powerful sub with polyfill

neighbors complain

Bought this from best buy becuase it was on sale. Did the polyfill stuffing to decrease the boomy and now the sound is great. no more boomy

The lot!!

A bit boom on music

I was a newbie and basically knew nothing about Home Theatre at all. I bought the Denon 1602 (which is unreal) and needed a sub-woofer. I shopped around had a look at Yamaha, DTX, Whaferdale, etc. But after looking at this site for days and shopping around and endless web time I found and decided on the Sony M40. Well, it is the best investment I have ever made on Home Theatre. It is a very loud, full, rich, makes your chest tremble kind of sound.(I'm not kidding) I recommend it 100% Very easy to set up, I added spikes ($30AUD) to the bottom top raise it off the floor and it tightens the bass a bit. I mostly listen to DVD's therefore no other mod's (stuffing) need to be made as it is really good for DVD's. On music side, I agree with the others as it can get too boomy. there are several ways to get around this without stuffing the sub. Turn the cross over down a bit about (80hz); Turn your sub-woofer channel down on the amp; or decrease the bass on amp. Then turn the master volume up on the amp, this does take some of the boom away. I have had it for 2 months and I dont see the need to stuff it yet. I really had never listerned to DVD's before that much but on Terminator 2 (R1) and Saving Private Ryan the Sony M40 packs a punch bigtime. The whole room moves, as do you, in the motorcycle/truck chase scene in T2 and on the beach landing on SPR. Mate, this IS the reason to buy DVD in the first place. Gunns, bombs, water, sand the M40 takes the sound and explodes it on you in a fine and enveloping way. Look, for $450AUD ($150USD) just but the thing, you will not be disapointed in this price range. As I was a newbie and knew nothing and this was my first set up I assume I have taken the stance that "What I haven't heard, won't kill me". That is I really have never heard another system to compare it to therefore my opinion is biased but I have been to almost every movie theatre in Australia and I know what at DTS and DD theatre sound like and the M40 sounds just like the theatre therefore I cannot complain. PS. If you are Australian and you are looking for advice on home Theatre etc it is very hard to find information on products in Australia. This site is very helpful (as long as we have the same product number in Australia like the M40) also the website www.dvdplaza.com.au has a forum and is very, very helpful. lukegame2002@yahoo.com.au

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None

very powerful 3D bass for a reasonable price. Compact design. Yamaha subs lack 3D effect.

Need a little common sense for this sub to work perfectly for both music and movies. Simple way to solve the common problems of "boomy" and distorted bass... Just move the sub from the wall... according to your taste of bass.

Leave about 8" to 10" space from the wall, and you'll get a tight, clean bass for both music and movies without any modifications! You'll get a "boomy" and distorted bass if you put it very close to the wall, because it has a port at the back of the speaker. You just need some space for it to "breath". My volume setting is at 11 o'clock with crossover at maximum, together with Pioneer wall-mounted speaker. Phase-control setting at "reverse" position. It sounds superb for my Denon 3801.

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Yamaha

very good price. stable amplifier. uncommon for sony products that are not es

factory 12 is not characteristic of a subwoofer.

ok guys. here's the nitty gritty. i have been listening to high end audio for years.i also install home theatres professionally. it is not fair to compare this sub to products outside of its price range. you can usually find a decent perfomer for about $400. the factory woofer in this sub is no very good. however the amplifier does handle a decent load. so heres wht you do. pick this sub up for about $200. make no modifications, you get what you pay for. replace the standard 12 with a quality woofer and you will be astonished. i replaced my 12 with a rockford fosgate punch classic. these are no longer sold. at any decent retailer you can fin a punch z woofer for about $80. these woofers are perfect for this sub. the box volume is just about right. the sony amp can also handle the load of this woofer well. make sure you specify 8 ohm impedance on the woofer. this configuration has out performed many more expensive subs i have owned. and with a little work only runs about $280 dollars. you will not be dissappointed. if you have any questions aboiut this review. or audio products in general. contact me at tsoutha@msn.com. i love to see audio enthusiasts make the most of what they have. my rating is based on my opinion after modifications. and the price really helps the score

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infinty,jbl,polk audio,definitive technology,dcm,yamaha,onkyo,klipsch, and velodyne. for subwoofers any way.

Ability to go deeep, standby with auto activation, value

weak cable included with sub, inaccuracy for fast music, rear facing port position

Like most of the other reviews here, I am very happy with this sub. For the price, I think that it's great value. And like a lot of the other reviews, I do rekon that it is too boomy and inaccurate for music. (It's only hooked up to a stereo, not a HT setup) This is particularly apparent in my small bedroom (3m X 3.5m) as standing waves can make it hard to position. With fast techno, it seemes to play outta phase and even plying around with the phase switch didnt seem to help. By turning the crossover right down and the volume up, it just fills in what my KEF Q 15.2 bookshelf speakers can't reach... nice and unobtrusive bass that fills out the whole tonal range. Jamiroqui's Twenty Zero One makes me smile quite a bit! Try it out for yor selves! I have stuffed a big fat woolen sock in the rear port to tighten up the sound and it makes a little difference. (i didnt want to do the whole polyfill mod yet) But I think i will give it a shot this holidays. So could anyone tell me what is better? - loose polyfill (how much in grams?) or flat polyfill adhered to the walls (how thick?) and should i keep the port blocked up? My email address is NIPSTER@DAMOCLES.WS Any replies would be fantastic

I have just one question- has anyone tried putting a 4 ohm driver in this unit? Could the amp handle this resistance or would it become unstable? Any advice would be appreciated!

High Performance/Dollar value

Output at the highest levels may be restricted. Placement is crtical (known parameter)

High quality subwoofer at an affordable price. Beats some of the "Big Boys".

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Klipsch, PSB, Paradigm, Tannoy, Monitor Audio

goes low

slow, loose, unresponsive

I compared this to a Paradigm pd 10. The pd 10 was much more responsive and also tighter and faster. This Sony just kinda went vooomph every once in a while. It sucked. It might help a set of full range speakers hit the deep notes though. Don''''t try to use this sub in a sattelite setup.

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yamaha yst 800

It´s very simple. All

More expensive in Denmark!!!

I just bought this baby and linked it up to my Sony Str-de 675. My music style is techno/trance and my GOD this baby BLOWS it all away. I placed Jurrasic park 3 in my dvd and turned op. I cried the rest of the day, becourse of happyness. I´m only 14 years and i have no job. So I had to buy a cheap. I looked on this site, and my god i´m happy I did so. If you dont want to spent 500$ or more on a woofer, buy this sweet.

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Nothing to that price

Lots of Bass! Difficult if not impossible to find a better sub in the $150 range.

Controls on the back side. More difficult to adjust between TV, Movies and Radio. NOT magnetically shielded.

Lots of low bass. Even with lower power rating of 120W versus the 150 Watt Yamaha YST SW205. Seems a little "woofy" for music, but I have not done the mods the other reviews are talking about. Not sure how to tell what the 20 Hz is, but the speaker handles lower sounds better than the yamaha. Compared it to 3 other subs under $400 and this was the best of those I listened to. The only reason I rated it a 4 for overall rating as I am sure than some subs in the plus $400 range are better. This sub puts out more sound with the volume turned up half way than the Yamaha YST-SW205 did turned all the way up.

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Yamaha YST-SW205, Klipsch SW-10, Yamaha YST SW-305.