to read re-posts on other posts makes me wonder if the over- the -edge comments made by some reflect feelings of a sub their not 100% happy with.

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Many

see review

see review

I'd like to talk a little bit about what makes a sub sound good, because to adequately review this sub you must have it setup properly. It has taken me at least three months of experimenting with receiver settings, levels, (both sub and receiver) and placement to get this sub to sound good with any source material. At the present time I don't have alot of money to spend on a sub, so I had to make the Sony SA-WM40 sound good. This isn't to say that it's a bad sub, every sub has it's own sonic characteristics. You cannot simply place a sub anywhere that's convenient, connect it to the receiver, turn it up, and expect it to sound great. There are many factors that will affect the sound. I would like to talk about a few of these that I have learned from people with much experience.

Placement- I first tried placing this sub out of view in the back of the room (approx 19 x 16' room) due to WAF. This never did sound good because you could hear where the bass was coming from, and the bass was muddy. My receiver is a Denon AVR-1801 with a low frequency crossover of 80hz. Some say bass below 100hz cannot be localized but this is not true. I would say more like below 60hz. Anyway,
the point is this placement arrangement did not sound good. It was time to do some experimenting. Have you ever heard of the recommended procedure for finding the best position for the sub? It is not perfect but does work. Place the sub where you normally sit, (usually the sweet spot) and play some bass heavy music. I use the Yes album "Talk", as it contains some excellent high quality bass. Walk around the room and find the place where the bass sounds the best to you. Move the sub to this best position and listen for awhile. Some people will find they cannot use this procedure because they either don't have a long enough cable, or they cannot place the sub where the bass sounds best for one reason or another. In this situation you must just experiment. I used both experimentation and the above procedure to find the best placement for the sub, which turned out to be just to the left and slightly behind the front left speaker. There are some other factors that will contribute to the bass quality as well.

Receiver setup- This section applies to those using an AVR or pre/pro. How are your speakers setup? Do you have what you believe to be full range mains and set them to large? I did this, and it was a mistake. My front left/right speakers are spec'd down to 30hz according to the manufacturer, and I didn't want to waste this potential. I left the mains set to large for months while trying to find the best position for the sub. I had all kinds of trouble, mostly with distribution of quality bass throughout the entire room. I do not understand much about bass cancellation, but it was abundant in my room with fronts set to large. Although I did not want to, I set all speakers to small. WOW! What a difference it made. Bass was uniform all throughout the room, and the quality of bass improved dramatically. I could not believe that a <$200.00 sub could sound this good. This is a tight sub if setup properly. I don't like boomy bass at all.

Levels- Again, this applies to AVRs and pre/pros. I have found that dropping the receiver's sub output level from 0 to -10, and increasing the volume of the sub amp makes a big difference in bass quality. I don't believe the Sony amp is bad, if you decrease the receiver sub output and increase the volume on the sub, the bass quality increases. Some receiver's sub outputs have been verified by some mags to have high distortion levels when set to 0.

One last thing I did was to place three 18 x 18" ceramic (brick colored) patio blocks under the sub. This raised the sub to 5" off the floor.

A combination of these "tweaks" as they are called have all contributed to the bass quality I now enjoy with the Sony sub. It will suffice until I can afford the Hsu VTF-2.

strong deep bass, verry good with music and hometheater,
shakes my foundation

the sony marking on the grille you may want to place it with a velodyne marking....... LOL

I agree with samual down below when i think of sony speakers i think cheap sounding speaker but when i read some reviews here i had to go see what this sub was all about. I'm glad i did this unit puts out wicked bass it will give you deeper bass then the Klipsch KSW-12 indeed it will it may not sound as clear as relly good sub like a $600 sub but when i compared this to the JBL PB-10 it whent just as clear i love this sub. If there was no AUDIO REVIEW website i don't think i would have been as happy as i am.
I just saved over $300 i was going to buy the klipsch but i went with the sony.


system.

