Deep, powerful, clean bass

gain on amp is low, finding the right cutoff frequency can be tricky, rear port seems like an afterthought

You can't beat this sub for the price. I got this sub, a Yamaha DD receiver (70 W X 5), and 3-year warranties(hey, it is a Sony after all) for both under $500. The combo rocks. I've got the volume set at 1:30 on the dial and the crossover around 150 Hz (which I felt was high, but I found that setting it at 100 Hz or lower really lowered the output) and I get great sound. My benchmark for deep bass response is the trigger pad at the end of track 2, off Korn, Life is Peachy. This thing literally shakes my windows and walls when I play this. And that's at 9:00 on the receiver volume! It goes damn low for the money. When pushed hard I haven't noticed distortion from the sub, only distortion from things rattling in my living room. When pushed really loud, no discernible distortion, it's just that I can't here the bass as well because it's pushing through me (I feel it rather than hear it) and reproducing somewhere outside of the house. Maybe these other reviewers got bum units or just have crappy receivers, whatever the case, this is definetely worth trying for the price.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha SW160, JBL PB 10

Awesome customer service at inetshopping.com,
Ok bass for the price of $139, cool features, ummmmm let me think uhhhh ohhh i know, it has great sound for movies.
price

Not good for music at all, could use more power, a extra 100 watts would be verry nice, cant go loud

This subwoofer is pretty good for the price but i mostly listin to music so i sent it back.
But when i did watch movies the sound was pretty cool, it plays better for movies then it does for music, ( why is that so can some please explain to me at the tech talk forum here at audio review in the "all about speakers" forum )

value rating will be for music
overall rating will be for movies & price

Dont hesatate to buy this product from my review this is just my opinion it is a good sounding subwoofer for movies it did play pretty low but it was not good for music.

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demoed aiwa, rca

great for HT

bad for music

This is a very good sub for HT, but don't try and use it for music. I don't know if it's really the subs fault, or just because of the 12" woofer. The bass is clean, but it is too boomy if your mains are tight. I have tried using this sub with all speakers set to small and it's great for HT, fabulous in fact, but it won't work for music. If you are looking for a sub that will fill in the low end for HT and music look elsewhere, like the Hsu VTF-2. Even the KLH ASW10-120 had tighter bass, but it was a 10" woofer. I don't suggest you get the KLH though.

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KLH ASW10-120

this thing is BIG relly BIG , price cost too much , does not blend well with other speakers , and when the vollume is turned yp to about the 12 o clock point the speaker makes this loud poping thuding sound

i cant belive what a cool product the subwoofer is makes lots of bass ( all you can here is bass not dialoge from the movies and it has a built in amp.
I think this is a good speaker but when it's kinda loud the sound goes like"pop pop pop and you here lots a fuzz or distortion what ever it is called.
This speaker also has some pretty cool buttons like a nob to cutt out higher pitched sounds and has it's own volume nob now i dont have to buy big tall floor speakers i just have to use my little radio shack shelf speakers and i get a big sound and save lots of space.
I'm only 13 years old and i all ready got a top of the line theater system i love this sub it's sweet.

MY SYSTEM.

FRONT SPEAKERS - radio shack bs480w's
MIDDLE SPEAKER - rca rt2500 cc
SURROUND SOUND SPEAKERS - kenwood crs-1539
RECIEVER - rca rt21500 dobly pro logic reciever
TV - 25 inch sanyo fgt5463
VCR - fidher hifi 4 head fvh-t690 ( brand new )

nice system hey i want to get a dvd player soon so i better start saving my allouwance

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RCA

This thing gots deep rich clean bass. let me say again THIS THING HAS LOT AND LOTS OF CLEAN BASS

are you kidding

when i first heard about this sub i thought it would be junk ( you know why because it's a SONY sony dont make good speakers intell now )
anyways this sub has verry deep clean bass it rattles every thing off my walls and all of the nick nacks fall down no lie it's true.

WELL HOW DEEP DOES IT GO ? - time to take out the trusty spl metre from radio shack and pop in some bass test cds
( i like "bass mekanic" ) time to do the 5hz to 30hz bass sweep test. WOW there is clean output at 20hz and ever few hertz up the bass gets cleaner and louder wow.

HOW LOUD WILL IT GO ? - yes it will go verry loud it good go as loud as a velo ct-12 this sub is well worth the money it's great this great product should be sold for $500 yes
there are better subs outthere but expect to pay up too $600 you cant go wrong with the $199 it's a verry good sub for home theater but kinda lags on music ( well some music )
I listined to some gansta rap on the sub ( tu-pac, dmx, the lost boys, snoop dog ) and the bass thumped so hard and so clean i see the bass head punks driving past my house all the time to show off .
if your looking for a cheap good sounding sub consider the sony you will love it

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svs, energy, velodyne

Pretty much everything but the actual look!

