Excellent subwoofer for the price. Puts out sounds that can shake. Doesn't need to be at full volume. Fifty percent does the trick.

It seems as if it can't handle a lot of sounds all at once. The cabinet vibrates at various frequencies and it is very annoying. I found that if I turn the cutoff frequency knob, I can make the vibration go away.

I bought this subwoofer for music only. I listen to electronic music, and having a subwoofer is very important because a lot of the music have low frequency sounds in them. I am thoroughly impressed with the output of this subwoofer. However, I feel that when the low frequency spectrum gets a little crazy, the subwoofer doesn't seem to handle it very well at loud levels. For instance, when a certain song has not only a bass melody but also a kick drum, it seems as if it can't handle both at once. This does not occur often though. I also listen to a very acoustical band called Phish, and the subwoofer does a very good job. Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase. I believe I got the best for the price. I never need to have the subwoofer volume more than 50% because 50% is adequate enough.

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Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 subwoofer

- Frequence response goes all the way to 20 Hz. - LOW price for a good 120 watt, 12" sub! - continuouly var. crossover over a wide range

it's black. As the decorator in the house, I would prefer a nice oak or cherry or even pine finish. It would look much more nicer than a big, black hole. I guess black goes with everything, but most speakers and all wire are ugly.

My husband got this sub last year. At first I just thought it would be his toy, but I'm glad he got it! Movies sound wonderful and so does my music. The frequency response goes all the way down to 20 Hz and you can tell. The low sounds are VERY LOW and clear as a bell. Even with the volume turned up to only 1/10 to 1/5 the full level, our whole apt. rumbles during explosions on movies.

Excellent for DVD movies, great performance/price ratio.

None for the casual listener.

This is the first sub that I ever owned, and I can say that I'm not disappointed at all. I managed to get this back in February 2002 at Sears pricematching it to an online vendor at the time. The first thing I did after I hooked it up was play the pod race scene from SW Ep. 1, and it was simply incredible. The difference between not having a sub and having this sub was night and day, especially for my DVD movies. Watching DVD movies from that point on was like watching them again for the first time. I'm sure there are lots of *much* better subs out there, but I'm on the best bang for your buck bandwagon. Plus not being an audiophile or having a high-end setup, this does just fine for me. I did do the polyfil mod recently based on everyone else's recommendations. It seemed to tighten it up somewhat but I didn't notice a *huge* difference. And seeing how I haven't really found any photos of the polyfil mod, I posted my own at http://nonsensicalgibberish.com/sony.html. Check it out if you feel you need help. Just for the record, I use my HT theater system primarily for DVD movies, but I listen to music CDs on it as well. My current setup: Pioneer VSX-409 DD/DTS receiver Technics center channel & rear surround speakers Aiwa front L/R speakers Sony SA-WM40 sub Sharp RS100 25" stereo TV

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None

You may be hard-pressed to find a sub of this quality at twice the price.

A bit too boomy for music so stuff it with a half pound of polyfill.

I have been using this sub for the last week. I agree with the reviews that this sub is too boomy out of the box for music. So I spent some time experimenting. I tried one pound of polyfill but found that it lost its edge during movies. So I took out a half pound and found that this is a good balance. I also tried stuffing the port; great for music but the sub lost the low end for movie effects. I've positioned the sub in a corner of the room (I don't have much choice). The back is about a foot away from the wall and one of the sides is right against the wall. I've tried moving it about a foot away from the side wall (I can't go any further because of furniture limitations) and found that it was too boomy even when stuffed. I've stuffed the remaining polyfill in the bag and I place this behind the sub for music and remove it when watching movies. Some words of caution: be VERY careful with the volume. You and your loved ones will go deaf before you even realize it. I was so thrilled to finally have some base, I turned it way up and found that I lost my vestibular sense after 5 minutes of listening.

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I have a pair of Boses (stereo nowhere!) in another room that have pretty good low end but that's about it.

compact size,clean bass to 25Hz,very reasonable price,sounds exellent,especially with minor modification.

none at this time

I purchased this sub based on the reviews posted here.This is an exellent sub for the money.I also stuffed the cabinet with poly-fill,and spiked the bottom of the cabinet.I feel no need to up grade the driver.Some people have complained with boomyness in this sub,I have found none.I am driving it with high level inputs off a carver 130 watt per channel receiver,which are driving a pair of Klipsch Forte II,s and this sub not only keeps up,but adds an extended low end to what I thought was already a good low end.I have owned both the Cerwin-Vega LW-12, and the Velodyne CT-120 and I like this one better than the cerwin-vega and equal to the Velodyne,not bad for a 127.00 subwoofer.Maybe its my receiver but I get no boomyness with this set-up,only deep,clean bass.If you want good ,deep bass at a very reasonable price,buy it,I did and I would do it again.Thanks,Tom.