Polk Audio Monitor 5's - fronts
Polk Audio Monitor 5's - rears
Polk Audio cs245i - center
Sony SA-WM40 - subwoofer
sony str-de845 - a/v receiver

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch KSW-12 , Jbl power bass 10,

Excellent home theatre sub.

Not the best music only sub

I bought this sub after reading many of the reviews found here and I was not disappointed! So far I have only really tested it on one movie, the latest Star Wars Phantom menace and it rocks! The racing scene was something else, the walls were shaking. I can listen to music with it but tuned down to about half way. Movies are where it is at though. I did not realize right away that center speakers and sub woofers make the home theater experience! You will not be disappointed.

this sub thunders but still has a tight punch when needed. My whole system is excusivly Mitsubish but I had to get this sony sub because I could not find any mitsubish sub. Well it is not a mitsubish but it is still great. I am happy I bought it

My neighbors do not like me anymore

this sub thunders but still has a tight punch when needed. My whole system is excusivly Mitsubish but I had to get this sony sub because I could not find any mitsubish sub. Well it is not a mitsubish but it is still great. I am happy I bought it. I works well with my current system. Music sounds great and the movies on dvd are great. The box is a good size too. Lots of thunder from a small package. By the way..does anyone know where I can get a mitsubish bass box? Write me at blaise@blazemail.com

The deepest strongest clearest bass i ever heard you cant beat the price you get $1000 of sound for only $399 what a deal. The bass is also tight clear and rich. loud

none. You better get one before there all gone.
there going out of stock fast.

I'm so glad i bought this sub :)
I just want to clear up a few thing that people have been syaing about this sub.
#1 some said this sub drops off around 35hz to 40hz thats not true it could do 20hz but not well it could do 25hz to 30 hz verry loud with clean strong bass.
#2 people have been saying this sub is boomey not true.
it all depends on where you have your cross-over set and the volume.

Ok lets get back to the chase here is a pro review about the sony sa-wm40 it's a great pro review please go check it out.
http://home.solarc.com/jwhite/sony-sawm40.htm
go check it out it's a head to head dual vs the jbl pb-10 and sony is the winner.
this sub has verry clean bass for home theater i could not believe how much bass this cheap costing sub could do.

Similar Products Used:

Tested Cerwin Vega LW-12, Polk Audio PSW-350 , JBL-PB-10,
Ar s112ps none of them could match the amount of bass that came from the sony.

Auto power switch very noticable. Boomy, not well suited for music.

Nice sub for the price. Good for HT. This was my first sub. It lasted 3 weeks before I return it to Best Buy. I wanted something that was better for music and the Sony just wasn't tight enough for my taste. But you can't beat this sub when it comes to the price.

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Paradigm PS1000

none yet

I have watched Jurassic Park, and Independence day so far, and the movies came to life....I was like a kid in a candy store and my wife was grabbing for the excedrin. I ordered two of the DVD James Bond Collections and I cannot wait to throw those in and kick back...

My Set up

Sony STR-DE945
Sony DVP-S360
Sony SA-WM40
JBL Rear(okay for now)
Technics Front(so so for now)
Audio Source center
Toshiba 32 inch

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none, my first subwoofer, just went by reviews in my price range, and from looking at Best Buy and the rest online

I got two of these subs stacked on each other and the sound is great for the $400 price range. i have them placed in the front left corner and they shake the house pretty good.

CRAPPY for music

Two of these subs stacked on each other puts out more bass then a Velodyne CT-100 which i tested for about half an hour at circuit city.
For the price $400 i could have gone with the SVS 25-31CS which is way better but you dont get an amp with it you have to power it with a stereo amp.
However i am happy with my two subs.
I heard that sony is coming out with a new sub called the sony SA-WX90 which is a 12" 250 watt sub and i think i will buy that one.

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Kenwood , AR , Velodyne

You can't beat this sub for the price.

none

You can't beat this sub for the price, the bass really came alive. I mean smooth low. I’m very happy with my purchase.