Looks a little out of proportion

I finally bought the sub after reading all the great reviews on it, and DANG this is a nice sounding sub! It blows the piece of crap Jensen that I had out of the water. I found no real distortion when I played movies or music, and I like to listen to my sh*t LOUD! The neighbors actually called to tell me to turn it down! It did take me a while to get it to sound perfect. I own an Onkyo reciever and I had to turn the sub level to the max and change my center (Old school Optimus, but sounds good) to small in order for it to sound just right. Predator DTS never sounded so good. Anyway, if you pick up this sub and expect it to sound Sooo cool right out of the box then your gonna be disappointed. Also, don't buy it off a friggin' internet site like u-bid or e-bay because 6 times out of 10 it's gonna be defective.

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Polk, Jensen

clean bass extension/ could play loud if you whant it to
but when it gets pretty loud it distorts big time,
awesome price

ugly looks, can get boomey & frequencys don't go low ,
sony lies about there specs they say it can play down to about 20hz but has no +/- marks so it plays around 35hz
when it tries to play deep stuff it distorts

If your looking for a cheap 12" sub this may be the one you want but if your looking for something that plays lower frequency's don't buy this sub there is a good 12" sub out there that cost $189 at www.dynadirect.com it's called the Acoustic Research ARS112PS sub it has a 120 watt amp with a
slot loaded 12" long trow woofer and yes it will play deeper and have a cleaner sound i'm thinking of taking the sony sub back and buying the acoustic research i heard it before and it plays way better then this sony sub.

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Paradigm PDR-8

Tight, Deep bass and mixes well with various components. Good power and very musical

none

I recently wrote a review of this sub and indicated that it was underpowered. I was wrong. If only I had spent a little more time tweaking I don't think that I would have written that. This subwoofer is superb. It has excellent tonal balance and, if you take the time, you can have a complete spectrum of sound for both your music and your home theatre. I have finished buying my system so far. Below are the specs and I guarantee you, for the money (~$500), I would be hard pressed to do better for the quality I've gotten.

Aiwa mini stereo w/ 3cd-changer and 200w/2channels
Sony SA-WM40
Panasonic 4head VCR
Sony DVD
25" Sharp TV

It is a common misapprehension that things have to be expensive to evolve into a delicious livation... it is untrue

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Aiwa, Polk, Velodyne

great bass

n/a

this is to everyone who says where to set dials but yet, they don't even describe what type of receiver or speakers they have. don't you all know how much of a difference speaker size can make. some say to set the crossover at half but do they describe what type of speakers they have. no! someone could have satellite speakers and say to set the cross at 150 Hz and the volume at 3 o'clock, but they forget to say they have sat speakers. this information would be terrible for someone who had tower speakers.
so to all of you who do this. don't! you could be given people terrible advice. kudos to all of you who say what type of system of you have and where to set the dials.
overall, this product is awesome. for ht this sub kicks butt!

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n/a

Good sound for the price, controls, compact size

My wife doesn't like it rattling the windows...

I've owned this sub for about 3 months now. I watch lots of videos and DVD's and listen to everything from Mozart to BB King and I'm very pleased with how this sub has performed. Good solid window rattling bass (it's in a room that’s about 17' by 25' with 9' ceilings and a hardwood floor). Depending on what I'm listening to, I sometimes have to make small adjustments to the volume and/or crossover controls, however volume at 2 o'clock and crossover at 9 o'clock seem to about optimal for my ears most of the time. I don't find this sub boomy at all, and for a 12 inch sub, it's not too big (smaller than my father-in-law's 10 inch Mission 70AS). I like the side mounted woofer. It allows you to choose where to point the sub. Bottom mounted woofers obviously always point into the floor which in some cases may not be desirable (i.e. angry neighbors, acoustics of carpet vs. hardwood vs. concrete, etc).

This is my first sub, but all in all, for the price I paid, I'm happy with how it enhances the sound of movies and music. If you're looking for a sub in this price range, then give it a listen and see what you think.

To hopefully make previous reviews helpful, I too would like to warn others to simply ignore comments made by people that know absolutely nothing about engineering or the properties of the materials used in consumer grade electronics. I've heard lots of stupid comments about speakers over the years. Some had technical merit, but often in the big picture, they had no relevance to sound quality or longevity and therefore were useless. The big picture you ask ? When evaluating any piece of audio equipment, one must always factor in things like price, usage, and most importantly, your ears.

I've been into audio for 25 years now and I'm picky about what I buy. However, I'm also realistic. I didn't have a million bucks to spend on a sub. I'm not going to trash this Sony sub because of how much distortion it may have. How much distortion is detectable by the human ear anyways? If you don't like the way this sub sounds, then hey, no problem, that's your opinion. Sound quality to a large degree is a matter of taste, so say you don't like it and leave it at that. What you think are weaknesses may not be related to your perception of poor sound at all.

Regarding Sony products in general, I'm not about to say that everything Sony makes will still be around 100 years from now, but everything they make is not crap (as lots of Sony customers will attest to). If there is another sub out there for the same or less money that significantly out performs this one, let us all know. That's why we read these reviews.

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Mission 70AS