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Cerwin-Vega,Velodyne

Perfroms exactly as expected. Nicely fills out the sound scape. Cant beat the price.

Difficult to convince wife that this big black box "fits very well" with the rest of the furniture.

Excellent product. I compared other subs at the store and this by far, beat anything else I heard. I have Home Theater Direct (HTD) Level3s as my mains and center which I have used without a sub for about 8 months and was very satisfied. After plugging in the sawm40, I felt that the sound was now "filled-out". My existing mains sounded much better! I have my volume set at 12 oclock and the cut-off freq at 3 oclock. Overall I am glad I bought this big black box and am very satisfied. The 250+ reviews here are not wrong.

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Yamaha, Bose acoustimass (dont!)

After mods, excellent stuff

Before mods, blurry, boomy undefined stuff

Here is a mod on the Sony SA-WM40 that brings superb results: 1. Replace the driver with the HSU ASW1201 (12" subwoofer designed for autos, yet it is a superb driver overall). Cost $99 The driver from HSU Research has since been replaced with the ASW1202 driver -- similar T/S parameters but with a rubber surround. I used the 1201. 2. (Optional) Line the inside walls of the enclosure with Dynamat or similar rubber dampening material. 3. Place a good amount (approx 1 lb) of fiberglass acoustical stuffing inside, but do not pack down (compress) the material and do not block the port. This step is necessary to "increase" the box size in order that the HSU driver is properly loaded. Try to put as much stuffing in without compression. Long hair wool is better, but expensive. Polyfill is less dense and you will need more material. The Sony box will transform into a truly high end subwoofer. Much more weight than the stock driver and bass lines are clean and well defined. I was concerned about the impedance difference (4 vs. 8 ohms), but so far no problems overheating the amp or shutting down. Great power and no port noise. Low end extension drops off below 30hz, though a 20hz tone is audible. Very good dynamics -- matches well with my Magnepan MMGs, which are notoriously difficult to match with a sub. Not bad for <$250 total and a little effort.

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Atlantic Tech, Velodyne, Klipsch

Awesome power for the money

loose untill modded with underlay.

This definately has to be the best sub for under a grand I have found. Before I bought it of course I read about the mod you can do, but I have news for anyone who has tried this and found it some what "ok" there is a far better way. You can use carpet underlay, like the rubber stuff from any carpet supplier/Layer and it works far better than the polyfill idea, it fools the woofer into thinking the inclosure is far bigger as the material is far more dense and cheap/free from the scrap bin, to tighten the sound, due to sound deadening qualities. If you own one or plan to in the future try it out.

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Velodyne(slightly better 2x price) B&W ASW500 (not as good 2x price)

Powerful bass that goes deep.

Large and heavy, complaints about earthquakes from neighbors.

I got this sub to complete my dolby digital 5.1 surround system. I tested it out first with scenes from Lord of the rings. 15 minutes after hooking it up, I got a phone call complaint telling me to turn it down, heheheheheh. I'm surprised at how powerful this sub is for the cheap price. It is the best for dvd's and is a bit boomy for music. (jazz, etc.) I tried the polyfill mod, but maybe I haven't put enough of it in yet, it is helping a bit. I think this is the only way to go if you are a poor college student who can't pay much more than 200 or 300 bucks!!! :)

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tested out Best Buy stuff.

Price. Bang for the buck.

Boomy. Average driver.

After seeing the rave reviews, its hard for any product to live up to such high expectations. I expected near perfection and got pretty good. Having said that, it was still a good purchase since this woofer's first job is home theater and second job is music, and that's pretty much the best role for this Sony. The Sony is not quite as punchy as my old sub, but my old sub is an M&K's and their price has skyrocketed over the years. I suppose its no longer a fair comparison (I paid $250 about 7-8 years ago and they're pushing a grand now) I dropped in an 8 ohm Rockford Fosgate Punch Z to replace the driver that came with the unit and dropped in about 3" thk polyfill in mat form. Both helped. You can actually hear the base walk during music instead of thud.. thud.. thud.... Overall I would recommend the purchase - for the price, there's no touching it. Has anyone experimented with the port or made any other mods that have improved musical clarity? I was actually thinking about building a new box. Pls send me an email if you have tried this.

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M&K 12" Sub (dont' remember model number)